John Rebus is close to retirement. In fact, only days away from turning in his warrant card. A dissident Russian poet is found bludgeoned to death and Rebus and his partner Siobhan Clarke are off to find the killer. As a result they explore the underworld of early 21st century global politics. Big banks are in collusion with Labor and Nationalist politicians and local gangsters to milk Russian oligarchs of their cash. Scotland is aching for independence and the oligarchs find it an attractive place to avoid possibly drinking radioactive tea or falling mysteriously from a high window onto a Moscow street.
Rebus wonders what counts as corruption and illegality when the entire economic and political system is shady. As he tries to unravel the case he ponders his own ethically questionable past doings and wonders if he’ll simply spend retirement in the pub gradually softening himself with malt.
Another murder complicates things. Rebus and Clarke are now no longer detectives in a local precinct police squad; they are George Smileys working in the shadows to uncover an international conspiracy.
Or perhaps not? Maybe there is less there there than appearances suggest. As they work the case Rebus begins the process of handing the reins over to Siobhan as much as possible. She is at once frustrated by his tactics and deeply saddened to be losing his wisdom and experience, but finds herself ready to take over the team.
I jumped into this 17-novel series at book 15 and only read that one and the final volume, but enjoyed them thoroughly. Good pop lit with a cracking plot and sufficient depth and complexity to keep me intrigued. The characters are not one-dimensional types but are fully fleshed out. And Mr. Rankin can indeed write a good sentence. If detective novels and police procedurals are your thing you might want to read these.
I don’t simply have recurring dreams in the typical sense that narratives and plot events return again and again. I have rather dreams which happen in the same settings over and over. These settings change and evolve mysteriously over decades, and have recurring characters as well as themes.
Some Examples
A cove at an ocean beach. Was initially undeveloped, then had a house, then a small development. Most recently there was some sort of detention camp there.
An undiscovered wing of my childhood home. It’s impossibly large and far older and more mysterious, and is accessed through different closet or cabinet doors, or via the basement, of the “real” home.
An urban neighborhood of Victorian rowhomes with bars and frequented houses and alleys. The different bars often have the same regulars but sometimes I go to one and not the others, or to all in one dream. Often after the bars I retire to one of the friend’s houses. In these dreams, some friends from the real world arrive, but most of the characters are recurring dream characters, but the dreams are never the same. The bars and houses often change decor and remodel just as in real life, but remain recognizable. The regular customers often greet me as though I’ve been away for a long time.
The bookshop I worked in for 7 years in my 20s. I regularly re-visit it in dreams, and parts of it are closed off or have been reopened. Sometimes it is thriving and others near decrepit. The employees there are dream employees, never the actual colleagues I worked with. The employees have heard about me and my tenure in this place, or knew someone who worked for me or with me ‘back in the day.’
Schools and classrooms from a variety of teaching positions I’ve held. Often the school is unfamiliar from the real world but the classroom is mine, or vice-versa. These schools maintain their structure but alterations are made each time I visit.
Unconscious to Conscious
Often, I’ll have dreams in these settings for years, and life goes on in these dreams just as life goes on in real life. But many times I don’t remember these dreams or these settings when awake until one sudden vivid dream renders it all conscious, and then I’ll wake and have powerful memories of multiple dreams in this location going back many years. I’ll even note that certain characters in the settings have evolved over time, having matured, or aged, or been sick and healed, etc.
“Deep” Dream Settings
Sometimes my dreams seem to happen concurrently and at different settings at different depths. I used to dream regularly of a world that was a sketch of a place, where everything was black except for silver lines denoting walls and roofs and trees, where the characters were simply lights or silvery profiles. I always knew I had “gone deep” when I dreamt in this setting. But at the same time, a different component of my self would be experiencing a different dream, like a typical work anxiety dream.
The same feeling is associated with strange “temple” dreams I’ve had, situated in stone rooms with baths featuring Egyptian tiles. In such dreams I often found gems or minerals or plants emerging from my skin. These dreams are powerful and come from a place beyond the limits of my own experience in this lifetime.
I’ve occasionally dreamt of a room where several people who’ve been important comrades in this life voyage and I are seated and laughing–and in this dream I know we are all just finished one existence and are preparing/selecting our roles in the next existence. We are joking about who played what role and the decisions they made and their karmic consequences for that individual and the whole group next time round.
Recording Dreams
After a long hiatus, I’ve begun to dream vividly again, and have begun recording them in depth when I can recall them sufficiently. I always feel more alive and more creative and healthy when I have powerful and mysterious dreams. Grateful they are returning.
Mysterium Coniunctionis 