Detective series set in and around Edinburgh, Scotland. Inspector John Rebus, whose methods earn him the wrath of his superiors, does not hesitate to circumvent the law to enforce it.
Rebus investigates a series of murders after the killer leaves distinctive clues by the butchered bodies of his victims.
A Kurdish asylum-seeker is murdered on a notorious Edinburgh estate in an apparent hate crime, but Rebus suspects there's more to it.
The body of a missing prostitute is found, and the circumstances echo an unsolved murder from twenty years before. Rebus is convinced that the prime suspect from the earlier case has struck again.
The detective angers his superiors when he tries to connect a member of Edinburgh's criminal fraternity to the shooting of two boys and a teacher at a local college.
A charity campaigner is caught with a prostitute during a raid on a brothel. Rebus heads a double murder investigation when the man's wife and another woman are found dead in connected incidents.
A man shoots himself in the offices of an investment bank. Rebus is tipped off to a possible financial scandal, but his investigation is frustrated by powerful interests.
During the investigation of an art dealer's murder, a temper tantrum lands Rebus in remedial training-the last chance at redemption for mavericks and marginal performers.
Immediately before his induction as the new moderator of the Church of Scotland, Rev. Derek Brady is found naked in a popular lovers' lane alongside a married woman; both have had their throats slashed.
As Edinburgh prepares to host the world trade summit, crowds of protesters roil in the streets. An unidentified body turns up on the grounds of the inn where the heads of state will stay. Later, a junior minister jumps-or falls-to his death.
After the defense calls Rebus's interrogation methods into question at trial, the prosecution drops its case against Daniel Carr, the accused murderer in a drug-related killing. Soon after, Carr himself winds up murdered.
