The Heights

by Ian Rankin

#1 International bestselling author Ian Rankin returns with a razor-sharp, twisty standalone thriller—this one exposing the lives of the 1% in London’s most exclusive high rise

Facing Hyde Park, The Heights is London’s most coveted luxury high-rise apartment—designed to satisfy every need, with a gym, infinity pool, cinema, and more, where self-made owner-developer Allan Franklyn himself has claimed the penthouse duplex. His neighbors include some of “Money London’s” biggest personalities: a wealthy art dealer, a young heartthrob pop star, a foreign heiress, a gangster’s wife. The residents are used to service, deference, and privacy, all on their terms.

But when nighttime concierge Dwayne Hogarth is found dead in the lobby, none of that is in their control anymore, and everyone’s under the unwelcome scrutiny of Detective Sergeant Gillian Gish. Her questions begin with the party on the 4th floor the night Dwayne died, which ended with a fight; the missing key to one of the apartments; and a mysterious gap in the security camera footage. Before long, Gish uncovers the unsavory truths and dark secrets that lurk beneath the glittering facades of the building and its inhabitants.

Filled with shocking twists and unforgettable characters, The Heights confirms Ian Rankin’s status as one of the most original and compelling crime writers of our time.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Crime

352 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication November 3, 2026

About the author

AKA Jack Harvey.

Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987; the Rebus books are now translated into 22 languages and are bestsellers on several continents.

Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow. He is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award, and he received two Dagger Awards for the year's best short story and the Gold Dagger for Fiction. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, and Edinburgh.

A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts, on Channel 4 in 2002. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, and opted to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/ianrankin

Reviews

[Ceecee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heights, just off Park Lane and overlooking Hyde Park, is not popular with everyone, just ask the original residents of the area before its construction. It’s the brainchild of Allan Franklyn who raises the money and is also a resident. The semi-occupied luxury suites contain a mixed bag of uber wealthy occupants including a Russian oligarch with obligatory minders, a reality TV star, an elusive woman who has Mozambique diplomatic protection, a pop star, a COVID PPE fortune maker and the wife of a gangster DI Jack Milburn is determined to put behind bars before his imminent retirement. When the night concierge is murdered, Milton and DS Gillian Gish are on the case. Gilded private lives are under intense scrutiny but these are people to whom different rules apply than to mere mortals. However, the higher you fly, the harder you fall.

It’s always good to read something by Ian Rankin especially as I’m a huge Rebus fan, indeed, he’s one of my favourite characters in police procedural mystery thrillers. I enjoy this standalone very much especially the atmosphere the author creates around London and particularly around The Heights, with all the feelings it invokes from pride to full blown resentment. It’s described very well and in addition it raises pertinent issues regarding developments in the capital city. It’s easy to visualise the varied characters the building contains within its luxury walls. There are quite a lot of them to get your head around but IR does a good job of giving them a distinctive flavour. They’re not necessarily likeable but that’s often a bonus in this type of storytelling. The characters of Milburn and Gish are great and I love the relationship and banter between them.

The novel has a good, strong, complex and well connected storyline and I enjoy the twists and turns along the route to an outcome I don’t foresee. That’s no huge surprise as sifting through the multiple lies, the deception and the veneer of respectability makes it a tough call. It’s easy to read with an engaging and compelling plot. The pace isn’t especially fast but that suits the difficulties and barriers placed before the police investigation.

Overall, it’s an entertaining read and I would love to see what happens next for the very likeable Gish especially with her situation with her ailing mother and if Milton retires in a blaze of glory! It’s not Rebus but it’s still good and very readable.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Orion Publishing Group for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.

[Richard]

MURDER IN A HIGH RISE!

I received this book free from the author through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Written by Ian Rankin in 2026, this is a British detective novel Published by the HachetteGroup of Cardinal Publishing in New York. The setting is London, England, and the Metropolitan Police Department (the Met). The primary protagonist is Detective Sergeant Gillian Gish, who works with her senior partner, Detective Inspector Jack Milton. The Heights is a high-end condo building that is eighteen stories tall, and is occupied, for the most part, by the rich and famous. In this story, the detectives must solve a murder. No Wait! Two murders.

The first victim is a young black concierge who was struck on the head from behind, but in turn struck his head on the corner of a marble desk when he fell to the floor. His head injury led to his death. Who would want to kill a simple concierge? It is a puzzle. Who did it, and why did they do it.

