The Black Book

The Black Book is the fifth in the Inspector Rebus series, published first in 1993. It features a mysterious attack on Rebus's colleague, leading him to re-investigate a five year old mysterious fire and murder. It introduces some of the more regular characters in the series.

Synopsis
When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Inspector John Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body, and a long forgotten night of terror and murder. Pursued by dangerous ghosts and tormented by the coded secrets of his colleague's notebook, Rebus must piece together a jigsaw no one - perhaps not even he - wants complete.