Knots And Crosses: From the iconic #1 bestselling author of A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES

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The beginning of this book started out with a bang. It was clear that our two main characters were never going to be able to be together and live peacefully. He is a naught, she is a cross. A cross is high society, a naught is low society. One grew up privileged, the other did not. Naughts are spit on, crosses are revered and looked upon as if they are royalty among peasants. But ever since they were little, Callum and Sephy have been meeting up at their 'secret spot' so they can hang out together-they are best friends who got separated after tragic circumstances and they have been struggling to stay close since. And my my my what do we have here, you ask?? Well, I'd say we have a case of star-crossed lovers, if I do say so, myself. ;)

There are the women Rebus gets involved with: from Rhona Phillips, his estranged wife, to Gill Templer, a D.I. herself (and the Press Liaison Officer on this case). As Rebus assists with the serial killer inquiry he's unaware that a reporter, Jim Stevens, is stalking him. He keeps this a secret from Callie Rose, and after they consummate their relationship, Callie Rose leaves but promises to return. The next day, when Tobey and Callie Rose meet up with their friends, Callie Rose is shot by a hail of bullets from McAuley, the boss of a gang of Noughts, the rivals to the Dowds. Her surgery is successful, but she remains in a coma. Sephy is furious at Tobey for not telling the police who shot Callie Rose, but is unaware that Tobey plans on getting revenge on McAuley himself. Ryan McGregor: Callum, Jude, and Lynette's father, who is killed trying to escape from prison after the Dundale bombing.Callum is intelligent, ambitious and is often angry at the inequality he and other noughts face. He is sometimes conflicted but, in the end, he finds the courage to stand up for what he believes in. Jasmine Dharma Ninah Adyebe-Hadley: Sephy and Minerva's mother, who became an alcoholic. She used to be good friends with Ryan and Meggie McGregor, as Meggie used to work for her. She is diagnosed with breast cancer and, drinking less than before, steals and activates Jude's bomb, killing her and Jude in the process to protect Sephy and Callie Rose. Right from the start Rankin creates a bleak introspective tone for the novel and his protagonist quite clearly borrowed from Derek Raymond's Factory series, complete with the same Detective Sergeant rank as Raymond's anonymous cop and the same attitude towards his superiors/promotion. The fact that Rebus solves brutal murders from the grittiest sides of Edinburgh, the dark heart of contemporary Britain which lurks behind the elegant and historic facade was said of Raymond multiple times. When you are a John Rebus, you realize most people go through life as tourists, just as the tourists who visit Edinburgh. They see the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby in the Kirkyard, the towering buildings, the usual sights, and take the usual photographs. Most people do live a Disney life, untouched by violence, safe in the knowledge that such things always happen to other people. That most of the time, whoever ends up dead did something they should have known better than to do, and all cases are solved within sixty minutes on the telly.

Edinburgh rain was like a judgement. It soaked into the bones, into the structures of the buildings, into the memories of the tourists. It lingered for days, splashing up from puddles by the roadside, breaking up marriages, chilling, killing, omnipresent. That’s a passage I just found after opening the book at random. I wouldn’t want to make any huge claims for it – but it’s not bad. It neatly gives you the feeling of being inside the head of the character (Jim Stevens, a journalist), plants some intrigue about his relationship with Gill Templer (who, in this first book, is Rebus’s love interest), and gives the impression that Jim has trouble to cause. On a word-by-word level, those choppy sentences and that repetition gives a good indication of Jim’s anxiety. This is someone who can write. Yes. The filing cabinets filled. They were crammed. Up to a thousand cases at a time. My word for the job was "relentless." Rebus has a lot baggage, from his stage hypnotist brother to his ex-wife and everything in between. He's a sad bastard in a long line of sad bastard detectives but has enough uniqueness that I'll be happy to visit him again in the future. My emotions are not letting me gather my thoughts hence I'll just write few things which I can remember off the top of my head and then shut up and go away in search of another box of tissues.Rebecca Dowd: Vanessa Dowd's daughter. She is a rich Cross who makes her money from drugs, illegal shipments and more. She briefly dates Tobey after falling in love with him but is killed by Alex McAuley, the Dowd family's archenemy. She is very lonely and Tobey loves her, unlike other boys, for reasons other than her family and her money. However, Tobey remains in love with Callie Rose. Kamal tells Sephy that if she keeps her child, Callum will be hanged, but if she has the abortion, he will serve years in prison instead. Kamal makes a similar offer to Callum, wanting Callum to publicly admit to raping Sephy. Both decide to keep the baby, and Callum is hanged at the gallows.

For Laura Preble, "Out" had the instalove factor that killed it just as much as the casual dismissal of all the rules in the overblown society that was working against their relationship, right up until around the time when their relationship was "discovered." Instead of properly developing the characters and the issues they dealt with - it was all about the "love machine," the way they biologically "fit" with each other (*cringes*), and the attitudes that were projected rather than shown in the dynamic and stakes of the story.Sometimes, it happens in real life. Quite devastating, but that's reality. Remember, we cannot please all people, but they cannot control someone's feelings of who to love. Eva Foxton: An old nurse who becomes a mother figure for Dan, eventually succeeding him as the leader of his gang, the Outfit. The group that Callum becomes immersed in after the certain tragedies that occur in his immediate family felt plausible to me because of the motivation and conjunction of the group trying to fight against the oppression of the society. Do I believe what they did (Callum included) was right? No, I don't - it boiled my blood when I read it, and particularly how Sephy ended up becoming involved in that crossfire. Do I think it could've been portrayed a bit more even? Absolutely, it had some clear flaws in the portrayal. But at least I understood it. I understood the events that led up to that point, even if it felt like a stage drama on the level of "Romeo and Juliet", "West Side Story", "Raisin in the Sun", or something along that notation. It was dramatic, maybe even a little overmuch with the drama in measures, but it sold its point to me. Detective Inspector Gill Templer - The Press Liaison officer on the abduction case, and Rebus' on-off love interest

The initial letters of the previous victims' name spell out Samantha. Suddenly the case is intensely personal. And the killer has murdered each child by strangulation. A nasty death. Strangulation with a garotte. There are the knots. The crosses signify the killer intends to crucify Rebus. He comes into her cell and she is in incredible amounts of pain because of the cut on her finger and the beating she received from another one of her kidnappers. She asks Callum to release her and he decides to profess his love for her. She asks him again to release he and he literally PUTS HIS FINGER OVER HER LIPS TO MAKE HER BE QUIET. I could move my hands and... And. Anything I liked. Caress or strangle. Kill or cure. Her or me. Me or her."This is an original, intelligent, perceptive and though-provoking series of books – and whilst squarely aimed at the Young Adult market, it clearly transcends the restrictive boundaries of that genre.