Rebus is off the case - literally. A few days into the murder inquiry of an Edinburgh art dealer, Rebus blows up at a colleague. He is sent to the Scottish Police College for 'retraining' - in other words, he's in the Last Chance Saloon. Rebus is assigned to an old, unsolved case, but there are those in his team who have their own secrets - and they'll stop at nothing to protect them. Rebus is also asked to act as a go-between for gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty. And as newly promoted DS Siobhan Clarke works the case of the murdered art dealer, she is brought closer to Cafferty than she could ever have anticipated...

自古以來文人相輕,尤其是成名作家,更是不把任何人放在眼裡；除非有某種特殊交情,否則想要他們吐露讚美之詞簡直是比登天還難。然而若是有人誠心稱讚,那麼被讚美之人必有過人之處,像是英籍作家伊安．兰金（Ian Rankin）,美國知名作家詹姆斯．艾洛依（James Ellroy）就稱呼他為「蘇格蘭黑色之王」（King of Tartan Noir）,另一位當紅的暢銷作家麥可．康納利（Michael Connelly）也讚譽他「在當今一票最佳犯罪小說家當中依然一枝獨秀」。除了叫好之外,伊安．藍金的小說在英國也是票房保證,受歡迎的程度可媲美約翰．葛里遜或派翠西亞．康薇爾等級的大牌作家。

不管在哪裡任職,伊安總是創作不輟,他的第一部盧布思探案原本只是偶一為之的作品,因此他試圖用驚悚間諜小說的型態來測試推理小說的可塑性,並探究心理層次的黑暗面,未料卻引起廣大迴響,很多讀者都想知道盧布思的下場,於是探案才一部接一部發展成系列小說。伊安的作品評價之高,光看得獎記錄便可分曉：一九九二年他拿下最具聲望的錢德勒－富布賴特推理文學獎（Chandler-Fulbright Award）,一九九四和一九九六年兩度贏得英國犯罪作家協會的短篇作品金匕首獎,一九九七年再接再厲以《黑與藍》（Black ＆ Blue）勇奪長篇作品金匕首獎。二○○四更是豐收的一年,《再生人》（Resurrection Men）是美國推理作家協會票選出來的年度最佳作品,《血的難題》（A Question of Blood）被許多推理專刊列入推薦書目中。