The Complaints

January 24, 2011
Fans of Rankin's Det. Insp. John Rebus will be disappointed by this so-so police procedural, his second stand-alone since Rebus "retired" (after Doors Open). Malcolm Fox—call him Rebus "Lite" (he doesn't drink, he broods less, and he has none of Rebus's wit)—works for the Scottish equivalent of Internal Affairs, "Complaints and Conduct" (aka "the Complaints"), which investigates corrupt cops. Fox looks into the case of Det. Sgt. Jamie Breck, who may be trading in child pornography over the Internet. Meanwhile, when Vince Faulkner, Fox's sister's lover and abuser, turns up dead, Fox becomes a murder suspect. A torturously complicated plot follows involving the suspicious suicide of a failing property developer, large-scale money laundering, and crookedness at every level of Scottish society, but nothing's really at stake. As always with Rankin, Scotland itself is a main character—"the whole of Scotland's in meltdown," says Fox—and that may be this tepid novel's main attraction. 10-city author tour.

Starred review from January 15, 2011

Rankin adds another Edinburgh cop to his repertoire.

Malcolm Fox, five years sober and still missing the vodka, has spent almost that long as an Inspector in the Complaints and Conduct Department of Lothian and Borders Police, where his purview is to investigate cops who might be dirty. Having just wound up his enquiry into the possible malfeasance of Glen Heaton, a longtime pal of Fox's boss, Chief Inspector McEwan, he's asked to look into another Heaton associate, DS Jamie Breck, who might be a pedophile. Things get complicated when Breck is charged with looking into the death of Vince Faulkner, the abusive boyfriend of Fox's sister, Jude. Fox and Breck, mutually mistrustful but each needing a friend once it becomes apparent that both are being set up to take a fall, join forces to learn how and why they've become personae non gratae. Their investigation leads them to an old murder in Dundee and back to Edinburgh and the staged disappearance of formerly rich developer Charlie Brogan, who was disrespected by his father-in-law, in hock for millions to a sleazy creditor, and lied about by his posh wife. Hidden agendas abound, not only among career criminals but among various coppers, including the Chief Inspector and the Chief Constable.

Will readers miss Rankin's long-running protagonist, John Rebus (Exit Music, 2008, etc.)? Don't see why they should. Bonus: Rankin's plotting and prose are as compelling as ever.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from January 1, 2011

The many fans of Rankin's John Rebus series that ended with Exit Music will welcome this stand-alone work that again brings to life the mean streets of Edinburgh. DI Malcom Fox, "a bear of a man," works in Complaints and Conduct, which means he investigates other cops. His boss assigns him to sniff around DS Jamie Breck for possible child porn trafficking. Meanwhile, Fox's sister is in an abusive relationship with a man who turns up brutally murdered, and Fox himself is a prime suspect. As he and Breck become acquainted, both realize they are being framed in a complicated plot that involves mobsters, wealthy developers in trouble, and possible police treachery. Like Rebus, Fox is a complex character with a strong moral sense. This sense sometimes is flawed; his trust is betrayed, and sorting out the villains is a bittersweet victory. VERDICT Rankin, an Edgar and Diamond Dagger winner, is back in top form here. Few authors equal his character-driven crime fiction that pulls the reader into such vividly drawn place and plot. Highly recommended. [Ten-city author tour.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2011
In the wake of Exit Music (2008), the concluding volume in his celebrated John Rebus series, Rankin has picked a most unlikely new hero. Edinburgh cop Malcolm Fox works for the Complaints, the despised internal-affairs division whose job it is to investigate other cops. Succeeding the Rebus novels, starring the quintessential maverick copper, with a series built around a cop-hunting cop seems akin to J. K. Rowling following Harry Potter with seven extra-thick novels about a classroom tattletale. And, yet, Rankin pulls it off, making Fox the fall guy in an elaborate police conspiracy and causing him to join forces with a detective under suspicion of peddling child porn. The strange-bedfellows angle drives the interpersonal dynamics hereand augurs well for future installmentsas Fox, working off the books, investigates the murder of someone very close to home and attempts to turn the frame-up on its end. Some crime writers keep writing the same series with different characters, but Rankin deserves credit for going another way altogether. Fox is a good and quiet citizen compared to Rebus (he doesnt drink and listens to birdsong on the radio, not classic rock), but Rankin doesnt hold any of that against his new hero, proving that you can build complex, highly textured, series-worthy characters from the most unlikely of raw materials. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new series from the internationally best-selling Rankin is very big news in the mystery world, and his publisher will spread the word in every conceivable wayeven including transit ads in New York and San Francisco.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)