December 2011 MEGA Book of the Month.

Shortlisted for the Galaxy Crime  & Thriller of the Year Award 2011.

Rankin is synonymous with crime and Edinburgh and having decided to end it with his long-time protagonist – Rebus – he has successfully created a new one in the form of Edinburgh copper, Malcolm Fox.  He’s very different from Rebus in many ways and that’s a good thing and coupled with that, Rankin’s ability to portray Edinburgh remains undiminished and his cleverly wrought plots really get under your skin. The first featuring Fox was The Complaints – maximum stars from us – and now Fox who is part of the unpopular Complaints & Conduct department of the police force that roots out corruption in the force and investigates suspect officers is on to his next case in which he must fight for his professional and personal life.

Comparison: Colin Dexter, Peter Robinson, Will Carver
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Synopsis

Malcolm Fox and his team from Internal Affairs are back. They've been sent to Fife to investigate whether fellow cops covered up for a corrupt colleague, Detective Paul Carter. Carter has been found guilty of misconduct with his own uncle, also in the force, having proved to be his nephew's nemesis. But what should be a simple job is soon complicated by intimations of conspiracy and cover-up - and a brutal murder, a murder committed with a weapon that should not even exist. The spiralling investigation takes Fox back in time to 1985, a year of turmoil in British political life. Terrorists intent on a split between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom were becoming more brazen and ruthless, sending letter-bombs and poisonous spores to government offices, plotting kidnaps and murder, and trying to stay one step ahead of the spies sent to flush them out. Fox has a duty to get at the truth, while the body count rises, the clock starts ticking, and he fights for his professional and personal life.

Reviews

'After the wonderfully gloomy Rebus novels, we now have Ian Rankin's second great sleuth: DI Malcolm Fox, who investigates bent coppers. Here, he's in Fife checking out a possible police cover-up when he unearths an extraordinary story of terrorism in the Kirkcaldy of the 1980s. This is vintage Rankin, a five-star crime novel by an author at the height of his powers. After reading it, you'll never look at the SNP in the same light again' A N Wilson, READER 'S DIGEST

'This is the second outing for Rankin's Inspector Malcolm Fox, who has the seemingly impossible job of rooting out corrupt colleagues' Henry Sutton DAILY MIRROR

'Proving there's life - and murder - after gloomy Rebus, Rankin pops up with a new cop here, DI Fox' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'LIVE' 'confirms Fox as an intriguing character full of depth - and consolidates Rankin's position at the forefront of the crime writing pack' Doug Johnstone, WE LOVE THIS BOOK

'Criminally good' Fanny Blake WOMAN AND HOME

'The plot, pacing and characterisation are all handled with impeccable skill, while Rankin infuses his story with subtle social commentary into the bargain. Fans may still mourn Rebus, but Fox is a worthy replacement' BIG ISSUE

'No one writes dialogue that seethes with conflict as well as him' Mark Sanderson, EVENING STANDARD

'This is Rankin, so it's only to be expected that the plotting should be tight, the dialogue quick-fire, the crimes disturbingly believable, taking place as they do in a world that is so thoroughly and obviously our own, today. What the creator of Rebus also gives us in Fox - initially in the inspector's first outing, The Complaints, and again here is another complex, driven policeman: difficult, largely miserable and lonely, but utterly real' Alison Flood, THE OBSERVER

'What is the most memorable here is the storyline about the deterioration of Fox's father, handled so sensitively as to make Henning Mankell's depiction of the decline of Wallander's father seem histrionic' Jake Kerridge, FINANCIAL TIMES

'Fox remains a worthy successor to Rebus, retaining his outsider status and incorruptibility but operating in a much more modern context' Joan Smith, SUNDAY TIMES

'Post-Rebus Rankin has lost none of his mastery of excitingly gripping storystelling' Marcel Berlins, THE TIMES

'masterful thriller that will have you gripped to the very last page' CANDIS

'taut, compulsive and hugely satisfying, with plenty to say about the limits of memory and the dangers of historical idealism. If this is where Rankin is now, I'm not sure I'd want him to be anywhere else' John O'Connell, GUARDIAN

'Rankin remains the crime writer's crime writer - a clear-headed moralist in a grimy world' VOYAGER

'He offers an account of personal and political alienation, the tactics needed to contain terrorism, and the desirability or otherwise of deceit' Natasha Cooper TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

'Rebus is one of British crime fictions great creations. With Malcolm Fox, Rankin has the potential to trump even that towering achievement' IRISH EXAMINER

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