Clara’s Verdict
The Falls is the twelfth Inspector Rebus novel, and it marks something of a turning point in the series – the retirement of Rebus’s long-serving superior, the Farmer, closes a chapter in the books’ emotional architecture. Ian Rankin has always been as interested in the inner life of his Edinburgh as in the mechanics of crime-solving, and The Falls exemplifies this at its richest: the city as both landscape and character, Rebus as a man increasingly out of step with a world modernising around him. James Macpherson’s narration captures the particular quality of Rankin’s voice – dry, sardonic, occasionally touched by something like melancholy. For sixteen hours, you’re in very good company.
About the Audiobook
The twelfth entry in Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus Novels series opens with a disappearance rather than a body. Philippa Balfour – a student from a wealthy banking family – has vanished from Edinburgh, and DI Rebus’s gut tells him something is wrong in ways that don’t fit the usual runaway narrative. Two things draw his attention: a carved wooden doll found in a toy coffin near Philippa’s home village, and a trail that leads into an online role-playing game – an early-2000s touch that has since acquired a period quality, though the underlying questions about digital identity and deception remain entirely contemporary.
Rankin is characteristically adept at weaving multiple threads without losing clarity: the investigation into Philippa’s disappearance, the political and social world of Edinburgh’s banking establishment, and Rebus’s own complicated position as a detective who functions best outside institutional frameworks. The case has a genuinely unsettling resolution, but it is the texture of the world – the pubs, the streets, the social hierarchies, the exhausted camaraderie between Rebus and colleagues – that constitutes the real experience of reading Rankin.
The Farmer’s departure is handled with real care. Rankin is too good a novelist to make a simple statement about institutional loyalty or generational change; instead, the loss is felt in small ways, in accumulating absences. For established Rebus readers, this is a significant moment in the series. For newcomers – The Falls can be read independently, though context helps.
The Narration
James Macpherson has been reading the Rebus novels for years, and the familiarity shows in the best possible way. He understands the rhythms of Rankin’s prose, the dry wit, the way a sentence can carry both comedy and rue simultaneously. His Edinburgh accent is genuine and consistent, and his character work – particularly for Rebus himself – has the quality of inhabitation rather than performance. At sixteen hours and eleven minutes, this is a long commitment, but Macpherson makes the time pass effortlessly. This is one of those narrator-author pairings where the voice simply becomes the book.
What Readers Say
The Falls holds 4.4 stars from UK listeners, with several calling it a series highlight. One reviewer described it as “one of the best detective fiction novels that I have read to date,” praising its “intriguing and involved story” with “plenty of twists and false leads.” Another notes the significance of the Farmer’s departure, calling the relationship between Rebus and his boss one of the highlights of the series. A reader who came to the Rebus books through a documentary about Rankin’s writing process described finding an author with “a huge and devoted following” for very good reason. The book’s 4.4 rating reflects the occasional reader who finds it slightly less spectacular than their Rebus favourites, though none deny its quality.
Who Should Listen?
Essential for existing Rebus fans – this is a pivotal entry in the series and one of its most atmospheric. For newcomers to Scottish crime fiction, The Falls offers an excellent introduction to what makes Edinburgh noir distinctive: a city with deep history, class stratification that never quite disappeared, and a detective whose moral ambiguity is itself a form of integrity. Also highly recommended for listeners who enjoyed Rankin’s contemporaries Val McDermid and Christopher Brookmyre.
