Fleshmarket Close [Unknown Binding]

Ian Rankin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2004

An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme: a racist attack, or something else entirely? Rebus is drawn into the case, but has other problems: his old police station has closed for business, and his masters would rather he retire than stick around. But Rebus is the most stubborn of creatures. As Rebus investigates, he must visit an asylum-seekers' detention centre, deal with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld, and maybe even fall in love...Siobhan meanwhile has problems of her own. A teenager has disappeared from home and Siobhan is drawn into helping the family, which will mean travelling closer than is healthy towards the web of a convicted rapist. Then there's the small matter of the two skeletons - a woman and an infant - found buried beneath a concrete cellar floor in Fleshmarket Close. The scene begins to look like an elaborate stunt - but whose, and for what purpose? And how can it tie to the murder on the unforgiving housing-scheme known as Knoxland?

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Another year and another surefire bestseller for Britain's No1 crime writer, Ian Rankin' -- Andrea Henry DAILY MIRROR ' A powerful book, brimming with genuine social comment' -- Rab Anderson SUNDAY EXPRESS - 4 Star Review 'A powerful writer, able to marry social and political issues of the day with a rattling good read' -- Elizabeth Buie GLASGOW HERALD 'Of the new breed of crime writers, no one writes more gripping stories than Rankin; his imagination peopls Edinburgh the way Balzac's fantasy did Paris. The scenes which emerge...are the product of a troubling imagination and a probing intellect which uses the crime genre to examine aspects of life, especially contemporary Scottish life, that politicians prefer to ignore' -- Joseph Farrell TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Rankin at his best, recalling Dickens both in the vigour and ambition of their social portraiture and in their campaigning thrust' -- John Dugdale SUNDAY TIMES 'This is Ian Rankin's 16th (sic) Rebus novel and, unusually for such a long-running series, it is the later ones that are the best' -- Aileen Reid SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Unmissable' -- Alex Gordon PETERBOROUGH TELEGRAPH 'When it comes to complex storylines that hook you in, churn you up and spit you out, nobody does it better' -- Shari Low DAILY RECORD 'Rankin has clearly been grooming the enigmatic DS Siobhan Clarke to take over as hero, but the cynical old soak Rebus won't leave, which is good news for the reader...With author and characters on such good form, there is no need for Rebus to go quite yet' -- Marcel Berlins THE TIMES 'As always, Rankin proves himself the master of his own milieu. He brings the dark underside of Edinburgh deliciously to life. Rankin never puts a foot wrong' -- Tom Kyle DAILY MAIL 'It's another Rebus novel you can't put down, and Rankin at his most powerful' CHOICE 'Ironic, exiting and immediate. The plot is resourceful; characterisation sharp; humour as unexpected as a rug jerked from under your feet. Despite the wear and tear, Rebus has never looked in better shape; a long, long way, I'd have thought, from retirement' -- Philip Oakes LITERARY REVIEW 'Rankin's best novel yet and that's saying something#' -- Peter Guttridge THE OBSERVER 'Works on every level, with Rankin not only delivery a superior mystery but finding ample opportunity to delivery highly evocative comments on uglier aspects of contemporary Western European society' -- George Byrne DUBLIN EVENING HERALD 'Ian Rankin is a master of page-turning plot and gritty detail, with each narrative delving deeper into the dark side of human nature and of present day Edinburgh... Recommended' -- Paula Shields IRISH EXAMINER 'Rankin is a craftsman, but far from escapism, this is an uncomfortable read, reflecting only too well the nastiness of our society' GLASGOW EVENING TIMES 'Ian Rankin's plotting is steady and compulsive...And while you just know Rebus is always going to get his man, the moral areas between good and evil are realistically hazy' -- Mark Robertson THE LIST (GLASGOW & EDINBURGH) 'As ever, Rankin is superb' -- John Major MAIL ON SUNDAY - Christmas Books 'Rankin's prose is striking and he is invariably evocative and insightful. There's also a genuine and powerful righteous anger permeating Fleshmarket Cose, with its depictions of social exclusion, contemporary squalor and corruption tainting the powerful' TRIBUNE 'As always, the dialogue is witty, the Edinburgh locations evocative and REbus' laconic observations and encylopedic knowledge of rock music are amusing and interesting. As well the plot delivers some good twists and surprises. Highly recommended' DEADLY PLEASURES

About the Author

Ian Rankin was born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960. In 1997 he was awarded the Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction for Black and Blue. His subsequent Rebus novels have all been international bestsellers. He lives with his wife and two sons in Edinburgh. In 2003, Ian received an OBE for his services to literature.

