THE NAMING OF THE DEAD

Ian Rankin (Orion, £17.99)

This is likely to be Ian Rankin's penultimate Inspector Rebus novel, which seems a shame, because it is one of the best in the series. Det Insp John Rebus is reaching the end of his career, and his followers can expect his colleague, Siobhan Clarke, to take over the reigns in the near future.

The Edinburgh-based writer has hinted that after the next and final Rebus novel, there will be at least one with Clarke taking the lead, and Rebus providing back-up.

Rankin clearly doesn't want to kill the character that has grown with him over the past two decades, but is keen to make the end of Rebus's career as realistic as possible.

Since Resurrection Men, Rebus's career has been on the slide, but this slow professional demise does not make the novels any less enjoyable.

In this latest instalment, Rebus continues to work with flagrant disregard for his superiors, both from Edinburgh and further afield.

The setting is July 2005, and the G8 leaders have gathered in Scotland. With daily marches and demonstrations, the police are at full stretch.

Det Insp Rebus is forced to watch from the sidelines, until the apparent suicide of MP Ben Webster at Edinburgh Castle coincides with clues that a serial killer may be on the loose.

The authorities are keen to hush up both, for fear of overshadowing a meeting of global importance.

When his colleague Siobhan Clarke finds herself hunting the identity of the riot squad officer who assaulted her mother in Princes Street Gardens, it looks as though Rebus and Clarke could be in conflict with both protesters and police.

Rebus's nemesis, the career criminal Ger Cafferty, looms large in this novel, and Rankin compares the end of his reign as Edinburgh's Mr Big with Rebus's retirement. The writer's novels have become increasingly political, and The Naming of the Dead will make readers think long and hard about where their sympathies really lie.

It's contemporary, thought-provoking and deftly plotted, with musical references scattered throughout as usual. And it paints a picture of 21st-century Edinburgh that you will never get to see in the guidebooks.