Prisons (no matter where they exist in this turbulent world) are veritable rabbit warrens of despair, misery and metaphorical darkness. Hope is a tenuous commodity in such bleak receptacles and positivity amongst inmates is an outplayed commodity often.

 It is a case of survival of the fittest and fastest. Wits outliving intelligence. Prisons may even by the harbingers of further crime. And that includes murder.

Such ponderings are expertly and eloquently examined and written of in stellar Scottish author, Ian Rankins’s, latest soaring crime novel, Midnight and Blue.

Former Detective Inspector John Rebus of the CID (Criminal Investigation Department, tasked with the investigation of major crimes) in Edinburgh, Scotland, is nearing seventy but still in full possession of his sharp policing instincts and knowledge. Circumstances in his current life dictate that he finds himself an unenviable ‘guest’ of HMP (His Majesty’s Prison Service) Edinburgh (a jail where the inmates are gone and thus forgotten by those on the outside….or are they?) on the demonstrably serious charge of attempted murder, serving a life sentence.  A charge that won’t let Rebus feel the unfiltered sun on his face any time soon. We learn of Rebus’s reluctant incarceration that “Rebus felt hemmed in, not only by the walls but by the same daily faces too. He had visited the prison many times during his detective years…..but this was different. The various smells were never going to be showered away. Testosterone and wariness filled what air there was. Drug use was hard to miss. He had always known the place simply as Saughton, though the branding on the officers’ shirts these days declared it HMP Edinburgh”. Rebus has a social job in the prison library. He is a reader himself, so suits the position. Megan, the librarian, shows Rebus the rare prison experience of kindness.

Rebus’s detective antennae are activated when a prisoner (one Jackie Simpson) is found dead in his cell one morning, having been stabbed in his neck. Jackie’s cellmate, Mark Jamieson, has been found ‘bombed out’ on drugs in his bed and his head bashed, unaware of anything having happened to Jackie.

Detective Sergeant Christine Esson is swiftly on the murder case, which includes liaising with the prison’s governor, Howard Tennent.

DI (Detective Inspector) Siobhan Clarke and DS (Detective Sergeant) Cameron Colson are at the same time pursuing the case of fourteen year old girl, Jasmine Andrews, who has been reported missing by her parents, 

James and Helena. 

Jasmine’s best friend, Carla, and brash ex-boyfriend, Craig, have no idea where Jasmine might be, and neither do any of her schoolfriends. When the detectives land on the fact that Jasmine was working as a pornographic model for a Zak Campbell (an ex-footballer whose business is known as ‘Young Fresh East Coast’ with a multitude of sleazy clients) the case becomes murkier and darker then they had initially anticipated. And it had been a deeply sad case from the beginning.

 Then Zak’s later murder means that Jasmine is a suspect, having both had motive and knowing where he lived.

Are the Jasmine Andrews disappearance and Jackie Simpson’s murder cases connected in any way? Is that even possible?

If Jackie Simpson’s cellmate, Jamieson, was found out of it and his head bashed in, thus unable to have murdered Jackie, who had access to the men’s cell? There is an avalanche of corruption in HMP Edinburgh among the staff, but still, could any of the guards, nurses, librarian or governor have gotten hold of the key to Jackie’s cell and murdered Jackie? Could any of the prisoners have gotten hold of said key?

A prisoner swears he heard the cell being locked at night…..so who opened it and how?

Does Jasmine ever return home? Is she a murderer? And if not her, who on earth murdered Zak Campbell?

What of the prison hierarchy (involving the prisoners themselves and prison staff)? Who is ‘top dog’ at HMP Edinburgh and even in the local police force? How far do the slippery tentacles of corruption spread? Is everyone who they seem to be?

Ian has written yet another sterling crime novel that will have you turning the pages faster and faster late into the night.

Midnight and Blue got me in from page one and never let go. Each superbly written page of this Rebus novel (Detective Inspector Rebus features in many of Ian’s previous novels) overflows with intelligence, wisdom, insight and brilliant observations of the human psyche and condition. We witness the very worst and very best of human behaviour. And see that even in prison light can shine.

It is important to mention that, as Ian tells us in the Acknowledgements page at the end of the novel, “There is a real HMP Edinburgh, situated in the same area of the city as the prison in this novel, but of course this is a work of fiction and the two should not be confused. I am grateful to staff and inmates (present and past) who spoke to me and allowed me to tour the facilities”.

Is Rebus destined to spend the rest of his life in jail? Or will there be a chance for him to taste freedom again? You’ll have to read to the end of this book and following Rebus books to find out. 

Bravo Ian! Your reputation of being one of the world’s best crime writers is exceedingly well deserved. 

I loved every minute of reading Midnight and Blue. Please put me down to read whatever Ian Rankin writes next!