All the Time in the World

One of Rankin's first books, and to be honest, it reads like it's from a young author. But there's something so electric and headlong about it, I loved it. The edition I read was published in conjunction with the book's 20th anniversary, with a foreword by Rankin talking about who he was at the time, and the inspiration for/circumstances around the writing and publication of the book, which was great to get the background. (I don't always love things like that, but in this instance it was really good.)

Some indelible phrases in there as well, like, "She smelt good, like a baby on a fireside towel." What the hell does that even mean? but yet, there it is, stuck in my head.

Thought the identification of the culprit and the mystery's resolution were a little too pat, but hey, it's a book of under 300 pages, it wasn't like there was a ton of time to drag it all out. And given that Rankin (according to the foreword) never foresaw this as book 1 of a series (now something like 20 books, seriously) and actually planned not to have Rebus even survive the book, it was probably as much a matter of style as anything else.

Worth checking out, I think, even if you don't plan to go any further with the series.