Okay, I skipped the book on my side bar again, and read Knots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus Novels)
instead. This book is included in one of my bulk purchase from eBay earlier. It is thin, served easily for reading when traveling, so I picked it up.
Well, this book is not at all interesting nor having any plots. Maybe it is written in 1985, things were simpler then? Maybe I have read too much and watched too much crime movies? It is just too simple and everything kind of fall into my guesses.
The story began with the abduction of 2 young girls. Detective Sergeant John Rebus was robbed into the case. Before that, he has already received strange letters with knots & crosses inside the envelope, but he was not aware of their links to the case. The girls were murdered. Then the 3rd and 4th girls were abducted & killed. Then some coppers have some 6th sense and thought it linked to Rebus.
Well, this John Rebus happened to be with the Army before joining the police force, and they believe this is to do with his ex-army days. And this is the part that makes the story so boring: somewhat, he has a past that is so dreadful that he has chosen to forget it. So, he could make himself forget why he left the army but yet remembered he was once part of them and undergone some horrible trainings.
Now his brother Michael Rebus, conveniently a hypnotist, came into the picture. He hypnotised John Rebus, took him back to his past, to help him remember what happened.
The most boring part is the past. Maybe Ian Rankin was originally right (in the background), the editor shouldn’t take out too much of the story in the past. Why I think the past is so boring? It lacks ‘meat’/ substance, to support why it is so dreadful to him that he needed to quit.
He passed the army’s training, he was asked to leave his training cell, to leave his peer who was seen to be unfit yet. With that, he was too guilty to continue. With that his ‘friend’ hated him so much that wanted revenge. With that he quit the force and chose to forget and start all over again.
Come on lah! That is so empty! Kosong! No big deal! Maybe it is really dreadful, but cannot relate from reading this book lah!
Actually, when I was reading the story, even before coming to the middle part, I already could guess: a divorced policeman, an ex-army, some strange notes, a few girls missing, a 12 years old daughter… I could already tie these together and make up my story. I already guessed that her daughter would be the final target. I could tell that he might have an enemy in army, could be an ex-comrade, he might have betrayed him, and now seeking revenge.
I was so right about my guess. But I think I can do better plots than this. Perhaps the author wants to keep John Rebus character as clean as possible, which made the story boring. I think if he made Rebus and Reeves (the ex-comrade, now insane man) went into a real war, and Reeve was left behind while Rebus and others retreated… that would make a better story of why Reeves hatred of Rebus is so great.
The actual story is too boring, too shallow, too simple, without any substantial plots to stir up any excitement. Boring and Expected, are the 2 words I could use to describe this book.
Ah! The ending is also so so so so expected. With Reeve dropped his gun and Rebus kept it closed by, with Reeve later defeated Anderson and coming to strangulate Rebus, aiyah! anyone could guess Reeve would be killed by his own gun, which is now with Rebus lah! Wasting my time!
Give this book the lowest score: 1 star. I just don’t understand how this book can be developed into series of novels centering Rebus?
My rating: * (1 star)