It doesn’t take Detective Sergeant Gish too long to discover that a valuable work of art has gone missing from one of the condo apartments (suites). Where is it, and who took it. It would certainly be sufficient motive for murder with an estimated value of tens of millions of English Pounds. The basement of the building contains a private garage for the residents, and it isn’t long before another body is discovered in one of the automobiles, a Bently. The victim was a bodyguard for one of the residents. He was strangled manually (by somebody’s hands). Why was he killed?

The pace of the story is fairly fast, although character development is shallow. We learn that Gillian lives with her mother Jacqui, who has dementia. Gillian hires caregivers to come and stay with her mother while Gillian is working.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think I am detecting a trend in detective and mystery novels lately. Authors who lack the creativity of those such as Agatha Christie are substituting a great many characters and an overly convoluted plot for good suspense writing. Such is the case with this novel. For my tastes, this story has too many characters, too many loose ends, and a plot that is way too complex. Still, the author is a fairly good writer so you might very well enjoy this book. I will award four of the available five stars and a recommendation to read it. You might very well like it much more than I did.

[Ryan Davison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dwayne Hogarth, an apparent simpleton doorman of an opulent London high-rise, receives a fatal head bashing to begin our story. The reader is immediately asked to consider if anyone wealthy enough to live in a fifteen-million-dollar home could possibly stoop to murder, and if so, why? We meet a large cast of suspects in the opening chapters of The Heights, as each resident gossips about neighbors and possible motives. A tag team of detectives is responsible for deciding if an insider or outsider is the culprit. Wise-owl, Jack Milton, an older cop who still uses (gasp!) paper business cards, and Gillian Gish, a risk-taker closer in age to the B-list celebrity inhabitants who communicate mostly through emojis, represent our primary sleuths.

Once Dwayne’s body is carted off, a police procedural sputters along, this author’s most comfortable literary territory. Gish cozies up to a reporter and discovers he was paying the newly deceased for sleazy insider information on the residents. A protestor, seemingly always planted outside the grand grounds, draws suspicion for being at the scene on the night of the murder. The wife of a notorious gangster calls the building home, and she might have been too friendly with the doorman. By the time a second body appears, the cop’s murder wall expands but the reader is nowhere near hazarding educated guesses as to what might have happened.

The pacing of the first half is choppy. Short chapters bounce between characters discussing topics we don’t really understand, and the police digging for clues. Drugs might have played a factor, perhaps organized crime or revenge for an uncovered affair. The focus of the police constantly changes and the reader is never offered a sturdy limb to grasp. Scattered plot lines finally settle on a valuable art theme, for a Picasso went missing around the time of the murder. The painting must be connected to the killings, but as new characters are introduced as late as the 90% mark, the reader can’t help but surrender to the role of bystander.

The writing is fine, but the plotting and pacing are weak. The Heights never decides what it wants to be, and tries many narrative directions, but none effectively engage the reader.

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a review copy.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Heights is a really refreshing read precisely because it lets Ian Rankin stretch outside the long shadow of Rebus for a while. There’s an immediate sense of freedom in the storytelling — you can feel Rankin enjoying the chance to build something self‑contained, something that doesn’t rely on decades of backstory or familiar rhythms. As a reader, that’s a treat. You get all the sharpness and atmosphere he’s known for, but in a world that feels newly built rather than inherited.

What stood out most is how confidently the novel stands on its own legs. Rankin doesn’t lean on old tricks or recurring characters; instead, he crafts a tight, focused story that moves with purpose. The pacing feels cleaner, the stakes more intimate, and the characters have that fresh‑paint quality — vivid, but not weighed down by history. It’s nice to see him explore different emotional beats and different kinds of tension without needing to tie anything back to a larger universe.

There’s also a real pleasure in watching Rankin play with tone. The book still has his trademark grit, but it’s paired with a slightly different flavour — a bit more reflective, a bit more experimental in how it reveals information. Because it’s a standalone, every detail feels intentional, every twist earned. You’re not waiting for a cameo or a callback; you’re just immersed in the story in front of you.

Overall, The Heights feels like a reminder that Rankin isn’t just the master of one series — he’s a writer who can build a whole world from scratch and make it compelling in a single volume. As a standalone, it’s satisfying, self‑contained, and a great example of what happens when an author steps outside their usual lane and still delivers something gripping

[Lindsay Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a big fan of Ian Rankin’s Rebus series, I was excited to read The Heights, and while it isn’t my favorite of Rankin’s books, I really enjoyed it for what it is.

