Strip Jack is a 1992 crime novel by Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin, OBE, DL , is a Scottish crime writer. His best known books are the Inspector Rebus novels. He has also written several pieces of literary criticism.-Background:He attended Beath High School, Cowdenbeath...

. It is the fourth of the Inspector Rebus

Inspector Rebus

The Inspector Rebus books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on the title character Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh.-Content and style:...

 novels.

Plot summary

A police raid on an Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

 brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 captures (seemingly by accident) popular young local MP

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 Gregor Jack. When Jack's fiery wife Elizabeth disappears, and two bodies are found, suspicion falls on a famous local actor Rab Kinnoul. Detective Inspector John Rebus

Detective Inspector John Rebus

Detective Inspector John Rebus is the protagonist in the Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Ian Rankin, ten of which have so far been televised as Rebus...

 is sympathetic to the MP's problems, and interviews a member of Jacks' social circle, Andrew MacMillan, who is locked up in a psychiatric hospital

Psychiatric hospital

Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

 after murdering his own wife many years before. It becomes increasingly evident that somebody has 'set up' Jack, with the intention of stripping him of his good name, political standing and maybe even his life.

The title refers to the popular card game "Strip Jack Naked

Beggar-My-Neighbour

Beggar-My-Neighbour, also known as Beggar-Your-Neighbour, Beat Jack Out of Doors, Beat Your Neighbour Out of Doors, Beat your Neighbour Out of Town, Strip Jack Naked, Picture and Draw the Well Dry, is a simple card game somewhat similar in nature to War, and has spawned a more complicated variant,...

".

Connections to other Rankin books

• Recurring characters Patience Atkin and police administrator Frank Lauderdale make their debut; Lauderdale is presented as someone who's been around for a while 'off-screen', and Patience is already in a faltering relationship with Rebus when the book starts.

• Rebus' old romance with DI Gill Templer in Knots and Crosses is a partial reason for his problems connecting with Patience Atkin.

Writing Strip Jack

In the foreword to Rebus: The St Leonard Years, Rankin says that with this book, he decided to move Rebus out of a "fictional" Edinburgh and more into the real one. The book has a background subplot of the (fictional) Greater London Road police station about to be closed down and staff moved to (real) stations like St Leonards, the HQ of Lothian and Borders Police

Lothian and Borders Police

Lothian and Borders Police is the territorial police force for the Scottish council areas of the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and West Lothian...

.