#90 Mortal Causes, by Ian Rankin (Orion)

You know you're in safe hands with Detective Inspector John Rebus, not to mention his creator, Ian Rankin.

It's easy to dismiss a series such as this as straightforward crime novels. It's indisputable that that's what they are. They're relatively easy to read and very entertaining, but that wouldn't be giving Rankin nearly enough credit, because it takes great skill to construct something as simple and effective.

Over the years, I've dipped in and out of the Rebus series, to the extent that I'm never quite sure which ones I've previously read. That it doesn't really matter where in the series you enter, and that each novel brings a huge amount of satisfaction and pleasure, probably explains why I keep returning.

Rankin's chief success lies in his depiction of Edinburgh, as much a character in his books as Rebus himself. And in a world where the latest book, television programme or film contains so many twists and turns at every corner that it leaves you wondering which way you're facing, Rankin's low-key plotting and gradual reveal makes a nice change.

Not that there aren't a few shocks. The world Rebus inhabits - in the case of Mortal Causes, one where paramilitary terrorist activity is encroaching on the detective's world - is a nasty one, full of murder and violence, lying and cheating, much of it conducted by Rebus himself.

But Rebus always remains the man you'd like out on the streets tackling crooks on your behalf - just as long as we can read all about it.

So, rating time:

#90 Mortal Causes, by Ian Rankin (Orion) - 7/10

Next up: The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (Penguin Group)

Click here for the full list of books so far, and their rating