Exit Music
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''Exit Music'' is the seventeenth
crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a profession ...
in the
Inspector Rebus The ''Inspector Rebus'' books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin, Sir Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on Inspector#United Kingdom, Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh. They ...
series, written by
Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer and philanthropist, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel ...
and published in 2007 by Orion Books. The title comes from the
Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...
song " Exit Music (For a Film)".


Plot summary

The narrative takes place between November 15th and 27th, 2006, with
Rebus A rebus ( ) is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+ ...
's last day in the Edinburgh CID being November 25. Rebus and
Siobhan Clarke This is a list of characters from the ''Inspector Rebus'' series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Ian Rankin. They are all fictional characters that have appeared in more than one novel in the series. A number of the characters appea ...
are investigating the death of a famous Russian poet, found beaten to death on King's Stables Road. Soon afterwards, a sound recordist with close ties to the dead Russian poet dies at home in an arson fire. Rebus discovers that the dead poet had taken his last meal with the recordist, then had had a drink with Morris Gerald Cafferty, Rebus's gangster nemesis, in a bar where Cafferty was meeting a
Russian oligarch Russian oligarchs () are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The failing Soviet state left the ownership ...
and a Labour official from the
Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...
. Rebus finds Cafferty's hand in many schemes (drugs, abusive landlord practices), but the biggest ones involve real estate and are quite legitimate. Meanwhile DS Siobhan Clarke, on the cusp of promotion to DI and given charge of the case, tries to find her own way, both dreading and looking forward to losing her mentor. She takes on a protégé of her own, a street cop from a family involved with petty crime, Todd Goodyear. Rebus is suspended for insulting a powerful Scottish banker in the presence of the Chief Constable. He continues to pursue his hunches, however, often with Clarke's collusion. At one point he meets Cafferty alone; Cafferty is attacked immediately afterwards, and Rebus is carefully framed for it. On his last day on the job, however, Rebus succeeds in disentangling his suspicions and identifies the killers of the poet and the sound recordist. It takes him a little longer to discover who framed him for the attack on Cafferty.


Place in the Rebus novels

''Exit Music'' includes
Rebus A rebus ( ) is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+ ...
's retirement at the age of 60. Rankin had been anticipating this event at least since 2000, when he commented in an interview that Rebus "lives in real time; he was 38 in ''Knots & Crosses'' and he's 52 now. He'll have to retire at 55." Rebus in fact postponed retirement until age 60 (November 2006), clinging to his job, although in the two previous books (
Fleshmarket Close ''Fleshmarket Close'' is a 2004 crime novel by Ian Rankin. It is the fifteenth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was released in the US under the title ''Fleshmarket Alley''. The novel was the basis for the second episode in the second ''Rebu ...
and The Naming of the Dead) he thought frequently about his upcoming retirement. Rankin appeared ambivalent about whether the book series would end with Rebus’s retirement; in a video clip, he says ''Exit Music'' "may be the final book" and offers two possible endings: Rebus being kissed by (presumably) Siobhan Clarke, or Rebus stabbed mortally by a dying Cafferty. The book’s actual ending is more ambivalent, a kind of anti- Reichenbach Falls in which Rebus resuscitates a dying Cafferty. Rankin did not publish another Rebus novel for five years; he continued to write about
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
’s police, but with a new protagonist, Malcolm Fox, in two novels, '' The Complaints'' (2009) and '' The Impossible Dead'' (2011), before bringing Rebus back as a co-protagonist with Fox in '' Standing in Another Man's Grave'' (2012). The character of Malcolm Fox, who is assigned to “the Complaints” or Internal Affairs investigating police corruption, is well-prepared for in ''Exit Music''. Todd Goodyear, Siobhan’s enthusiastic disciple, provides both Rebus and Clarke with food for thought about how the police has changed since Rebus joined (and also since Clarke joined). Rebus began his career in a world where even good policemen lied on the witness stand to protect each other or, as in the Spaven case described in ''
Black and Blue ''Black and Blue'' is the thirteenth studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 23 April 1976, by Rolling Stones Records. This album was the first record after former guitarist Mick Taylor quit in December 1974. ...
'', to frame a likely culprit. To some extent, his maverick attitude has allowed him to steer clear of such situations and make his own moral decisions. On the other hand, many people (including Cafferty himself) assume that he is Cafferty’s tool. While Siobhan is very aware of the potential for corruption, she could never be part of the “brotherhood” and, with the advent of a more educated police force, the concept of “us against them” is foreign to her. Laura Severin comments,
iobhan’sdefinition of herself is pragmatic rather than heroic and therefore not dependent on whether Cafferty lives or dies. This last scene f ''Exit Music''illustrates that Rebus has an investment in a patriarchy structured around evil and good, while Clarke … is already an inhabitant of a postpatriarchal world more alert to social, cultural and political complexities.
Fox will be pragmatic rather than heroic, and as an investigator even more outside the brotherhood of police detectives than Siobhan, as a woman officer.


Reception

*
ITV3 ITV3 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9 pm, replacing Plus (British TV channel), Plus ...
Crime Thriller Award for Author of the Year, 2008 (awarded to Ian Rankin).


References


External links


Ian Rankin reads the opening to ''Exit Music''
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Guardian Unlimited's Books Blog
{{Ian Rankin 2007 British novels Inspector Rebus novels Novels set in Edinburgh Orion Books books