The Hanging Garden (Rankin novel)
 First edition | |
| Author | Ian Rankin |
|---|---|
| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Orion Books |
Publication date | 1998 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 529 pages |
| ISBN | 0-7528-0721-8 |
| OCLC | 60611214 |
| Preceded by | Black and Blue |
| Followed by | Dead Souls |
The Hanging Garden is a 1998 crime novel by Ian Rankin. It is the ninth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was the second episode in the Rebus television series starring John Hannah, airing in 2001.
Plot summary
Detective Inspector John Rebus is investigating a suspected war criminal. Rebus helps a traumatised Bosnian prostitute and tries to intercede in a territory war between gangster Tommy Telford and 'Big Ger' Cafferty's established gang. Telford is known to have close links with Newcastle gangster named Tarawicz -"Mr Pink Eyes"- a Chechen people-smuggler.
Rebus' daughter Sammy is knocked down in what looks like a deliberate hit-and-run. A Japanese gangster is killed by someone trying to frame Rebus, using his Saab car.
TV adaptation
There are major differences between the novel and the TV adaptation - these include the omission of the storyline involving a suspected Nazi war criminal, and a plot element in which Rebus recalls events during his Army service in Northern Ireland and wonders whether under slightly different circumstances he himself might have become a war criminal.
The title refers to The Cure's song "The Hanging Garden."
"Mr Pink Eyes" is another song by The Cure.