There are definitely some familiar Rankin elements here—particularly the woman and man police partnership, plenty of twists and turns, and a mystery that keeps unfolding—but The Heights feels distinctly different from the Rebus books. As a standalone novel, Rankin has more freedom to build an entirely new story and develop a whole cast of characters, and I really enjoyed that. The characters developed much more quickly than they typically do in the Rebus books, which gave the story a different feel and kept me invested.

The pacing was somewhere in between for me. There was a lot happening early on, although the story moved a little slowly at times. That continued for much of the book, until around the three-quarter mark when things really took off. The final twist genuinely surprised me, and I liked the way it unraveled naturally rather than feeling forced. My only wish was that the ending had been fleshed out a little more throughout the book, because once everything came together, I wanted more of that story.

If you’re a Rebus fan, I would definitely recommend going into this knowing that The Heights is not a Rebus book. Instead, I think it’s best appreciated as a different side of one of my favorite authors. I enjoyed getting to experience Rankin outside of the world of Rebus, and I’d happily recommend this book to both longtime Rankin readers and those new to his work.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Wessy Acrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC granted by Grand Central Publishing for The Heights by Ian Rankin

Really enjoyed this quick paced detective murder mystery set in modern day London. The ease of reading and multiple character plots kept me wanting to reach the next part of the story. As someone within the legal field, I find I enjoy crime stories that are more direct and to-the-point rather than filled with unnecessary details that may skew the final lane of the plot.

Although the mystery kept me reading, I did find a want to get just a tad more character development from everyone. I often thought that I might have been dropped into a series where the characters were more developed in prior books. Although this doesn’t seem to be the case, it would have enjoyed knowing more about Gish and her motivations; an example is the shared background of Gish’s career where she was trained by someone on the outs with the police department? I found myself wanting to know why her background was considered controversial but her morals regarding her work in the current day were more conservative and to the book. Maybe I’m just a fan of Gish’s strength!

All in all, I think this book took a great look at a female detectives role, her relationship-balancing between the police force, media, and her personal life and how it all can work together to solve something convoluted and complicated such as an international murder.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many readers will know Ian Rankin for his long‑running and much‑loved Inspector Rebus series, now twenty‑five books deep and adapted into several TV versions. The Heights marks a rare departure: Rankin steps away from Edinburgh and Rebus to deliver a standalone London‑set thriller.

The story centres on the murder of Dwayne Hogarth, concierge of an exclusive luxury apartment block populated by celebrities, billionaires, the occasional gangster, and a collection of eccentric residents — all of them harbouring secrets. DS Gillian Gish is called in to investigate, and the novel explores themes of privilege, power, competition, and the contrast between public glamour and the darker realities behind closed doors.

It’s important to approach this book as something entirely separate from Rebus. The tone, pacing, and structure are very different. The narrative moves more slowly, and the cast is considerably larger — at times, too large for my poor brain to keep track of. It leans heavily into police procedural territory and examines social norms and assumptions rather than the gritty character‑driven style Rankin fans may expect.

Personally, I struggled with the story. I found it a little bland in places and had to take it in smaller bites. For now, I’ll wait to see whether a second book emerges before deciding if this new direction is one I want to follow.

[Mandy White (mandylovestoread) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I met Sir Ian Rankin at last years Sydney Writers Festival and it was such a pleasure to listen to him talk about all things Rebus and beyond. It is important to note, this is not a Rebus book. It is a stand alone police procedural, with some characters that I hope to see again one day.

Welcome to The Heights, a multi storey complex of suites (do not all them flats!!) that overlook Hyde Park in London. This exclusive and high security building is home to the rich and famous with money to burn. Detective Sergeant Gillian Gish and her partner Detective Inspector Jack Milton are called to the wealthy address to find that the building concierge is dead and the cameras have been switched off.

This is a solid crime novel, with plenty of likely suspects, all of whom have a reason to want this man dead. The investigation is full of red herrings and obstructions but these coppers can see through the subterfuge. As it progresses they find that that have more than a murder to solve.

I really enjoyed this team of Gish and Milton, who don’t always see eye to eye, and are dealing with outside pressures in their personal lives.

If you love a good murder mystery where the players are a little bit dodgy that you will enjoy this.

