Review: The Heights

The Heights by Ian Rankin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dwayne Hogarth, a night concierge is found murdered at reception of an expensive high-rise block of 'suites' overlooking Hyde Park in London called 'The Heights' whilst several of the residents are at a party in one of the suites owned by Maeve Gallacher the wife of one of the Metropolitan Police's most wanted gangsters. With other residents including Maita Macheso the exiled daughter of an African preacher who stole millions from his congregation and her bodyguard, a Russian oligarch called Lev Godunov, a famous singer called Zafk and his manager Roddy Collins, an actress called Jessica Forrester, Franklyn Allen the man who built the apartments and Lorn Macneal the architect, Joe Spalding an art dealer, , an entrepreneur called Toby Scully, and many more there are plenty of suspects. But why kill Dwayne the concierge? Was it linked to the fight in which his brother Mark (the DJ) was ejected from the party? Had the Russian oligarch discovered that Dwayne and his girlfriend would occasionally use the back of his Bentley for 'quality time'?

Detective Gillian Gish is motivated and intuitive, but occasionally trusts her gut more than doing things by the book, which is why she has been partnered with veteran detective Jack Milton, who is counting the days to retirement. There's a handsome freelance reporter hanging around outside the Heights, ostensibly looking for gossip, but really more interested in getting a story on one or more of the less salubrious characters and wants Gillian's help.

This reads very much like one in a series, we are jettisoned right into Gillian's home life with a mother suffering from Alzheimer's, Milton has a gay son, Adam, there are relationships and an ongoing attempt to catch Maeve's husband Eddie so I was surprised to see that this is billed as a standalone. I know Ian Rankin by name but I don't believe that I have read one of his novels before so this was a nice intro into his work. He is good at building tension and creating characters - I will definitely look for more books by him (and maybe start Rebus).

An assured murder mystery by one of Britain's foremost writers.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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