1. What is the genre?
Global—Crime > Murder Mystery > Hardboiled
Secondary—Worldview > Revelation
2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?
Conventions
A MacGuffin: Gordon Reeve wants to punish DS John Rebus as revenge for abandoning him during their secret SAS training. The punishment for desertion is death.
Investigative Red Herrings: Rebus and DS Jack Morton are charged with reviewing records of sex offenders in the area in and around Edinburgh until it’s revealed that the victims weren’t sexually assaulted. Rebus wonders if he could be a killer (after a disturbing experience during a one-night stand), but soon dismisses this. DI Gill Templer (press liaison for the police department on the murder case) wonders for a short time if Rebus could be the killer (because of the locked room in his flat), but she dismisses this because she trusts her instincts. Lots of crank callers contact the tip line, but the information is mostly a waste of time. Rebus’s ex-wife, Rhona, is dating a twenty-year-old poet that she met at the library, where she goes with their daughter, Samantha (Sammy). The details of the relationship make it appear that the poet could be the killer, but he is killed when Sammy is abducted.
Making it Personal: It’s personal from the beginning, but Rebus first learns it’s true when Sammy is abducted from his ex-wife’s home.
Clock: From the beginning, the team tasked with catching the murderer must expose the serial killer before another victim is abducted and killed. But once Sammy is taken, Rebus must find Reeve before he kills her.
Sub-Genre-specific conventions—Hardboiled: To expose and bring the criminal to justice, the detective must unleash their inner shadow. To expose Reeve, Rebus must face his traumatic past. To bring Reeve to justice and save his daughter, he must be willing to disobey orders and kill Reeve.
Obligatory Scenes
An Inciting Crime: Sarah Adams and Mary Andrews go missing from Edinburgh, and soon afterward, their bodies are found.
Speech in Praise of the Villain: When Rebus confronts Reeve in the central library, Reeve tells him about how he had been stalking Rebus, gathering information about him and his family by involving his brother in selling illegal drugs. He became a children’s librarian to gain access to Sammy, which is also how he chose and gained access to the other victims. Reeve wants to revenge because Rebus abandoned him during their training.
Discovering and understanding the Antagonist’s MacGuffin: After Rebus learns that the murder victims’ initials spell Samantha and his daughter is taken, he can no longer deny that he has some connection to the murderer. His brother, Michael, hypnotizes Rebus and asks why he left the military (thanks to Templer’s suggestion). During the session, Rebus reveals that he and Gordon Reeve were trained for a secret military unit of the SAS, both were subjected to extreme torture, and Rebus abandoned Reeve.
Progressively Complicated Following of the Clues: Crank letters that indicate the sender knows where Rebus works and lives; the victims are not sexually assaulted; the victims must have known their attacker, but there is no apparent connection between them; pale blue Ford Escort spotted near where one of the victim’s was taken; a local professor notices that the first initial of the victims’ names spell Samantha; the killer takes Sammy; the victims all visit the central library; one of the librarians drives a pale blue Escort.
Exposure of the Criminal: After Templer tells Rebus the clue about the car owned by a librarian, Rebus goes to the library and confronts Reeve, who admits his part in the crimes.
Brought to or Escapes Justice: Rebus and DCI William Anderson (father of poet killed by Reeve) follow Reeve into the tunnel beneath the library, where Anderson shoots Reeve.
Learn more about obligatory scenes and conventions.
3. What is the point of view?
POV: Third-person omniscient (editorial) with free-indirect speech
Narrative Device: The narrator is unidentified and mostly covert or invisible but gives the impression of someone similar to the ghosts in A Christmas Carol, directing our attention to various events in the past and present and warning us about what could be if Rebus doesn’t wake up to the connection between the murders, the crank letters, and his past.
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4. What are the objects of desire?
External/Conscious: Rebus wants to solve the mysteries of the murdered girls and the crank letters.
Internal/Subconscious: Rebus needs to realize that the two mysteries are connected and that he is the key to solving them both.
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5. What is the controlling idea / theme?
Justice prevails when detectives face their past and release their shadow to stop a deranged killer in time.
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6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?
Beginning Hook – The bodies of two missing Edinburgh girls are found, and Rebus is assigned to the case the same day he receives an anonymous crank letter and memories from his time in the paras resurface, but when the postmortems reveal the victims were not sexually assaulted and Rebus receives another letter, will he consider that there is a connection between the murders and letters? No, in fact he attempts to suppress his memories and gets on with the “real” police work of shoe-leather investigation.
Middle Build – Rebus learns that another victim has been abducted and another crank letter arrives, but when Sammy is abducted from his ex-wife’s home, Rebus must decide whether to accept the connection and undergo hypnosis or not. Rebus agrees, and while under hypnosis, remembers how he abandoned Reeve when they were tortured as part of their training for a special unit of the SAS. Rebus realizes Reeve is the killer and that he’s going to have to kill Reeve to save Samantha.
Ending Payoff – Despite being ordered off the case,Rebus sets out to find Reeve and Sammy, without success, but when Templer tells Rebus about the connection between the victims and the central library, he must decide whether to wait for backup or go after Reeve alone. Rebus pursues Reeve through a tunnel under the library, unaware that he’s being followed by Anderson, who shoots and kills Reeve. Sammy is found alive at Reeve’s home.
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