Clipped jacket. Rather Be the Devil is the 21st instalment in the Inspector Rebus series of crime novels, published in November 2016.Rather Be the Deviltopped the bestseller charts for hardback fiction.The title was inspired by a John Martyn song from his 1973 album Solid Air
The novel opens and closes with Rebus and his girlfriend, Deborah Quant (a forensic pathologist) dining in a restaurant which is part of the Waldorf Caledonian Hotel. Rebus is reminded of the 1978 murder at this hotel of Maria Turquand, an unsolved case in which Edinburgh bankers and pop stars were suspects. Rebus revisits the case, which becomes intertwined with others more actively pursued by the police in the coming week.
