Rebus: A Game Called Malice review – Rankin’s fine-dining detective faces corpses between courses

As Rebus teases the connections between a death and five rich people – the hostess, her gambler husband, the lawyer and a casino owner with a much younger “influencer” partner – there seems to be a deliberate nod to Inspector Goole, nemesis of the entitled in JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. Although, given the centrality of mobile phones to sleuthing and solution, Rebus proves more Inspector Google. Rankin and Reade’s plot is so ingeniously elusive that the published text – surely the most expensive play script ever at £18.99 for 122 pages – is, informatively if not financially, worth it.