Mortal Causes
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| Mortal Causes | |
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| Author | Ian Rankin |
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| Country | Scotland |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Detective novel |
| Publisher | Orion Books |
| Publication date | 1994 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 336 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7528-7720-8 |
| Preceded by | The Black Book |
| Followed by | Let it Bleed |
Mortal Causes is a 1994 novel by Ian Rankin. It is the sixth of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was the fourth episode in the Rebus television series starring John Hannah, airing in 2004.
[edit] Plot summary
Set during the Edinburgh Festival, this novel starts with a brutally executed corpse being discovered in Mary King's Close, an ancient subterranean street. The body has a tattoo identified with "Sword and Shield", a long-thought-defunct Scottish Nationalist group with links to sectarianism in Northern Ireland. The victim turns out to be the son of notorious gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty, and the plot moves towards the unthinkable prospect of a terrorist atrocity in a tourist-filled Edinburgh.
Rankin has stated that one of the minor characters is based on the Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright.
The political background of the plot has elements which may lack verisimiltude; it appears to depict an alliance between Scottish pro-independence fringe groups and loyalist paramilitary advocates of an independent Northern Ireland. While there is significant support for loyalist paramilitarism in Scotland this tends to be found among Conservative or apolitical working-class populations sympathetic to the maintenance of the Union between England and Scotland, while radical Scottish nationalist fringe groups resembling the fictional "Sword and Shield" tend to support the Irish nationalist cause and to see the Republic of Ireland as a partial role model for an independent Scotland.
[edit] The joke
Throughout the book, Rebus keeps overhearing parts of a joke about a squid with a moustache that goes into a restaurant. According to Ian Rankin, the punch line is as follows: 'For Hans that does dishes can feel as soft as Gervase with mild, green, hairy-lipped squid'.
The punch line a reference to the long-running advertising slogan of Fairy Liquid. ("Now hands that do dishes can feel soft as your face, with mild green Fairy Liquid.")
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