Midnight and Blue

John Rebus gets pulled into a jailhouse murder case while serving time for killing his nemesis in Rankin’s satisfying 25th mystery featuring the former Edinburgh detective (after Dead Souls). When gangster Jackie Simpson is found dead in his cell, with his cellmate beaten and left in a drugged stupor, the hunt for a killer kicks off. Rebus, a notorious lone wolf, nevertheless remains on good terms with some of his former colleagues on the Edinburgh police force, and he takes it on himself to aid the investigation from inside prison walls. Departmental politics, rarely straightforward, grow downright vicious as Rebus’s involvement becomes a matter of debate. In a gripping subplot, a teenager’s disappearance, reappearance, and role in a shocking sex scandal turn out to be linked to Simpson’s web of crime. The narrative gradually sprawls across a noirish Edinburgh populated by hard-nosed cops and criminals, but Rankin pulls everything together with a brisk conclusion that hints Rebus might be back on the streets soon. Though this doesn’t rank among Rankin’s best, it’s still a page-turner. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary. (Oct.)