Synopsis
Three friends descend upon an art auction in search of some excitement. Mike Mackenzie-retired software mogul, bachelor and fine art enthusiast-wants something that money can't buy. Fellow art-lover Allan Cruickshank is bored with his banking career and burdened by a painful divorce. And Robert Gissing, an art professor, is frustrated that so many paintings stay hidden in corporate boardrooms, safes and private apartments. After the auction-and a chance encounter with crime boss Chib Calloway-Robert and Allan suggest the "liberation" of several paintings from the National Gallery, hoping Mike will dissuade them. Instead, he hopes they are serious.
As enterprising girlfriends, clever detectives, seductive auctioneers and a Hell's Angel named Hate enter the picture, Ian Rankin creates a highly-charged thriller, a faced-past story of second guesses and double crosses that keep changing the picture, right until the harrowing finish.
Library Journal
Rankin's (www.ianrankin.net) follow-up to his 17th and final Inspector Rebus novel, Exit Music (Audio Reviews, LJ 1/09)—also available from Hachette Audio and read by James Macpherson—is his first stand-alone thriller since the pseudonymously written Blood Hunt (1994). Here, retired software millionaire/art lover Mike Mackenzie enlists the aid of a banker, a distinguished art historian, an art student, and Edinburgh's leading gangster to rob the National Gallery of Scotland. Mix in a suspicious police inspector, the student's greedy girlfriend, and a particularly vicious Scandinavian thug, and the thieves find themselves in a spot of bother. Rankin offers a bit more humor here than in his beloved Inspector Rebus series; his skill at characterization remains top-notch. Macpherson varies his Scots burr depending on the given character's background, with some of the criminals having close to impenetrable accents. Fans of Rankin, heists, Edinburgh, and art history should find this entertaining.—Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib.