The Falls

Edinburgh detective John Rebus is handed a missing person case with almost nothing to go on. The person gone is a university student, and Rebus senses the disappearance is about more than a young person enjoying newfound freedom away from home.

Two threads emerge. The first is a small carved wooden doll lying in a tiny coffin, which closely resembles sixteen similar objects dug up on a hillside in 1836. Rebus takes this lead himself and becomes absorbed in that two-century-old discovery. The second is an online role-playing game, which falls to DC Siobhan Clarke. She understands the internet well enough to navigate it, but she may lack the experience to spot the dangers in a game where players' lives hinge on split-second timing.

With Rebus lost in the past, Clarke must find a way to protect them both, both professionally and personally. The Falls is the twelfth novel in Ian Rankin's Rebus series.