Thanks so much to Grand Central Publishing for my early copy on NetGalley to read. Out on November 3rd.

[Mana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ian Rankin ditches Edinburgh and Rebus to play with the London elite in a glass tower. The Heights promises a closed-room mystery behind layers of wealth, but it feels more like a standard police procedural wearing an expensive suit. Detective Gillian Gish attempts to navigate the power dynamics of the super-rich, yet the building itself remains a sterile prop rather than a character.

The narrative structure follows the familiar procedural rhythm. Gish is a competent lead, though she lacks the lived-in weariness that makes Rankin’s classic work resonate. The pacing is efficient enough to keep pages turning, but the high-rise setting feels underutilized. It never quite captures the suffocating tension necessary for a story about trapped residents.

Rankin chooses to write through a third-person lens that maintains distance from the suspects. This works to emphasize the cold, guarded nature of the billionaires, yet it leaves the reader feeling like an observer behind bulletproof glass. The plot arrives at a clean resolution, though the journey lacks the sharp, biting social commentary one expects from this author.

For those who want a procedural that stays safely within the lines; avoid if you expect the raw, gritty atmosphere of classic Rankin.

[Shereadbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the nighttime concierge in The Heights, an ultra- luxury apartment tower overlooking Hyde Park, is murdered, suspicion falls on a variety of wealthy individuals, including an actress, a pop star, a gangster, an art dealer, a mysterious international heiress. Detective Sergeant Gillian Gish and her colleagues are charged with unraveling the hidden secrets of some of London’s elite.

I have read a few of Ian Rankin’s novels before…most notably some from the John Rebus series. I found them to be engaging, fast paced reads. This book, however, was slow paced and rather bland. There are many characters which at times was a bit confusing. I had to really concentrate to keep them straight.

Despite these shortcomings, the book serves as an insightful exploration of what Rankin refers to as “money London” and “UHNW” (ultra-high net worth), shedding light on the differential treatment often received by individuals in this category from officials.

I did enjoy the main character, DS Gish and would be eager to read more stories featuring her.

Thanks to @NetGalley and @GrandCentralPub for the DRC.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heights from Ian Rankin is the first book from the author that I have read and is a standalone novel. I have always wanted to read the Rebus books but not got around to it yet. So, I was excited to read a copy of this standalone Novel.
‘The Heights’ is a tower block is ultra luxury suites overlooking Hyde Park It where the London Elite live such as celebrities’ billionaires and gangsters live. When one of the night concierges Dwayne Hogarth is found murdered after a party.
DS Gillian Gish is called into investigate but all the residents are keeping secrets, which makes them all look guilty. Who murdered Dwayne and why.
If that wasn’t enough, DS Gillian Gish still lives with her mother that suffers with Dementia. She definitely has her hands full.
I thank Orion Publishing for Ian Rankins latest offering. This is an interesting read which I enjoyed, even though the storyline started a bit slow. It has an eclectic rang of characters, which was a bit overwhelming to catch up with them all. But I enjoyed it nevertheless. Especially the character of DS Gish. How she managed to juggle her work life and personal one, was no easy task. 4 stars from me.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have meant to read an Ian Rankin book for years, but have just never taken time out from my usual reads to finally check out Rankin’s work. Well, I decided to check out one of his non-Inspector Rebus novels.

“The Heights” is an exclusive high-rise apartment complex where the elite of London live. It is the height (pun intended) of luxury. Oh, yeah. There is also a dead body. One of the concierges is dead. And from the opening of the book, we are on the job with the investigation.

This novel moves slower than most procedurals at times. However, even with a slower pace, it is still an enjoyable read because of the depths of the characters involved in the story. And there are a bunch of them. You may need to jot down names and who they are on a piece of paper to keep track. The highlight to me was DS Gish. She was an absolute joy to read about. She got me through the slower parts of the book.

Overall, a good book. I definitely want to give Inspector Rebus a shot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an ARC for an unbiased review.

[John MacLeod · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The Heights’, by Ian Rankin,is a standalone crime thriller which revolves around a murder of a night shift concierge in the foyer of a high- rise apartment block in one of London's most exclusive locations.
Detective Sergeant Gish and her team investigate the murky goings on among the residents, looking at the motives behind a complicated case where almost anyone in the building could feasibly be responsible.
Although it’s difficult to match the superb John Rebus series, this police story makes for a compelling story that is intriguing and complicated by the large cast of potential suspects. As well told as one might expect from the author whose characters always seem grittily portrayed and accurately based in the realities of the darker side of life ,no matter the different setting involved.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to hear some more of Gish, if Rebus has decided to put his feet up and take a well earned breather.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group , for an Advance Readers Copy for review

[Nana_Rea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC

Well. What can I say!? It’s Sir. Ian Rankin, of course it is going to be twisty, gripping and compulsive!!

