I have a real soft spot for Ian Rankin’s John Rebus series- they were the first mystery series I read where it felt like the location was a character (and a real location I could visit). I still remember how keen I was on my first visit to Edinburgh to visit the places that Rankin described. While I still have a few Rebus novels to catch up on (they’re a little bleak, so not a diet for all seasons), I was excited to read a non-Rebus Rankin novel.
The Complaints is the start of a new series featuring no Rebus and instead a new protagonist, Malcolm Fox. Fox is a police officer who investigates complaints made against other police officers, giving his department its name, Complaints and Conduct (hence the name of the book). The nature of his work makes Fox an outsider in the police department; he is not completely trusted by other officers. His personal life, not unlike Rebus’, is solitary and a bit lonely- he is single, his father is in a care home and his sister is unhappily shacked up with an abusive partner.
The mystery kicks off when Fox is approached by another pariah department that investigates sex crimes. He is asked to look into a rising star police officer, Jamie Breck, who is suspected of buying child porn on the dark web. Soon thereafter, a second mystery is introduced when Fox’s brother in law turns up dead. Given his closeness to the victim, as well as his prior threats on occasions where his sister turned up battered, Fox is barred from involvement in the investigation. Not unsurprisingly for a Rankin novel, Fox has a hard time keeping his nose out of the second investigation and the two mysteries eventually braid together.
Overall verdict is that I liked it, and will read more of the Fox series. I’m still trying to parse out how this series compares to the Rebus one, and the things I like more or less. The style is similar- loner, outsider detectives are Rankin’s jam (and mine, given that I keep reading them). Fox is quieter, less darkly brooding, less impulsive and more methodical about the rules he bends rather than flaunts. The Complaints was an investigation of an institution and power politics- the call is coming from inside the house rather than most Rebus investigations where the institution is a hindrance but not (usually) the source of the evil he’s investigating.
If you like the Rebus novels, I would recommend these. If you find Rebus a little dark, this may fit the bill (with the forewarning that the subject matter at the heart of the mystery is- child porn- as in Rebus, pretty grim).