The Complaints [Paperback]

Ian Rankin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2010

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'. Malcolm Fox works for The Complaints. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he's middle-aged, sour and unwell. He also has a father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship.

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. 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 murder intervenes.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of Rankin's Det. Insp. John Rebus will be disappointed by this so-so police procedural, his second stand-alone since Rebus "retired" (after Doors Open). Malcolm Fox—call him Rebus "Lite" (he doesn't drink, he broods less, and he has none of Rebus's wit)—works for the Scottish equivalent of Internal Affairs, "Complaints and Conduct" (aka "the Complaints"), which investigates corrupt cops. Fox looks into the case of Det. Sgt. Jamie Breck, who may be trading in child pornography over the Internet. Meanwhile, when Vince Faulkner, Fox's sister's lover and abuser, turns up dead, Fox becomes a murder suspect. A torturously complicated plot follows involving the suspicious suicide of a failing property developer, large-scale money laundering, and crookedness at every level of Scottish society, but nothing's really at stake. As always with Rankin, Scotland itself is a main character—"the whole of Scotland's in meltdown," says Fox—and that may be this tepid novel's main attraction. 10-city author tour. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the wake of Exit Music (2008), the concluding volume in his celebrated John Rebus series,Rankin has picked a most unlikely new hero. Edinburgh cop Malcolm Fox works for “the Complaints,” the despised internal-affairs division whose job it is to investigate other cops. Succeeding the Rebus novels, starring the quintessential maverick copper, with a series built around a cop-hunting cop seems akin to J. K. Rowling following Harry Potter with seven extra-thick novels about a classroom tattletale. And, yet, Rankin pulls it off, making Fox the fall guy in an elaborate police conspiracy and causing him to join forces with a detective under suspicion of peddling child porn. The strange-bedfellows angle drives the interpersonal dynamics here—and augurs well for future installments—as Fox, working off the books, investigates the murder of someone very close to home and attempts to turn the frame-up on its end. Some crime writers keep writing the same series with different characters, but Rankin deserves credit for going another way altogether. Fox is a good and quiet citizen compared to Rebus (he doesn’t drink and listens to birdsong on the radio, not classic rock), but Rankin doesn’t hold any of that against his new hero, proving that you can build complex, highly textured, series-worthy characters from the most unlikely of raw materials. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A new series from the internationally best-selling Rankin is very big news in the mystery world, and his publisher will spread the word in every conceivable way—even including transit ads in New York and San Francisco. --Bill Ott --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 452 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (March 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1409103595
• ISBN-13: 978-1409103592
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 1.3 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #568,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Decides Right From Wrong?, July 29, 2010

By 

prisrob "pris," (New England USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Complaints (Paperback)

Oh, Rebus we miss you! Ian Rankin retired Rebus, and now he has given us Inspector Malcolm Fox. Fox is a reformed drinker, teetotaller, and much like Rebus, in that he is honest and fights for the rights of the innocent. The 'drink' is what separates these men, and it goes to show us how much of a problem alcohol can be.

Inspector Fox works in the 'Complaints and Conduct' department in Edinburgh. The difference is that this is the time of great economical distress. Things are falling apart and crime is rising. 'The Complaints' as Fox's department is known deals with racism and corruption in the police department. He is not well liked by his colleagues because his business is investigating them. Much is hush hush, and Fox has just come off a big case that implicates a well known officer. Now, he is asked to help investigate an officer who may be implicated as a pedophile. The problem is this man, Jamie Breck, is also investigating a death that is close to Fox's sister. How complicated can this get, very! Fox is asked to get close to Breck to find out as much as he can. What Fox does discover is that there isn't much and what he does uncover leads to more complications and implications. The high and the mighty might fall and they cannot allow Fox to reveal their secrets.

Ian Rankin is one of those authors who is the epitome of the crime writing genre. This novel covers 18 days in 2009. Days full of adventure, violence and mystery. The fact that Rankin can build such a lot and develop these characters to their utmost is surprising. This is one of those books that is difficult to put down. And, as much as I wanted to know how Fox solves his dilemmas, I did not want the book to end. Oh, woe is me- will Inspector Fox return?

