The Falls: An Inspector Rebus Novel
Edinburgh police detective John Rebus, Ian Rankin's popular series  detective, is a brilliantly realized character, as moody, dark, and melancholy  as Edinburgh itself. InThe Falls, he's almost certain that missing  university student Philippa Balfour is dead, but he's less sure how she died or  what her misadventure has to do with the tiny doll in a hand-sized coffin that  turns up near a waterfall on the Balfour family estate. It's not the first  coffin found near the scene of a crime; could Philippa be the victim of a serial  killer? The only other lead the police have is a cryptic e-mail from someone  called Quiz Master, inviting Philippa--and then constable Siobhan Clarke, who  responds using Philippa's screen name--to join him in a bizarre scavenger hunt  that might lead Clarke to Philippa's body, her killer, or her own death.This time out Rebus has a new boss, who's no happier with his unorthodox style  or impolitic attitude toward the Edinburgh establishment than his last one was.  But even under department suspension, Rebus manages to tie a number of seemingly  disparate and unconnected clues together and deliver a killer in a scene that  even the most discerning reader may not see coming until it jumps off the page.  A bestseller in the U.K.,The Fallsis Rankin's best yet.--Jane  Adams