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| The Complaints |
I think I’m out of practice when it comes to reading mysteries. At times, the conspiracy at the center of Ian Rankin’s The Complaints was so complicated that I felt like I needed a diagram to keep track of everyone’s motives and plots. It seems as though everyone in Scotland has an ulterior motive. By the end, I suspected that it was really several plots colliding…but you can be the judge of that.
At the beginning of The Complaints, we meet Malcolm Fox, who is part of the squad that polices the rest of the police. He’s putting the finishing touches on a case against a cop who likes the bend the rules when he gets the word that one of his target’s comrades might be into child pornography. And just when it seems that Fox has enough on his plate, he learns that his sister’s abusive boyfriend has been murdered. And, surprise surprise, he’s a suspect. From there, things get–if you can believe it–even more complicated. It’s fascinating to see it all come together.
My favorite part of the book was Fox himself. Rankin does a great job of showing him grow, although I can’t say Fox is the better for his experiences. At first, he was very much by the book. But by the end, he’s cutting the same kind of corners as the cops he normally investigates. It’s an interesting transformation to watch.
I don’t have much to say about The Complaints. It’s a solid mystery and I did enjoy killing some time reading it. I’d recommend it to mystery readers who like to read books where they can’t work out who done it until the big reveal.