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Mortal Causes

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Mortal Causes

By: Ian Rankin
Narrated by: James Macpherson
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About this listen

It is August in Edinburgh and the Festival is in full swing... A brutally tortured body is discovered in one of the city's ancient subterranean streets and marks on the corpse cause Rebus to suspect the involvement of sectarian activists. The prospect of a terrorist atrocity in a city heaving with tourists is almost unthinkable. When the victim turns out to be the son of a notorious gangster, Rebus realises he is sitting atop a volcano of mayhem - and it's just about to erupt.

©1995 Ian Rankin (P)2011 Orion Publishing Group Limited Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Thriller Thriller & Suspense Traditional Detectives Crime Detective Suspense

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All stars
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brilliant book I loved it ian rankings best so far a very good audio book

loved it

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Yet another masterclass from Ian Rankin. I am an Edinburgh bus driver and spend my days driving through Rebus' territory. The books are so well written I feel part of the story.

Mortal Causes

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This is the first of the Rebus stories that, initially, I struggled to get into. This was because it felt like too many storylines and characters.

However, as the audiobook went on, it began to come together, leading to an impressive ending.

James Macpherson once again is brilliant as the narrator. He has certainly, for me, become the voice of the Rebus audiobooks. I doubt anyone else would come anywhere near.

The one thing I really enjoyed was the numerous references to the joke about “an octopus going into a restaurant”. I couldn’t for the life of me remember how it went, and none of the references to it gave the complete joke. That was very clever of Rankin, as I just had to look up the actual joke.

A Complex Story But It Comes Together At The End

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What made the experience of listening to Mortal Causes the most enjoyable?

James Patterson is a wonderful narrator and makes the story credible

What was one of the most memorable moments of Mortal Causes?

The pace of the plot is unrelenting although deceptive

Have you listened to any of James Macpherson’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Yes and he is Rebus - no-one else reads Rankin like Macpherson

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It did both - the characterisation in the writing and the strength of the reading - excellent

Any additional comments?

All round good read

Ian Rankin

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I love Rebus and Rankin full stop, but whether it's a good or bad thing I always wish they were longer. I guess I'm just greedy. well worth the time to get into them though, and try them chronologically of you can.

great series, too short

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Great Scottish crime fiction. Expertly narrated, with a compelling leading man. Buy it. Buy the whole set.

Great as usual

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Great listen very well read and the story was engrossing didn’t want to stop my dog walk or drive to work.

Excellent

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This is book 6 and at the moment I am reading/listening to one book a week. Love the characters and the additional tour of Edinburgh. The trip to other parts of the country made the story have more back bone, greater depth. Although you find out early on who is who and who did what, it does not detract from the plot/story.

Fantastic characters super story

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Mortal Causes starts with the gruesome discovery of a corpse in a long-buried street in Edinburgh during the Festival. It’s the beginning of an investigation that brings Rebus into close contact not only with the conventional underworld - including Rebus’s old
sparring partner, gangster Big Ger Cafferty - but also with the world of the Troubles. Bomb threats and bodies multiply, while Rebus’s love life is, as ever, complicated. Siobhan does appear, but we don’t see much of her. The dramatic opening of the novel sets the tone for the rest of the novel and its climactic scenes, set amid the bustle of the Festival (which Rebus loathes) … That sense of drama and immediacy is probably the book’s strongest attribute. The story hangs together well. The cast of characters is relatively long and can be a bit confusing. But the plot moves along at a good pace. Some of the accents are a bit dodgy, including a Cockney Special Branch copper and Cafferty, whose baritone, gravelly tones I always find a little OTT… Overall narrator Macpherson does a fine job. I’ve been listening to the Rebus titles in order over the last couple of years. The dialogue-heavy narrative works really well on Audible. Mortal Causes is perhaps the most rounded of the novels so far. The strands of the plot are drawn together expertly. Rebus is beginning to find his feet in Mortal Causes - it’s a relatively easy, satisfying and fast-paced listen. It also reinforces a theme that will remain predominant throughout the series - the duality of Edinburgh, a city with a dark side.

Rebus in mortal danger

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Outstanding as always bill narration and super story great pace n prose Qx xxx. Xxxx. X. Great stuff

Brill

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