WHEN AN INTERNATIONAL conference delegate falls to his death during a dinner at Edinburgh Castle, John Rebus is given what looks like a simple suicide to write up. But even as he keeps it out of the headlines, Rebus probes where no probing is wanted — and doesn’t appreciate the side steps and power plays his questions engender. Edinburgh is a dangerous place to be this week: Rebus is also investigating the death of a recently paroled rapist, murdered in a particularly grisly fashion.

A state-of-the-world novel peopled by real characters, The Naming of the Dead is Rebus’s most challenging case yet and Edgar Award winner Ian Rankin at his very best.