Mortal Causes

Mortal Causes
Mortal Causes  
IanRankinMortalCauses.jpg
Author(s) Ian Rankin
Country Scotland
Language English
Genre(s) Detective novel
Publisher Orion Books
Publication date 1994
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 336 pp
ISBN 0-7528-7720-8
OCLC Number 60513002
Preceded by The Black Book
Followed by Let it Bleed

Mortal Causes is a 1994 novel by Ian Rankin. It is the sixth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was the fourth episode in the Rebus television series starring John Hannah, airing in 2004.

Contents

Plot summary

Set during the Edinburgh Festival, this novel starts with a brutally executed corpse being discovered in Mary King's Close, an ancient subterranean street. The body has a tattoo identified with "Sword and Shield", a long-thought-defunct Scottish Nationalist group with links to sectarianism in Northern Ireland. The victim turns out to be the son of notorious gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty, and the plot moves towards the unthinkable prospect of a terrorist atrocity in a tourist-filled Edinburgh.

Connections to other Rankin books

  • Scottish Sword and Shield was first mentioned in passing in The Black Book.
  • Recurring character "the Weasel" makes his debut.

Writing Mortal Causes

Rankin has stated that one of the minor characters is based on the Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright.

Political background

The political background of the plot depicts an alliance between Scottish nationalist fringe groups and loyalist paramilitaries who believe they're being 'sold out' in the peace deal with the IRA. While there is significant support for loyalist paramilitarism in Scotland, radical Scottish nationalist fringe groups are far more likely to support the Irish Republican cause and to see the Republic of Ireland as a partial role model for an independent Scotland.

However, the background also makes a point of showing how the Northern Irish paramilitaries have turned to regular organised crime and are willing to cut deals with each other with money, and much of the scheming is based around criminal deals - the attempted terrorist in the book has no political aims.

The joke

Throughout the book, Rebus keeps overhearing parts of a joke about a squid with a moustache that goes into a restaurant. According to Ian Rankin, the punch line is as follows: 'For Hans that does dishes can feel as soft as Gervase with mild, green, hairy-lipped squid'.

The punch line is a reference to the long-running advertising slogan of Fairy Liquid. ("Now hands that do dishes can feel soft as your face, with mild green Fairy Liquid.")



Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe — Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal Kombat (series) — Mortal Kombat is a series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. Mortal Kombat began as a series of arcade games, which were picked up by Acclaim Entertainment for the home console versions. Now Midway Games exclusively creates… …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal Kombat Trilogy — North American PC box art Developer(s) Avalanche Software (PlayStation) Williams Entertainment (N64) Point of View, Inc. (Saturn, PC) …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm — MK: DotR title card Also known as Mortal Kombat: The Animated Series Format Cartoon series …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal wound — A mortal wound is a very severe and serious injury (almost always a form of penetration or laceration) whether accidental or inflicted intentionally (by either suicide or homicide), which leads directly to the death of the victim. Death need not… …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal Kombat — For other uses, see Mortal Kombat (disambiguation). Mortal Kombat The dragon logo of Mortal Kombat Genres Fighting …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal Kombat (video game) — MK1 redirects here. For the UK postal district, see MK postcode area. For the first game in the Mario Kart series, see Super Mario Kart. This article is about the original Mortal Kombat game. For the 2011 video game, see Mortal Kombat (2011 video …   Wikipedia

  • Mortal Kombat (comics) — The cover of Malibu s Mortal Kombat: Blood Thunder #6 The Mortal Kombat comic books series included the official comics by Midway and a licensed adaptation series by Malibu Comics, published between October 1994 and August 1995. There are thus… …   Wikipedia

  • mortal — mor|tal1 [ˈmo:tl US ˈmo:rtl] adj [Date: 1300 1400; : Old French; Origin: Latin mortalis, from mors death ] 1.) not able to live for ever ≠ ↑immortal ▪ Her father s death reminded her that she was mortal. 2.) mortal blow/danger/wound etc a) …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • mortal sin — noun an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace theologians list seven mortal sins • Syn: ↑deadly sin • Ant: ↑venial sin • Hypernyms: ↑sin, ↑sinning …   Useful english dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”