Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 5 November 2009.

Rankin has moved on to a new protagonist in the form of Malcolm Fox and has set him up in a department which bodes well for what we are sure will be terrific, future plotlines, the Complaints and Conduct department -  the police who police the police. If you were worried Rankin wouldn't maintain the standard of his Rebus novels then rest assured he hasn't let us down. Brilliant characters and plots continue, all set in his beloved Edinburgh.

Synopsis

'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.

Reviews

'Like all good crime novels, it takes you to places that you did not know existed - and, even if you did, would not wish to visit. Fox, brave and kind beneath his world-weary exterior, makes for an excellent guide. Rankin's legion of fans will have no grounds for complaints'
Mark Sanderson EVENING STANDARD

'Getting to know this man [Fox], an intriguing mix of apathy and action, is almost like a courtship - each new situation reveals something that makes the reader want to know yet more'
Rebecca Armstrong THE INDEPENDENT

'Rankin delivers, without the help of Rebus, an excellent cop novel full of action, good dialogue, well-crafted characters and an authentic backdrop'
Marcel Berlins THE TIMES

'Rankin's touch for literary elements outwith genre expectations continues to be excellent. Even a brief paragraph about Fox's childhood contains as much nostagic fizz as a bubble of Irn Bru caught in a spluttering kid's nostril'
Alan Morrison SUNDAY HERALD GLASGOW

'On the evidence of The Complaints it looks as if Fox will be just as sure-footed a guide to the city as his grizzled predecessor'
Barry Forshaw DAILY EXPRESS

'As is usually the case with Rankin, the plot is more layered than a tiramisu and here offers a depth that incorpoates teh impact of the credit crunch and the subsequent collapse of property values in Scotland'
Declan Burke IRISH TIMES

'Rankin is a master at what, for me, is one of the important aspects of a crime novel: the integration of setting, plot, characters and a theme which, for Rankin, is the moral dimension never far from his writing. Here it is unambiguously stated on the cover of The Complaints: wh decides right from wrong?'
PD James THE GUARDIAN

'Gordon Brown, who knows a thing or two about what it's like to live up to the memory of a charismatic predecessor, ought to give Fox his endorsement straight away'
Jake Kerridge DAILY TELEGRAPH

About the Author

Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh and has since been employed as grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist and punk musician. His first Rebus novel, Knots & Crosses, was published in 1987 and the Rebus books have now been translated into 22 languages and are increasingly popular in the USA. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is a past winner of the prestigious Chandler-Fulbright Award, as well two CWA short-story 'Daggers' and the 1997 CWA Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction for Black & Blue, which was also shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America 'Edgar' award for best novel. Dead Souls, the tenth novel in the series, was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger in 1999. Black & Blue, The Hanging Garden, Dead Souls and Mortal Causes have been televised on ITV, starring John Hannah as Inspector Rebus. His 3-part documentary series on the subject of evil was broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2002. An Alumnus of the Year at Edinburgh University, he has also been awarded two honorary doctorates, one from the University of Abertay Dundee and one, more recently, from the University of St Andrews. He was awarded the OBE in the Queen's Golden Jubilee Birthday Honours List in June 2002 and is now the UK's number one best-selling crime writer. Ian Rankin lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two sons. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation