Orion | 2016 (3 November) | 384p | Review copy | Buy the book

Rather be the Devil is the 21st Inspector Rebus novel and, I’m ashamed to admit, it’s the first one I’ve read for such a long time. I gave up reading crime fiction for one reason or another for about fifteen years but, now that I’m firmly back in the saddle, I can recover that joy I felt all those years ago when I would pounce on the latest Rebus as soon as it hit the shelves. It is indeed a rediscovery of riches because I adored Rather be the Devil. It’s quite likely that I would have got more from it if I had read the middle novels that I’ve missed – old history rears its head in these pages – but, nevertheless, I got so much from it, not least the desire to go…