The anti Rebus but I lived it. I also loved that it was a book about an internals affairs officer (complaints) as the hero. They are usually the villians which I have never understood. Crooked cops are still bad guys. Great story and looking forward to the next one. ( )

The relationships among the characters, particularly Fox and Jamie Breck are the book's strength. The mystery itself was quite convoluted. If you like character drive mysteries, you will like this book. ( )

Too long and introduced too many characters and different plot lines ( )

Malcolm Fox is an Inspector in the Professional Standards Unit of Edinburgh Police Department’s Complaints and Conduct division, the unit that investigates police officers accused of misconduct. Not a beloved group of workers, given their brief, but it suits Malcolm and just now he’s basking in the afterglow of having amassed sufficient evidence against a dirty cop to have charges brought. Even before the dust has settled in that case, however, he is asked by the unit investigating pedophelia to look into the behaviour of another cop, DS Jamie Breck. At first eager, Malcolm soon learns that Jamie is, by all accounts, a good guy, but when Malcolm’s sister’s boyfriend is murdered and Jamie is assigned the case, it doesn’t take long for Malcolm to start crossing the line - a whole slew of them, in fact…. I have not yet begun to read Mr. Rankin’s best-known series, featuring Inspector Rebus (other than a few short stories), but when “The Complaints” appeared in my local book box, I thought it would be a good way to start familiarizing myself with Mr. Rankin’s style before plunging into the 20-odd Rebus books out there. I’m glad I did, because I like his writing, which I’d describe as conveying a lot of descriptive information in few words (“spare,” perhaps?), and I like Inspector Fox. One breath of fresh air here (slight spoiler) is that as a recovering alcoholic, Fox *does not* take an alcoholic drink at any point in the story, which I really appreciated because so many such characters *do* fall off the wagon that it’s now practically de rigeur to have a scene like that, which is annoying. There are a half-dozen more Malcolm Fox novels, in some of which he encounters Inspector Rebus, and I’m looking forward to finding them too; recommended! ( )

A better effort than Rankin's last outing. Interesting premise (cops investigating cops) with a good story, but the main character needs to have more depth to sustain a series. ( )