conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about John, Knots, Crosses entitled Knots and Crosses?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Knots and Crosses: Edinburgh has been shocked by the abduction and subsequent strangling of two young girls.\nJournalist Jim Stevens runs his own investigation, and has uncovered Michael Rebus's drug dealing.\nHe suspects that his brother John, a police officer, knows or even supports his brother's illegal activities.\nJohn Rebus is meanwhile assigned to the investigative team.\nThe investigation remains without success, and eventually two more girls disappear.\nThen his former wife is attacked and his daughter abducted.\nOnly when hypnotized by his brother is he able to share his past with him and his colleague and lover Gill Templer.\nTaking hints from seemingly cryptic anonymous letters, John connects the murders to his own military past.\nRelieved from his duty because of the personal involvement, he decides to find and face his enemy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about \nThroughout, John, SAS, haunted.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Knots and Crosses: Edinburgh has been shocked by the abduction and subsequent strangling of two young girls. \nJournalist Jim Stevens runs his own investigation, and has uncovered Michael Rebus's drug dealing. \nHe suspects that his brother John, a police officer, knows or even supports his brother's illegal activities. \nJohn Rebus is meanwhile assigned to the investigative team. \nThe investigation remains without success, and eventually two more girls disappear. \nThroughout the case, John is haunted by his past in the SAS. \nThen his former wife is attacked and his daughter abducted. \nOnly when hypnotized by his brother is he able to share his past with him and his colleague and lover Gill Templer. \nTaking hints from seemingly cryptic anonymous letters, John connects the murders to his own military past. \nRelieved from his duty because of the personal involvement, he decides to find and face his enemy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about Knots, Crosses, Rebus entitled Knots and Crosses?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Knots and Crosses (Rebus): When the case for murder against Daniel Carr, a drug dealer, collapses, Rebus is held responsible by Davis Haigh, the prosecutor, and by Brian Robertson, another dealer whose son was killed by Carr.\nRebus comes under investigation by Clive Dawson, a former friend, and Trish Fuller, an ambitious DS.\nThe Knots and Crosses of the title are the anonymous notes received by Clarke at various times during the investigation, of a cross of crudely tied sticks.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Add another sentence about \nRebus, Clarke, Carr, complicated.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Knots and Crosses (Rebus): When the case for murder against Daniel Carr, a drug dealer, collapses, Rebus is held responsible by Davis Haigh, the prosecutor, and by Brian Robertson, another dealer whose son was killed by Carr. \nRebus comes under investigation by Clive Dawson, a former friend, and Trish Fuller, an ambitious DS. \nRebus and Clarke reopen the murder case, which is complicated when Carr and his brother are found dead. \nThe Knots and Crosses of the title are the anonymous notes received by Clarke at various times during the investigation, of a cross of crudely tied sticks.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first four paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Knots and Crosses
  And then Reeve was gone, staggering through the shelves, pulling them down after him. Rebus ran back to the desk and telephoned for help, his eyes wary for Gordon Reeve's return. There was silence in the room. He sat down on the floor.
  Suddenly the door opened and William Anderson came through it, dressed in black like some clichéd avenging angel. Rebus smiled.
  Anderson allowed himself a smile. "It takes a very good copper to know when I'm trailing them, and you're not very good, John. You're just good."
  They went behind the partition and began to move carefully further and further into the shelves. Rebus had picked up the gun. He pushed it deep into his pocket. There was no sign of Gordon Reeve.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know four more paragraphs? End with the sentence '"'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Anderson allowed himself a smile. "It takes a very good copper to know when I'm trailing them, and you're not very good, John. You're just good."
  They went behind the partition and began to move carefully further and further into the shelves. Rebus had picked up the gun. He pushed it deep into his pocket. There was no sign of Gordon Reeve.
  Smooth plaster walls gave way to ancient brickwork as they descended. Rebus could smell fungus, an old bitter smell left over from a previous age.
  Rebus was in awe. Here was a piece of old Edinburgh, intact and undefiled. "It's incredible," he said. "I never knew about this."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last three paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: They kicked down the door of Ian Knott's small bungalow, a tiny, quiet suburban house, in full view of his curious neighbours, and found Samantha Rebus there, petrified, tied to a bed, her mouth taped shut, and with pictures of the dead girls for company. Everything became very professional after that, as Samantha was led weeping from the house. The driveway was hidden from the neighbouring bungalow by a tall hedge, and so nobody had seen anything of Reeve's comings and goings. He was a quiet man, the neighbours said. He had moved into the house seven years ago, at the time when he had started work as a librarian.
  Jim Stevens was happy enough with the conclusion of the case. It made for a full week's stories. But how could he have been so wrong about John Rebus? He couldn't work that one out at all. Still, his drugs story had been completed too, and Michael Rebus would go to jail. There was no doubt about that.
  Previously published in Great Britain by the Bodley Head Ltd. (1987) and Hodder and Stoughton Paperbacks (1993)