A QUESTION OF BLOOD by Ian Rankin (2003)

Inspector Rebus finds himself in hospital at the beginning of the novel, hands bandaged from a scalding. Unfortunately, a petty criminal who had been stalking Rebus's colleague Siobhan Clarke has been found burnt to death in his own home and witnesses saw Rebus with him earlier that night.

A horrific shooting at an Edinburgh private school in which two students are killed as well as an ex-Army loner who appears to have turned the gun on himself draws Rebus's especial attention since one of the victims, Derek Renshaw, is his cousin's son. It is a question of blood, family blood, for Rebus.

If you haven't yet read any Ian Rankin, this book is a great place to start.

THE FILM CLUB by David Gilmour (2007)

A Governor General's Award-winning novelist for his sublime and haunting novel A PERFECT NIGHT TO GO TO CHINA, David Gilmour has penned an evocative memoir about the three years he spent watching films with his high school dropout son, Jesse. When Jesse feels defeated by school, he leaves in the 10th grade, but his father imposes the condition that they watch three films/week together. So begins one young man's alternative education that is as much about navigating loving relationships as it is about becoming literate about French New Wave cinema (led by Truffaut) or the New Hollywood Movement (following Coppola and Scorsese).

I picked THE FILM CLUB up at the library last night and devoured it in one sitting. Gilmour's candid approach and honest narrative will have you cheering for both father and son.