The Rise - Ian Rankin

 

The Rise is a new eighty-page short story from Ian Rankin that has recently been published by Amazon Original Stories. Rankin is already well known as the author of the highly successful Detective John Rebus series, but fans of that series will find that The Rise is more of a traditional police procedural than the Rebus books are.

The Rise is a twelve-story building in the center of London with twelve apartments that only the wealthiest people in the country can possibly afford. In fact, on the morning that a murdered security guard is discovered in the building lobby, only six of the apartments are leased - and not even all of those were occupied on the night of the murder.  Detectives on the scene are relatively confident that they will catch those responsible for killing the guard because the building is said to have a sophisticated, state-of-the-art security system that severely limits building access to outsiders. That system, combined with the limited number of possible insider suspects, means that it should be only a matter of time before the killer is identified and dealt with. 

But first things, first. Why was the guard killed? Was it personal or did he try to stop someone who was in the process of committing a completely different crime? 

Despite allowing himself a relatively limited number of pages in The Rise within which to work, Rankin creates a step-by-step crime investigation that is perfectly logical as it unfolds toward its ultimate conclusion. The characters, cops and suspects alike, have distinct personalities and motives of their own, and I would be especially happy at some point to spend time in a longer format with one of them in particular: Detective Sergeant Gish, a woman completely dedicated to the job despite the problems she has to juggle at home. Ian Rankin fans will certainly appreciate The Rise, and those not already familiar with Rankin's style can use the story as a test drive to find out what they've been missing.