Quotes from Ian Rankin

Fifteen years, and all he had to show were an amount of self-pity and a busted marriage with an innocent daughter hanging between them. It was more disgusting than sad.

No sooner had he finished with a case than another two or three appeared in its place. What was the name of that creature? The Hydra, was it? That was what he was fighting. Every time he cut off a head, more popped into his in-tray. Coming back from a holiday was a nightmare. And now they were giving him rocks to push up hills as well.

He'd tried to talk to you about anarchy yesterday but his English and your French conspired against the dialog.

Sometimes I think we're all gentlemen of the road. It's just that most of us haven't got the courage to take that first step.

I'm caught, he thought, between a cushion and a soft place

Bessant friend of the deceased, also an art dealer Malcolm Neilson artist William Allison Neilson's lawyer Dominic Mann art dealer Eric "Brains" Bain detective, computer specialist Professor Gates pathologist Morris Gerald "Big Ger" Cafferty Edinburgh's preeminent gangster

Ah, but it was not a nice world this, not a nice world at all. It was an Old Testament land that he found himself in, a land of barbarity and retribution.

Where was the religion for a man who believed that good and bad must coexist, even within the individual? Where was the religion for a man who believed in God but not in God's religion?

partner ACC Colin Carswell based at police HQ Sir David Strathern chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police Jean Burchill Rebus's current partner, museum curator

muted 'thanks' as the person moved away. 'It

There were always dog walkers out & about. Sometimes they even stopped for a chat while the various mutts inspected each other. Rebus would be asked how old his dog was. No idea. The breed, then ? Mongrel. And all the while, he would be thinking about cigarettes.

Brain Salad Surgery.

Do you ever drink any of the cups of tea that get made for you?' Rebus asked, gesturing towards the still-full mug. 'Don't really like the stuff,' Creasey admitted. 'But people do seem to enjoy making it.

He had to get off the booze. He had to get off the ciggies. They were killing him, yet they were the only things keeping him alive.

latest notebook – he filled dozens of

Gie'd her a total riddy

Popped to the loo.

when the shit was heading fanwards.

Infra-red connection,' he explained. 'Gets us on-line in a hurry.

The shelves were bowed under the weight of textbooks. There were old framed prints on the walls, and a blackboard with the single word CHARACTER on it. University paperwork was piled on the window ledge, all but blacking out the bottom two panes. The smell in the room was that of intellect gone awry.

Acknowledgements Reading Group Notes Timeline About the Author By Ian Rankin Copyright Serendipity. According to the dictionary, it means the ability to make 'happy chance finds'. Serendip was the old name for Ceylon. Horace Walpole is credited with coining the term, after the fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip', whose titular heroes were always stumbling across things they weren't looking for.

In fact, it's got more punctures than a blind dressmaker's thumb.

Everything you do from waking till sleeping is against somebody's Bible, Cafferty.

West-central Fife could use a spot of communion itself. It would drink the wine and pawn the chalice.