Inspector Rebus (abridged)

After the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls, now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus, smoking and drinking too much, his own daughter spirited away by his estranged wife, is one of many policemen hunting the killer. Then, the messages begin: knotted string and matchstick crosses taunt Rebus with a puzzle only he can solve.

A junkie lies dead in an Edinburgh squat, spreadeagled, cross-like on the floor, between two burned-down candles, a five-pointed star daubed on the wall above. Just another dead addict - until John Rebus begins to chip away at the indifference, treachery, deceit and sleaze that lurks behind the facade of the Edinburgh familiar to tourists. Only Rebus seems to care about a death which looks more like a murder every day, about a seductive danger he can almost taste, appealing to the darkest corners of his mind.

They call him the Wolfman - because he takes a nip out of his victims and because they found the first victim in the East End's lonely Wolf Street. But there's no urban predator that Rebus fears. When Scotland Yard are anxious to find the last serial killer on their patch they look north and soon Rebus is on his way south from the chill of Edinburgh to the rain of London.

Gregor Jack, MP, well-liked, young, married to the fiery Elizabeth - to the outside world a very public success story. But Jack's carefully nurtured career plans take a tumble after a "mistake" during a police raid on a notorious Edinburgh brothel.

When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Inspector John Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body, and a long forgotten night of terror and murder. Pursued by dangerous ghosts and tormented by the coded secrets of his colleague's notebook, Rebus must piece together the most complex and confusing of jigsaws. But not everyone wants the puzzle solved - perhaps not even Rebus himself.

The last people to die in Mary King's Close had been plague victims. But that was in the 1700s. Now a body has been discovered, brutally tortured and murdered in Edinburgh's buried city. Inspector John Rebus, ex-army, spots a paramilitary link.

Two boys hug and jump. One man blows his brains out and does his lady a last favour. Alone in his cell, another sets a ball rolling that may demolish a glittering career.

Inspector John Rebus must disinter all four cases to nail just one killer who might just lead back to the infamous Bible John. And do it while facing the glare of an internal inquiry led by a man he has just accused of taking backhanders from Glasgow's Mr Big, and with TV cameras at his back investigating a miscarriage of justice. One mistake is likely to mean an unpleasant and not particularly speedy death or, worse still, losing his job.

Detective Inspector John Rebus is buried under a pile of paperwork generated by his investigations into a suspected war criminal. But an escalating dispute between the upstart Tommy Telford and Big Ger Cafferty's gang gives Rebus an escape.

Stalking a poisoner at the local zoo, Inspector John Rebus comes across a paedophile taking pictures of children. When the social workers claim he is there for legitimate educational reasons, Rebus is faced with a dilemma - should he be outed to protect local kids or given a chance to start anew?

A student has gone missing in Edinburgh - completely out of character. She's not just any student, though, but the daughter of extremely well-to-do and influential bankers. There's almost nothing to go on, until Detective Inspector John Rebus gets an unmistakable gut feeling that there's more to this than just another runaway spaced out on unaccustomed freedom, or worse. Two leads emerge: a carved wooden doll in a toy coffin, found in the student's home village, and an Internet role-playing game.

Rebus is off the case, quite literally. A few days into a murder inquiry following the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, Rebus blows up at his superior, DCS Gill Templer, and is sent into purdah - which, in his case, means the Scottish Police College, sited on the edge of a village in central Scotland. Rebus has been sent there for "retraining". In other words, it's his Last Chance Saloon. He is not alone. At the college, he is put into a group of similar officers.

A shooting incident at a private school just north of Edinburgh. Two 17-year olds killed by an ex-Army loner who has gone off the rails. As Detective Inspector John Rebus puts it, "there's no mystery"...except the why. But this question takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community. Ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone.

An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme. Is it a racist attack, or something else? Rebus is drawn into the case, but he has other problems: his old police station has closed, and his masters would rather he retire than stick around. As Rebus investigates, he must visit an asylum seekers' detention centre, deal with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld, and maybe even fall in love. Meanwhile, Siobhan has problems of her own.

When world leaders descend on Scotland for a conference, every cop is needed to control the protestors in Edinburgh's streets - except one. Inspector John Rebus' reputation precedes him, so while presidents confer in isolated splendor, Rebus mans an empty police station, where he can't offend any visiting dignitaries. When a delegate falls to his death, Rebus is given what looks like a simple suicide report to write. But even as he keeps it out of the headlines, he probes where no probing is wanted.

It's now a crucial time for Rebus. His superiors are getting increasingly impatient with his erratic behaviour, and his relationship with Siobhan becomes ever more complicated. And, most worryingly of all, as Rebus grows older, he is starting to feel closer to the criminals he fights than the force he works for. Set against the backdrop of the explosive 2005 G8 summit, this is Rankin's most hard-hitting novel yet. For among the hordes of protesters filling the streets, a serial killer lurks.

It's late in the fall in Edinburgh and late in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he is simply trying to tie up some loose ends before his retirement, a new case lands on his desk: a Russian poet has been murdered in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. Rebus discovers that an elite delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, looking to expand its interests. And as Rebus's investigation gains ground, someone brutally assaults a local gangster with whom he has a long history.

It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town, keen to bring business to Scotland. The politicians and bankers who run Edinburgh are determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically.