Customer Reviews

Fleshmarket Close

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

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.

..an enjoyable enough read but at nearly 500 pages this is at least 150 pages too long. As pointed out there are four or five seemingly unconnected plots going on here, each developed with a certain tedium to the point where Rebus is forced to tie all the lose ends together and wrap the whole thing up in the last 10-20 pages. Ranking & Rebus have evidently attained such a level of success that the publisher doesn't feel the need for some tighter editing. If you enjoy page after page of Rebus drinking, eating & painfully trying to develop a relationship with a woman plainly unsuited then this is highly recommended.

Cockle-picking is not one of Edinburgh's most glamorous occupations. When DI Rebus goes out to Leith in search of a slave-labour gang, he passes a sign on the beach warning shellfish caught there will be unfit for consumption. Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke are both pursuing cases out of territory.

With the closure of the St Leonards CID, DI Rebus and DS Clarke find themselves assigned to neighbouring Gayfield Square. With his reputation following him wherever he goes, Rebus is more than aware that his floating status is supposed to annoy him enough that he will want to leave of his own accord. Now in his mid-fifties, Rebus is getting even closer to retiring but there's always one more case left in the man who knows Edinburgh like the back of his hand.

Siobhan is approached by the parents of a missing teenager who again want the assistance of the officer who helped them once before. The rapist who destroyed their other daughter is out and about, stirring up not so old hatreds and charging the community to speak up. Siobhan teams up with the local police when the ex-con is murdered, wondering as she does so whether she is investigating as assistance to a bewildered family or to determine their involvement with the murder.

Rebus is loaned out to an investigation of a murder in a dismal estate called Knoxland. Knoxland is well known for its racial problems and proximity to a immigration detention centre that brings out strong opinions in the small village that rely on its employment. The residents aren't talking and Rebus has seen enough of the like to know that the silence could be borne out of fear as much as it could be the habit of the angry poor to remain uninvolved.

The character of John Rebus would arguably have to be the best in British crime fiction. Author Ian Rankin serves up his hero warts and all, packaged into tales of the city that tackle the issues of the day from all perspectives. "Fleshmarket Close" is the fifteenth novel in this series, and while it concentrates less on the personal life of Rebus with several crime plots being played out simultaneously, it gives enough of an indication that future novels of the series might be markedly different from what we're used to seeing. The protégée, if you like, Siobhan Clarke gains strength with each appearance and this novel also raises the question as to exactly how the relationship between Rebus and Siobhan will continue.

There's a lot happening in this novel so a clear head is required to keep track of the merging plots and large array of characters. Rankin's flair with the details might have you back tracking repeatedly, but it's a small price to pay for your yearly dosage of Detective Inspector John Rebus.

Author Ian Rankin seems to be pushing some of the limits of this franchise - Rebus cannot go on forever. Rankin has apparently suggested that at one book each year, he could write FIVE MORE Rebus novels, by which time the fictitious detective will be 60 and due to retire. I'm not sure about this - I think Rankin would do better to put Rebus out to pasture now while he's at the top (just), and dedicate his time to new ideas and new heroes.

(Review written in 2005)

I stumbled on to Rebus a few months ago and was hooked. I have read the first one and 6 others out of order. The realism and plausability of the Rebus books places them ahead of similar genre novels. But this one has two major flaws. It is far too long and drawn out. I enjoy Rebus's life, etc but this one is padded. Secondly, and far more important to me is the fact that this one bleeds liberal gobboblygook. Mr. Rankin has grown rich due to DI Rebus. Like many who achieve this level of success he has developed "Ted Kennedy" guilt syndrom. I went for the series because I could relate to Rebus. I cannot relate to a left wing bleeding heart Rebus. I live in Fort Worth Texas where middle class neighborhoods have been decemited by the sort of unfettered and often illegal immagration described in this book takes place. The quiet has been replaced by what seems to be a second rate carnival 24/7. Those who do not have Mr. Rankins resources can't buy a "Big Ger" spread. Men of humble means, like DI Rebus & myself do not grow ultra liberal with old age. Perhaps authors who grow rich do.

I had never read an Ian Rankin novel before picking up Fleshmarket Close. Not knowing what to expect, the cover didn't entice me to start reading it any quicker than I had to. Luckily, I did force myself to pick it up, and discovered a wonderful treasure - yet another mystery author I absolutely can't put down!

While Fleshmarket Close is definitely not a fast-paced page-turner, the action that takes place over the course of ten days definitely keeps the reader hooked until its conclusion. In this fifteenth volume of the John Rebus / Siobhan Clark series, the characters have become familiar (if you've read the rest of the series) and comfortable, and the pattern recognizable.

The murder of a suspected asylum-seeker at Knoxland ties in to crimes of a much wider magnitude, and the deeper John and Siobhan dig, the more convoluted and confusing the mystery becomes. The story also provides a very informative look inside Scotland's immigration and refugee policies and procedures. Plot twist after plot twist, investigations aplenty, this book will not disappoint you.

I picked this book up recently at Muscat's Seeb International Airport, to help me pass the time on a flight out of Oman. And it did help me pass the time... This is the first Ian Rankin book that I have read. Would I consider reading another book by him? Why not? On the next flight out! So, what do I think of it? Well, it is a page-turner, the plot is good and interesting, there are no boring moments and the characters are well fleshed-out.

Those are the plusses.

Would I remember it 2 years down the line? I don't think so. Does it have depth? No. Has it made a great impression on me? No. Would I read it again? Only if I didn't have much else to read.

So, it belongs in my 'Thriller' category. An interesting, racy book which helps one pass the time - on flights, in airports, in hotels. It serves a purpose - to help pass the time - and it serves that purpose very well. But does it belong in the category of 'The great books I have read', 'The good books I have read', 'The books I would definitely recommend to others', 'The books which made a lasting impression on me'. No, definitely not...

So, it gets a 3. And it gets that not because I am comparing it to other 'Thrillers' (in which case it would get a 4 or 4.5) but because I am comparing it to all the other books out there, in other categories too! So, perhaps I am comparing this orange to other apples & not being very fair... but that's the way I do my reviewing!!!