A Heart Full of Headstones

The twenty-fourth novel in Ian Rankin's Detective Inspector Rebus series is set in Edinburgh during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It opens in a framing section titled "Now," where retired Detective Inspector John Rebus stands in a courtroom dock for the first time as the accused. A jury watches remotely from a cinema as a health precaution. Rebus, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), reflects on a career spent bending rules and embellishing testimony. His defense barrister, a Queen's Counsel named Bartleby, prepares to announce a plea, but the chapter ends before the word is spoken. The narrative jumps to "Then" to reveal how Rebus ended up on trial.

In post-lockdown Edinburgh, Rebus receives a summons from his longtime adversary, Morris Gerald Cafferty, known as Big Ger, a former crime lord who now uses a wheelchair after being shot. Cafferty asks Rebus to find Jack Oram, a man who once ran a pool hall on Cafferty's behalf, skimmed profits, and vanished four years earlier. Cafferty claims he wants to apologize, offers Rebus cash, and says Oram was recently spotted near QC Lettings, a property agency on Lasswade Road. Rebus takes the money and agrees to consider the job. After Rebus leaves, Cafferty receives a mysterious envelope bearing old MGC Lettings branding, containing a grainy photo of an unidentified man in a room with distinctive wallpaper. Cafferty recognizes the room but not the man.

In a parallel storyline, Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke, Rebus's former colleague and close friend, investigates a domestic abuse case against Francis Haggard, a uniformed officer at Tynecastle police station, a precinct notorious for corruption. Haggard has assaulted his wife, Cheryl, and plans to argue that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the station's toxic culture drove his violence. Detective Inspector Malcolm Fox, formerly of Internal Affairs, tells Clarke that Police Scotland's leadership wants the case managed carefully, as Haggard has threatened to expose systemic misconduct. Clarke refuses to bury the charges. During interviews, Haggard describes a hazing culture under retired Sergeant Alan Fleck and implies, without naming him, that Rebus benefited from the corrupt system.

Rebus begins searching for Oram. He visits QC Lettings and meets its owner, Fraser Mackenzie, and Fraser's wife, Elizabeth, whose appearance triggers a vague recognition. Oram's wife, Ishbel, insists Jack is dead, while a tipster tells Rebus he is alive and using an alias. Rebus tracks down Tommy Oram, Jack's son, who works as a handyman for QC Lettings through his friendship with the Mackenzies' daughter, Gaby. Tommy admits his father contacted him a year ago, stayed briefly in a lock-up garage, and disappeared again.

Haggard breaches his bail conditions by forcing his way into the home of Cheryl's sister, Stephanie Pelham, who is fighting a bitter divorce from property developer James Pelham. Security cameras capture the incident. The next night, Haggard is found stabbed to death in his rented flat on Constitution Street, which belongs to QC Lettings. A Major Incident Team (MIT) forms at Leith police station under Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Trask, with Clarke, Fox, and others assigned.

Rebus visits the MIT office uninvited and shares a lead: at Cafferty's penthouse, he glimpsed the photo of a man in a room whose wallpaper matches the murder scene. When Clarke calls Cafferty, he denies receiving any photo. Clarke also learns that Cafferty and Elizabeth Mackenzie were once a couple. The team identifies the 999 caller as Gaby Mackenzie, who stumbled on the body while bringing a man she met at a party to an empty flat in the same building.

The investigation widens. Officers from Serious and Organised Crime reveal that Fraser Mackenzie is suspected of dealing drugs through his rental properties and laundering money through James Pelham's businesses. Rebus develops a different theory: The operation is run not by Fraser but by Elizabeth and Gaby. From Fleck, Rebus learns the full story behind the flat's significance: seven years earlier, Fleck and his officers, including Haggard, broke into the Constitution Street flat and stole bags of cash Cafferty had stashed there. Elizabeth later photographed a man inside the flat and sent the image to Cafferty, knowing the distinctive wallpaper would remind him of the robbery.

The MIT traces Haggard's final movements from a pub to Till's Casino, where he drank heavily, and then by taxi toward Stephanie Pelham's house. Laura Smith, a journalist Clarke confides in and the anonymous blogger behind the Edinburgh Courant, has her home firebombed. Road cameras place a vehicle registered to Gareth Crosbie, a doorman at Gaby's nightclub and owner of the Moorfoot pub, near Smith's house shortly after the attack. Fox reveals he has recommended Clarke for promotion to DCI in Professional Standards, the anti-corruption division.

The Haggard case breaks open when phone records belonging to Chris Agnew, a Tynecastle officer and member of a group of current and former station officers known as the Crew, reveal extensive secret contact with Stephanie Pelham. Clarke confronts Stephanie and proposes the most damaging scenario: Stephanie had a one-night stand with Haggard, and his threatening behavior during the home invasion was a warning that he would expose the affair, destroying her divorce settlement. Cheryl, eavesdropping from the stairs, erupts in fury, steals Stephanie's car, and crashes. In the wreckage, Clarke finds a casino receipt bearing a handwritten address, a time, and a threat: the note Haggard left on Stephanie's windscreen summoning her to the flat the night he died. Stephanie is arrested for murder.

Simultaneously, Rebus breaks into Tommy's lock-up and finds drugs hidden in paint cans. He loads them into his car but is chased by young lookouts. Cafferty's aide, Andrew, steals the drugs from Rebus's car. An anonymous text summons Rebus to the Moorfoot, where Beecham, an associate of the Mackenzies, and Crosbie reveal that Jack Oram is dead: Crosbie killed him after a confrontation and dumped the body in a quarry. They attack Rebus, but Tommy arrives with a gun, shoots Beecham fatally, wounds Crosbie, and saves Rebus's life.

Rebus drives to Cafferty's penthouse for a final confrontation. He accuses Cafferty of sending him to find a dead man, using him as a weapon against the Mackenzies while hoping Rebus might be killed. In a surge of rage, Rebus presses a cushion over Cafferty's face but then relents, thinking of his daughter, Samantha, and his granddaughter. He removes the cushion, and Cafferty gasps for air. Rebus walks out. Cafferty dies shortly after from heart failure, and hidden security cameras record the assault. Andrew turns the footage over to police.

The novel returns to "Now." Rebus is on trial for murder, held on remand despite failing health. Bartleby announces a plea of not guilty, as Rebus insisted, claiming a lifetime of mitigation. Rebus reflects on the aftermath: Stephanie awaits trial; Clarke is taking the Professional Standards promotion; Jack Oram's body has been recovered; Crosbie faces murder and fire-raising charges; Tommy faces charges for the Moorfoot shootings; the Mackenzies are under investigation. Rebus plans to confess his own history of corruption to Clarke once she takes her new post, offering the testimony Haggard never lived to give. As the trial begins, Andrew enters as the Crown's first witness, dressed in an expensive suit and seemingly positioned to benefit from Cafferty's demise. He locks eyes with Rebus and grins.