Highly Recommended. prisrob 07-29-10

Doors Open

The Falls: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)

A Cool Head

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tightly woven novel with a new hero from Ian Rankin, March 25, 2011

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complaints (Hardcover)

Ian Rankin is best known for his Detective John Rebus police procedurals. When several years ago he decided to retire his alcoholic, curmudgeonly loner of a superb cop, fans were up in arms. How and with whom could Rankin replace this loveable/unlovable anti-hero? But as time went on and Rankin offered a couple of stand-alone novels, he finally found a new hero: Malcolm "Foxy" Fox.

Foxy never thought of himself as a fox. `"A bear of a man'...was the way one of his previous bosses had described him. Slow but steady, and only occasionally to be feared.'" He worked at Lothian and Borders Police HQ in the Conduct and Corrections department. In the United States they are referred to as Internal Affairs. Whether in Scotland or America, their colleagues do not trust this group of cops; they are hated for being snoops and thought of as turncoats ratting on their own.

Foxy has a lot to deal with. First and foremost is maintaining his five-year feat of beating his alcoholism. He never gives in, no matter how strong the yearning. He lives alone and cannot forgive himself for hitting his wife before she walked out. His instincts are sharp and he's very intuitive. Also on his plate is his father, who is in a nursing home he pays for, and a depressed alcoholic sister whose partner, Vince Faulkner, is a batterer he can't get her to leave. Then one night the guy doesn't come home. He's been murdered, and the complex plot moves into high gear.

Faulkner was a construction worker on a site that lost its funding and was palling around with known hoodlums. He was found bludgeoned to death and stabbed on one of the deserted building sites. While it really isn't Foxy's job to solve this crime, he can't help but hear things and put the bits together, which lead to cops involved in underhanded dealings. That's where he must work to solve the disparate crimes and find criminals, even if they lead to cops he knows. Foxy starts an investigation of his own and soon finds himself on suspension. This doesn't stop him.

As a matter of fact, Child Protection, Child Exploitation and Online Protection, another unit buried deep within the corrections, targets another policeman. They are thought of as "the Chop Shop" or "the dark side," which is run by a woman who Foxy has a passing, friendly romantic interlude. But when he finds out how she betrayed him, he dismisses her. The target of her investigation is Detective Jamie Breck. They think he's involved in a child pornography ring located in Australia. Ironically he's teamed up with Foxy, whose mission is to investigate him. But he and Breck like each other and become a team operating on their own. He, too, is put on suspension, so the two men spend a lot of time together.

Ian Rankin is a master at plots and characters. THE COMPLAINTS is a complex and challenging book with a strong storyline. The plot races and tension rises, and readers are lured into that wonderful place where they just can't wait to turn the page. Foxy is a strong character who is well-honed and can carry a series, which seems to be Rankin's plan. Fans will miss Rebus, but they are getting a hero who has some of Rebus's good traits and little of his bad ones. In an interview, Rankin said, "Malcolm Fox is the antithesis of Rebus."

THE COMPLAINTS is a tightly woven story of good vs. evil but with a glance at the brighter side of life, too. Rankin fans will find themselves entertained and eager for book two of the series. In that same interview, Rankin said, "There's more of his ego and subconscious to be explored. And I like him as a character and a human being, so I can envisage one more book with him, but not 17." There you have it: at least one more book and then even Rankin is not sure.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bring back Rebus!, November 21, 2009

By 

Thomas Downs (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complaints (Paperback)

A cast of thousands, most of whom seem to have a surname beginning with `B', and another majority having a surname of one syllable. Because of this I had great difficulty keeping track of who was who and was forever leafing back to find where a character had last been mentioned.

I found it much less gripping than anything I've read by Rankin previously, and I think I've read the lot. For me the story fell strangely flat in the middle and I found it a real effort to keep going, And why did he set up the makings of a strong love interest and then just let it fizzle out?

I used to love the Rebus stories. `Doors Open' didn't quite match up, but it was way better than `The Complaints'. Is it possible for us to have a return to Rebus? Or even to have Siobhan take over the role? Please consider, Mr Rankin..