Show:
About the Author
Characters
Setting and Cultural Context
Plot
Potpourri
100
The author of "The Dean Curse".
Who is Ian Rankin?
100
The main police detective protagonist of "The Dean Curse".
Who is Inspector John Rebus?
100
The city within which "The Dean Curse" takes place.
What is Edinburgh (Barnton district)?
100
The device which was used to destroy the Major's Jaguar.
What is a car bomb?
100
The name of the large, old house that the Deans moved into in Barnton.
What is West Lodge?
200
The country where Ian Rankin was born.
What is Scotland (United Kingdom, Great Britain)?
200
The alias of the owner of the Jaguar convertible that was destroyed in the story.
Who is Major Dean (a.k.a. "The Brigadier-General")?
200
The name of the Dashiell Hammett book that Rebus was reading before he learns about his case.
What is "The Dain Curse"?
200
The person who had bombed the Major's Jaguar and had killed Brian Cant.
Who is Major Dean (a.k.a. "The Brigadier-General")?
200
The type of point-of-view within which the story is told.
What is third-person?
300
One of Rankin's many odd jobs before he became a full-time writer.
What is a (grape-picker/swineherd/alcohol researcher/college secretary/musician)?
300
The name of the only major female character within the story.
Who is Jacqueline Dean?
300
The name of the conflicts occurring in Northern Ireland at the time of the story's publication.
What are "The Troubles"?
300
One of the two organizations that worked with Rebus' CID police force in the story's crime scene investigation.
What is the British Army (or the C13 Anti-Terrorist Force)?
300
Where it is implied the Major ends up by the story's conclusion.
What is a hospital?
400
The Masters Degree that Rankin earned at the University of Edinburgh.
What is English Literature?
400
The name of the car thief who attempted to steal the Major's Jaguar.
Who is Brian Cant?
400
The name of the revolutionary military force that demanded "a united Ireland" and was suspected of bombing the Major's car.
What is the IRA (Provisional Irish Republican Army)?
400
The main reason why the Deans had moved into West Lodge.
What are Major Dean's "happy memories" (nostalgia/ childhood memories/sentimental reasons/etc.)?
400
Although Inspector Rebus is a police officer, he often acts very much like this other kind of detective.
What is a private investigator?
500
The name of Rankin's short-lived punk rock band.
What is the Dancing Pigs?
500
The name of the local townsperson who tells Rebus that he'd seen the Major's daughter frequently visit The Claymore pub, always with a different man.
Who is Willie Barr?
500
The name of the British Army special task force of which Rebus was formerly a member.
What is the SAS (Special Air Service)?
500
What the Major was purchasing when a car bomb went off in his Jaguar convertible.
What is a bottle of Irish whiskey?
500
The traditional name for the region of Northern Ireland.
What is Ulster?