With the Heights we meet a whole new team of officers, the main being; DS Gillian Gish.
Called to a murder at a ludicrously expensive high rise we meet a host of intriguing characters, all of them well known in some way, be it for crime, corruption or social media stardom. The story grabs a hold very quickly - and keeps you in a perpetual state of confusion; with each new chapter I had decided on a different killer and I was proven wrong until the very last page.
The ending was absolutely not what I was expecting - and I was hugely disappointed, not by the resolution or the story itself - they were brilliantly executed, I just didn’t want it to be true!!
I really enjoyed this book, it has reminded me why Ian Rankin is a master storyteller. Hoping we get to meet Gish again in the future.
Thoroughly recommend.

[Jane Makewell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had really high hopes for The Heights. As Ian Rankin's first standalone novel in over 20 years, it felt like a good place for me to finally try one of his books. I've never read Rebus and, with such a huge back catalogue, I've always found the idea of starting the series a bit daunting.

The premise of The Heights sounded really promising. When night concierge Dwayne Hogarth is found murdered in the lobby, DS Gillian Gish is called in to investigate. She soon finds herself digging into the lives of The Heights' wealthy residents, including a property developer, an art dealer, a pop star, an heiress and a gangster's wife. With a party, a fight, a missing key and a suspicious gap in the CCTV footage to unravel, there are plenty of suspects and secrets to work through.

I liked Gish. Her life outside the investigation is given plenty of space to develop and I particularly liked the relationship with her mother, who has dementia. That side of the book felt very real and I found myself becoming quite invested in both of them.

But I struggled with the pace. It's slow. There are a lot of characters and at times I found myself having to remember who was who and how they fitted in. I kept expecting it to suddenly grab me, but it never really did. I wanted to know who had done it, but I wasn't desperate to find out, which is never a great sign with a murder mystery.

It's certainly not a bad book and there were parts I really enjoyed, particularly anything involving Gish's personal life. I just found the main story a bit of a slog in places and it took me much longer to get through than I expected.

Maybe I went in with my expectations a little too high, but as my first Ian Rankin, I was hoping to be completely hooked. Sadly, I wasn't.

Thank you to Orion and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advance copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Jeremy Reppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If “The Heights” feels really familiar, that is because it is an expanded version of the short story, “The Rise.” Large portions of “The Rise” are reproduced verbatim. Many of the same characters are present — though Roison Gallacher is now Maeve Gallacher; Arabian Princess Aisha is now Maita from Zimbabwe (but still important enough for a protective detail); Phoebe is no longer Milton’s daughter but instead the daughter of Mick Bentham, crime scene officer and good friend of Milton — and there are some new characters (such as Zafk). The central plot of “The Rise” is repeated but there are additional intermingled plots as well. The changes are decent, although I don’t know if I would say the new version is much better than the short story.

[Greville Waterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this was by anyone other than Ian Rankin I’d say that it is a perfectly serviceable police procedural with a lot of rather confusing characters and potential suspects who it is sometimes hard to keep a handle on and an efficient police team trying to prise open the truth from a bunch of millionaires living in a rather sterile luxury tower block called The Heights.

It was fine but it never really came to life and of course I missed the gritty reality and characterisation of Rebus and Scotland itself.

It is always interesting when an established author experiments and there is enough in here to hope thdt there is a follow up but it wasn’t a Rebus!

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the first book that I have read by this author. I found it a struggle to get through as the pacing was slow and I had to adjust my mindset to England versus the United States in terminology. The reviews from others who have read several of the novels by the author were mixed. He seems to do a better job with the series he normally writes about. I’ll leave it to you to decide if you have not read any of his previous works.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Goodreads, Net Galley, Amazon, and my fiction book review blog.

[Britney Ireland · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Ian Rankin book. I was hoping for so much more.

First thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of this book to read and review. I am giving this read 3 stars.

This is a whodunit mystery in a luxury apartment setting. What turned me off of this book is the fact that so many people had a reason to off the murdered character it was just too much. I’d prefer a small list of suspects. I was just ready for the end after such a long line of suspects.

