The Impossible Dead

October 3, 2011
Insp. Malcolm Fox proves a worthy successor to John Rebus in Rankin’s satisfyingly layered second novel featuring the Edinburgh Internal Affairs cop (after The Complaints). Fox and his two colleagues receive a frosty reception in Kirkcaldy, where they must decide whether a disgraced officer’s three fellow cops helped cover up his misdeeds. Det. Constable Paul Carter, found guilty of sexual misconduct, intrigues Fox because it was Carter’s ex-copper uncle, Alan, who turned him in. Since interviewing the belligerent Carter and his mates leads nowhere, Fox turns to Alan for insight. He discovers the elder Carter was hired by a prestigious lawyer to look into the 1985 “suicide”—or possible murder—of Francis Vernal, a fellow attorney, well-known orator, and vocal supporter of the fringe Scottish separatist movement. Soon Fox’s attention is divided between following up scant leads in the Carter investigation and unearthing decades-old secrets about Vernal’s life and associates. Rankin elegantly weaves together the two story lines without forcing a connection.

June 15, 2011

Having waved good-bye to long-running Inspector John Rebus in 2008'sExit Music, Rankin has turned to a new hero: the less prickly Edinburgh cop Malcolm Fox, who works for "the Complaints"--that is, Internal Affairs. For this second case, Fox is on an out-of-town assignment looking into an entire department that seems rotten. Buy wherever the Edgar and Diamond Dagger winner Rankin is popular and especially where the new series is taking off.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2011
A routine, if unpleasant, internal investigation of the Fife Constabulary leads Edinburgh's Inspector Malcolm Fox and his Professional Standards team (The Complaints, 2011, etc.) back to a 25-year-old cover-up. If his own uncle, retired police officer Alan Carter, is to be believed, Detective Constable Paul Carter is certainly guilty of criminal misconduct for threatening Teresa Collins and two other women with harassment unless they met with him one-on-one in the back seat of his cruiser. So Malcolm Fox, together with Sgt. Tony Kaye and Constable Joe Naysmith, are sent down from the Lothian and Borders Police to make inquires. Their investigation is one disaster after another. Carter's colleagues in Kircaldy alternately avoid the questioners and stonewall them. Teresa Collins greets their news that Paul Carter has been released from jail by hysterically accusing his investigators of intimidating her. Soon after Fox talks with him, Alan Carter is found shot to death by a gun that was supposed to have been destroyed many years ago. His apparent suicide is followed by the drowning of the nephew he accused. As the case against the late Paul Carter goes up in flames and his own credibility plummets, Fox must also mend fences with his sister Jude over the care of their ailing father Mitch, who's clearly entering his endgame. But a 1985 newspaper he spotted in Alan Carter's home during their one and only meeting points him in the direction of Francis Vernal, a lawyer linked to the Scottish National Liberation Army before he was found shot to death in his wrecked car a generation ago. Rankin deftly balances welcome surprises and satisfyingly predictable developments. Mainly, though, he succeeds in making methodical Fox a worthy successor to the legendary Inspector John Rebus.

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November 1, 2011
Malcolm Fox, lead detective in the Edinburgh police's Complaints division is conflicted about his role as the guy who investigates wrongdoing by other cops. He'd rather be doing real detective work. This time, he and his team are asked to look into whether several cops in a neighboring city helped cover up their partner's sexual abuse of witnesses and suspects. Naturally, Fox finds a lot more going on, tracking the case back to the unsolved murder of a radical Scottish nationalist in the 1970s. From Fox's superiors to high-ranking politicians, nobody wants a mere Complaints cop sticking his nose in where it doesn't belong. After finishing off his celebrated John Rebus series, starring the maverick detective with an unflagging taste for booze, Rankin went in an entirely different direction with the relatively straitlaced, teetotalling Fox, but he has made it work, both here and in the series debut, The Complaints (2011). Focusing on Fox's bloodhound-like determination to follow the trail in front of him, and on his myriad personal problems, Rankin has created a wonderfully rounded character who only stands to become more compelling in future installments. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Rankin, winner of all the major crime-fiction awards, is a worldwide number-one best-selling author, and his books have sold 600,000 hardcovers in the U.S. His second Malcolm Fox novel will benefit from an A-list publicity campaign.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)