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 416 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing; First Edition edition (September 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752851128
• ISBN-13: 978-0752851129
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,065,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rankin at his formidable best, April 6, 2006

By 

Booksthatmatter "Booksthatmatter" (Brighton, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fleshmarket Close (Paperback)

Rankin does not put a foot wrong in what is possibly his most ambitious book yet. He manages to sustain 3, no 4, seemingly separate but highly interlinked plot-lines running: two murders; a missing teenager; and the apparent spoof burial of two fake skeletons. Fleshmarket Close directly tackles racism, asylum and immigration issues in a chillingly frank fashion. What I liked best about this book though was the way Rebus himself has become both more hardened and more humane at the same time - a very effective development. His bitter, give-a-damn demeanor now declares very loudly that he knows the system, the law delivers very little by way of real justive but he's damned if that's going to stop him trying to be its conscience. Welcome returns from characters like Big Ger Cafferty and Siobhan Clarke as well. This really is Rankin bettering his best.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Rankin's Rebus Books Just Keep Getting Better, December 1, 2006

By 

Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fleshmarket Close (Paperback)

Detective Inspector John Rebus and DS Siobhan Clark have been relocated from their old and familiar offices to Gayfield Square, which isn't all that far away. It's a well to do district, but close to Knoxland, which is one of Edinburgh's low rent housing development's.

And it's in Knoxland that an illegal immigrant is found stabbed to death. While trying to solve the case Rebus is forced to think about the fact that the powers that be would like him to retire, however police work is his life, he has nothing outside of that, so he has no intention of being made redundant, not now, not ever.

Knoxland is home to many immigrants, legal and otherwise and it's occupants have been the source of many racial attacks, so naturally it looks like a race crime. During his investigation Rebus learns much about the difficulties illegal aliens must face in Scotland. Including the legal ones, like the detention centers women and children are locked up in as they wait to find out if they are going to be allowed entry or if they're going to be deported.

Also, as this case is developing, Siobhan is approached by the mother of a teenage girl who has disappeared. Siobhan worked the prior case of the missing girl's sister three years earlier. The girl had been raped and then killed herself, so even though the case is now out of her jurisdiction, Siobhan decides to work it anyway.

And to make Rebus's and Siobhan's life even more complicated, they are called out to a bar in Fleshmarket Close (Fleshmarket Alley in the American version) where the remains of an infant and a woman have been discovered under the concrete floor during renovations.

The genius of Ian Rankin is that he can connect the dots, make us believe that as impossible as it might seem, all these cases are connected, but of course, it takes Rebus and Siobhan a while to put it all together and that makes for just one very, very good story. Mr. Rankin has given us plenty of John Rebus books and they just keep getting better.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

3.0 out of 5 stars OK Thriller But Long-Winded, December 4, 2011

By 

James A. Anderson "Author" (London, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fleshmarket Close. An Inspector Rebus novel (Hardcover)

Not Ian Rankin at his finest, but still an OK thriller. I found it hard to get into but after 50 pages or so it started to pick up pace and captured my interest. Rankin juggles three subplots here and provides a satisfactory conclusion. Great descriptions of Edinburgh and its seedy underbelly which most tourists never get to see.

I thought the novel was a bit long-winded and could have uswed some judicious editing. At almost 500 pages long, it's a bit wordy for a mystery and should have been about 80-100 pages shorter. Still #15 in the Rebus series is a fine read. I look forward to the final two in the series.