“Bernie Few’s jailbreaks were a work of art…. As a
petty thief he was hopeless, but after capture he started to show his real
prowess. He wasn't made for being a housebreaker; but he surely did shine as a
jailbreaker. He’d stuff himself into rubbish bags and mail sacks, taken the
place of a corpse from one prison hospital, squeezed his wiry frame out of impossibly
small windows…and crammed himself into ventilation shafts and heating ducts.”—
Scottish
crime writer Ian Rankin, “Window of Opportunity,” originally published in Beggars
Banquet, republished in Detective Stories, edited by Peter
Washington (2009)
In addition to Bernie Few, “Window of Opportunity”
also includes Ian Rankin’s longtime hero of the Edinburgh police force,
Detective Inspector Rebus. Based on this clever and humorous short story, I am going
to make a point to seek out other works by a writer acclaimed as one of the top
in the crime genre over the last several decades.
The image of Ian Rankin accompanying this post was
taken Aug. 17, 2007, by Tim Duncan.
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