Ian Rankin - Westwind

A very disappointing book. To me it felt like Ian Rankin was trying to write a book in the style of Alistair McLean, an exciting thriller. In "Introduction by the author" is being told that the first edition only got one review, a bad one from the Guardian. I can see the reason why.

The story is being told by an all knowing narrator. So you don't have to wonder why the characters do things. These characters are very flat, even the main ones; there are a lot of stereotypes. The action is very predictable. You can see things going to happen one or two pages before you get there. There are the standard things in it, pursuing cars, a damsel in distress. The heroes are almost identical and they can survive ordeals like they do in McLean's books. The plot is quite ridiculous. The writer is not serious, in some sentences irony pops up. It must have been quite a lot of fun to give the characters their names. Names stretching from historical figures to philosophers, writers, characters in famous books.
All in all I don't see a reason why this book had to be republished other than making some extra money for all considered. I fell for the trap, I should have checked a bit of info before buying it.
It reads like a pastiche of the work of people like the mentioned McLean or other adventure writers. The ones that write books that have on their cover that they are written by born story tellers. Maybe it was no more than an exercise, just to show that Rankin could write things like this too.
But of course Ian Rankin knows how to write a book. We know that. So two stars.