The Impossible Dead

October 3, 2011
Insp. Malcolm Fox proves a worthy successor to John Rebus in Rankin’s satisfyingly layered second novel featuring the Edinburgh Internal Affairs cop (after The Complaints). Fox and his two colleagues receive a frosty reception in Kirkcaldy, where they must decide whether a disgraced officer’s three fellow cops helped cover up his misdeeds. Det. Constable Paul Carter, found guilty of sexual misconduct, intrigues Fox because it was Carter’s ex-copper uncle, Alan, who turned him in. Since interviewing the belligerent Carter and his mates leads nowhere, Fox turns to Alan for insight. He discovers the elder Carter was hired by a prestigious lawyer to look into the 1985 “suicide”—or possible murder—of Francis Vernal, a fellow attorney, well-known orator, and vocal supporter of the fringe Scottish separatist movement. Soon Fox’s attention is divided between following up scant leads in the Carter investigation and unearthing decades-old secrets about Vernal’s life and associates. Rankin elegantly weaves together the two story lines without forcing a connection.

Matthew Fox, an inspector in the Complaints and Conduct Department, investigates the actions of fellow police officers. Narrator Peter Forbes ably wraps his tongue around a series of Scots brogues and crisp British accents as Fox and his team travel between Glasgow and rural Kirkcaldy investigating a recent murder, or suicide. Soon Fox becomes tangled in evidence that leads to the decades-old murder of a long dead separatist. The plot is convoluted--as are the clues. While Forbes's accents and characters are multidimensional, his reading of narrative is dry and too even paced. As a result, the tension in this complex investigation is lost as the story plods along and the listener forgets who the suspects are. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine