Doors Open by Ian Rankin



A computer entrepreneur, a banker, a grungy student and the head of the Scottish Royal College of Art hatch a scheme to steal paintings gathering dust in the storerooms of the National Gallery of Scotland:"We're like the A-Team for unloved artworks."


This is Ealing Comedy territory, so some implausibility can be forgiven, but it is irritating that the tyro thieves seem to spend only about five minutes working out their plan and barely acknowledge the risk of being caught.

Taking a break from the Inspector Rebus series, Rankin appears to be in a hurry to reach the superior second half of the book when, post-heist, our heroes start to unravel, dogged by the agreeable Rebus-substitute DI Ransome and a Norwegian psychopath called Hate. Nasty violence towards the end is as welcome as a shot of Bourbon in a cappuccino, preventing the thing from being frothily forgettable.


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