(needed snip)

>>On your recommendation I reserved "Berlin Game" at the library. When I got the email saying it was ready for pickup I at first thought they had a mixup in their records. It said your copy of "Game, Set and Match" is ready. Turns out it is an omnibus consisting of three books, the other two including the words set and match in their titles. Will let you know how I like them.
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>>Who did I tell I would tell them how I liked the new, non-Rebus Ian Rankin book? Alan, I think. The early returns were not good and I returned it after about 100 pages. It didn't exactly suck but it was not compelling enough to keep reading. The characters never seemed like more than sketches.
>
>I think it was me (along with the other thousands of people who were following the thread). I think that sometimes it's difficult for an author to break out after writing a lot of books with the same characters. And maybe it's not even the author's fault. We get so used to the characters we like and their growth and evolution that it's hard for us to accept these strangers we find in the authors new writings.

All true. I still think this was a lazy book. We liked Rebus and Siobhan as characters for a reason -- he worked on them. The three main characters in this one had about as much work as a morning shower.

Maybe Rebus reminds me of me and that's what I miss.