8 /10 1 Votes
Country Scotland Publication date 2002 ISBN 0-7528-2131-8 Genre Detective fiction | 4/5 Goodreads Language English Pages 440 pp Originally published 2002 Preceded by The Falls Publisher Orion Publishing Group | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) Followed by A Question of Blood: An Inspector Rebus Novel Similar Ian Rankin books, Inspector Rebus books, Edgar Award for Best Novel winners | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Resurrection Men is a 2002 novel by Ian Rankin. It is the thirteenth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2004.
Plot summary
Detective Inspector John Rebus is thrown off a murder inquiry, just days after the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, for throwing a cup of tea at DCS Gill Templer. He is sent to the Scottish Police College for 'retraining' - this is his 'Last Chance Saloon'.
He is put with a team of officers in similar circumstances and together they are given an unsolved case to work on. This turns out to be one in which many of the team are already involved, and they all have their own secrets that they wish to keep hidden. Rebus is asked to act as a go-between for Edinburgh gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty, and newly promoted DS Siobhan Clarke, while working the case of the murdered art dealer, is brought closer to Cafferty than she ever expected.
As always the cases are all linked and Rebus must use his trusted friends to uncover the truth before the truth uncovers him.
The title is a reference to the body-snatchers of the 19th century, who were known as 'resurrectionists' or 'resurrection men'.