In a diversion from Inspector Rebus, Ian Rankin brings us a one-off heist novel set in his, and Rebus’s, home city of Edinburgh. Doors Open is based on a specially commissioned serial that originally ran in the New York Times. The plot concerns three art-lovers who decide to liberate unseen works from their confinement in the overflow warehouse for the National Gallery of Scotland.

Mike Mackenzie is a software millionaire, Allan Cruikshank a banker and Professor Gissings the head of the Edinburgh College of Art – the three friends share a sense of frustration that so many wonderful artworks are hidden away from public view. Gissings reveals a long-held plan to his friends: to take advantage of the annual Doors Open day, when normally closed private buildings across Scotland open to the public. With the aid of a talented art student turned forger, who wants to be the next Banksy, their plan is to substitute the real works with fakes in a bid to commit the perfect crime.

Needless to say, there is no such thing – in order to carry off their plan, they rely not just on their pet forger, but on the gangster Chib Calloway. This is where plausibility gets stretched thin: not only did Mike Mackenzie go to school with our Chib, but he bumps in to him first in a bar, and then in the National Gallery itself. Of course, being the leading light in Edinburgh’s criminal underworld (despite the fact he seems to have only two inept bodyguards and no other kind of organisation), Chib brings with him both police attention, in the form of DI Ransome, and even less welcome attention in the form of the Hells Angel enforcer known only as Hate. The heist itself proceeds according to the plan, but it’s in the aftermath that things start to get complicated.

I found the first half of Doors Open curiously unengaging. Part of the problem for me was that origins of the book as a shorter serial seem clear, and, correctly or not, I thought I could perceive plenty of padding. The Edinburgh of the book lacks the seamy side, the grit of the Rebus novels; yet for me, the evocation of the gentile side of the city lacks the charm of Alexander McCall Smith’s version. To be fair, the latter sections of the book picked up as the twist in the tale emerges and the wheels comes off the crew’s plan. The pacing is relentless and the outcome just about satisfying. While enjoyable in places, Doors Open is a nice idea that feels stretched too thin – an artist’s sketch that doesn’t really merit the time and effort spent working it up in to a full-blown artwork.

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