I 100% plan to try another novel by the same author. This one just didn’t do it for me.

[Kel Caffekey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is all set around a building called the Heights and whilst the blurb is good and promising it just didn't do it for me.

I found the pace to slow in places, there were so many characters that I got lost several times. It felt a bit lack lustre so I had to take this in small chunks to get it read.

I enjoyed the main character Gish however it jumped from one place to the next. I think with less characters and a bit more pace this could definitely have got a better rating.

Glad i read it and if slow pace and lots of possible suspect's is your thing then you'll enjoy this.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is set in a Luxury Apartment Block overlooking Hyde Park where the murder of Dwayne Hogarth the Concierge of the exclusive apartment block exposes the secrets of London's ultra wealthy residents .DS Gillian Gish leads the investigation and navigates privilege ,influence and deception where the Suspects are Billionaires. I liked Gish she was a good female lead but it was confusing how many characters there were. It was quite slow paced but altogether an enjoyable read .Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

[Mrs P · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, what can I say about The Heights. I have read other Ian Rankin books and enjoyed them but for whatever reason I really couldn't get in to this one. The characters were strong the plot seemed good with 3 intermixed investigations running alongside each other. It's still a bit of a mystery to me but I think it just didn't have that bit of gutsy intrigue to the murders to pulle in and along with the plots. I wouldn't not recommend it. But if your looking for a pacey on your toes thriller this isn't it.

[Cheryl Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Heights by Ian Rankin is a classic whodunit set in an elegant apartment complex called The Heights. For me, there were perhaps too many suspects to keep track of, and the story moved a bit more slowly than I prefer. That said, I enjoyed following Detective Gish, a strong female lead, as she worked her way through interviews and clues to solve the murder of the building’s security guard. While the mystery was intriguing, the pacing kept it from being a standout read for me. 3 out of 5 stars

[OutlawPoet · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very methodical procedural.

While I mostly enjoyed it, I did find that the pacing was very, very deliberate and slow. It never really crescendoed into something that I was excited about. There was never a feeling that I had to know what happened next.

As for our characters, they were okay. I did like our MC, but many of the other characters read rather thin.

An okay read, but I found it a bit lacking.

[Jen Riddle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Goodreads for the Advanced Copy of this book! 3/5⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is my first Ian Rankin book that I’ve had the chance to read. For me, it fell a little flat. I found the characters hard to follow and the pacing of the book to be a bit slow for my taste. The murder mystery aspect I found entertaining, as well as the main character Gish.
All in all, I recommend this book to those that appreciate a slower paced mystery with a plethora of suspects.

[Claire-Louise Armstrong-Brealey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the first book I have read by Mr. Rankin. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Never be envious of those who have, it is a facade in some cases. Secret affairs, dodgy dealing, murders, dogged persistence. All in this one book.

I loved it and I loved the style of writing.

I am surprised it's not five stars for all reviews!

[thirstybookdragon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first Ian Rankin novel, and while I appreciated the writing, I found it a little too complex! There were a lot of characters to keep track of, and the slower pace wasn't quite what I usually look for in a thriller. Although it wasn't the perfect fit for me, I'm really grateful to Netgalley to have had the opportunity to read it.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

592 pages

I am a big fan of Ian Rankin’s novels. I have read many of them and enjoyed all of them.

This one, however, I could not get into. I was drawn to the premise, but the book was too busy. Or, perhaps I was distracted by life.

I did not finish it. I apologize.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would add The Heights 2 to my reading queue immediately if a sequel were announced. This was my first time reading this author’s work, and I’m already looking forward to exploring more from him.

I really enjoyed this book. Not once was I able to correctly guess where the plot was heading, which made the read a quick and enjoyable one. I’ve seen a few reviews mention that the number of characters made the story harder to follow, but I didn’t find that to be an issue. I liked that the book didn’t rely on one central mystery, and instead wove several smaller mysteries throughout the story, each one building tension and leading toward the big finale.

I’ll admit I got a little nervous near the end when there were still so many unanswered questions and only a small portion of the book left. But the author pulled everything together in a satisfying way that made the journey well worth it.

[Tina Fulcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pulled in from the first chapter. Great characters and suspenseful storyline. What a surprise ending! Couldn't guess who did it. Very well written and I would definitely read more by Ian Rankin. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy and leave this review voluntarily.