Home »
A poignant view of job dedication leading to loss
Book Review
By Derryll White
Rankin, Ian (2006). The Naming of the Dead.
Writer Ian Rankin is a seasoned professional in the mystery/suspense genre. He has developed characters that have seasoned and grown since his first novel in 1987.
Jumping into a Detective Inspector John Rebus novel, however, does not mean that the reader has to have read all the books before. Rankin plugs the first-time reader in seamlessly and the power of John Rebus, Siobhan Clarke and other strong characters just whisks the reader away into Edinburgh, Scotland, and the plot of the story.
Rankin always expands past the immediate plot line. In ‘The Naming pf the Dead’ the political leaders of the G8 are due to meet in Auchterarder, Scotland. Rankin’s use in the story of the protesters and anarchists brings to the fore several of the international pressures current in 2006. The violent political past becomes real for the reader.
John Rebus brings to the page the reality of so many men and women who have let everything else go in order to lose themselves in work. It is touching and sad, but very real. Ian Rankin is a master at presenting a character at the end of his working life, someone who continues to ignore the rules and restrictions of bureaucracy in order to complete the task at hand. He creates a touching picture of what many readers face in their own lives.
One of the interesting things that Rankin does here is shift the focus from his old stalwart, Rebus, to the younger sergeant, Siobhan Clarke, who has trained under Rebus. Rankin is careful to point out how traits and attitudes are passed on. All-in-all, ‘The Naming of the Dead’ is a poignant view of how a person can dedicate to a job and lose essential parts of himself.
********
Extracts from the novel:
THE QUESTION – The autopsy, however, had been scrupulous. Professor Gates had said it before: didn’t bother him who it was lying on his slab. They were human beings, and somebody’s daughter or son.
“Nobody’s born bad, John,” he’d muttered, leaning over hos scalpel.
“Well, nobody makes them do bad things, either,” Rebus had retorted.
“Ah,” Gates had conceded. “A conundrum pored over by wiser heads than ours down the centuries. What makes us keep doing these terrible things to each other?”
POLICE WORK – Because this was what she did, her whole working life. She named the dead. She recorded their last details and tried to find out who they’d been, why they’d died. She gave a voice to the forgotten and the missing. A world filled with victims, waiting for her and other detectives like her.
WORLD VIEW – “It is our most basic duty as human beings… to aid sustainable development wherever and whenever possible in the poorest and harshest regions of the world.”
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
