The Complaints (Malcolm Fox, #1)

by Ian Rankin

'Mustn't complain' - but people always do...Nobody likes The Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as 'The Dark Side', or simply 'The Complaints'. It's where Malcolm Fox works. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he's a man with problems of his own. He has an increasingly frail father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship - something which Malcolm cannot seem to do anything about. But, in the midst of an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task. There's a cop called Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. The problem is, no one can prove it. But as Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks. This knowledge will prove dangerous, especially when a vicious murder intervenes far too close to home for Fox's liking.

• ISBN10: 0752889516
• ISBN13: 9780752889511
• Publish Date: 3 September 2009
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 November 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

The Complaints is the first book in Rankin’s first series since the end of his Inspector Rebus series in 2007. Malcolm Fox is not like John Rebus; he’s a bit more low-key, and working outside the lines doesn’t come naturally to him. His job in Scotland’s version of Internal Affairs requires that he seek out the cops that step too far over that line.

After he closes a case against one particularly egregious offender, he’s asked to work with another division on a child pornography case. The suspect is another cop, but from the start things don’t feel quite right to Fox. After Fox’s sister’s boyfriend is murdered, he finds himself on the wrong side of the blue line, and his suspect is his only ally.

I enjoyed the twists and turns in this book. There’s an atmosphere of economic woe that contributes more gloom than the weather. Besides Jamie Breck, we don’t really get to know Fox’s colleagues well; we become much more familiar with his family. That Fox is someone who tries to clean up the system is not surprising — he’s a caretaker in all areas of his life. I’m looking forward to spending more time with Rankin’s newest protagonist.