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John Rebus might have been packed off into retirement, but Ian Rankin has another morose, middle-aged cop to replace him. This one, though, doesn't appear to have such good taste in music … Inspector Malcolm Fox is one of those cops who's about as popular as the plague – and that's with his own colleagues. He's in the complaints department, and is just wrapping up a fairly major case. He's got family worries, though, in the shape of his elderly father Mitch, who's in a care home, paid for by Malcolm. His sister Jude doesn't contribute a penny, and also has a boyfriend who knocks her around. And then Vince, the boyfriend, is found dead. Malcolm makes himself unpopular sticking his oar into the enquiry. And meanwhile, he's been asked to investigate a detective who's thought to be part of a paedophile ring. Malcolm, though, soon has doubts as he learns more about Jamie Breck. THE COMPLAINTS is raw and bleak, capturing the seamier side of Edinburgh. The recession has bitten as well, and there are deserted building sites and abandoned apartment projects. Our new man is an unlikely hero. On the surface of it he's a boring 9 to 5 bloke with a drab home and no private life to speak of. But he turns out to be tenacious and bolshie. His colleagues, too, are a gloomy bunch, with no Siobhan to act as the voice of reason. Whisper the heresy quietly, but THE COMPLAINTS plods at times. It's an A – Z sort of book via B, C and D. There's an awful lot of Fox and Breck driving around Scotland and not minding their own business. The story could probably have lost 50 pages and been tighter and better for it. That's not to say that THE COMPLAINTS is either poor or a disappointment, because it absolutely isn't. Rankin's social and political eye is as acute as ever, and Fox is a tenacious hero. But Rankin has set himself high standards, and is bound to be judged by what's gone before.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, October 2009
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