The Impossible Dead (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

I didn't think that Ian Rankin would ever be able to create another character who could compete with Rebus. I was wrong.

The first book in his new series, The Complaints, was good but this second one is even better. As members of the Professional Standards team, Inspector Malcolm Fox and his team are in Fife, looking into possible misconduct in the force there. When an ex-copper is found dead, Fox becomes aware that he had been looking into an old case - the death of a political activist which at the time had been classed as a suicide. Now Fox and his team have two cases on their hands.

One of the things I like most about Rankin is the way he sets his books firmly in the real world. With references to actual events and people, his plots become entirely convincing. He tells modern Scotland like it is - neither all good nor all bad. The short period in the eighties when Scottish nationalism turned briefly into terrorism is used for the main strand of the book. Rankin shows the contrast of those days, when fervent nationalists felt the democratic process held no hope for them, to the Scotland of today, with its devolved government, more confident and comfortable in its skin, with nationalism a question to be debated rather than won by force.

Malcolm Fox is turning into just as interesting a character as Rebus, if less of a maverick. Working in the Complaints, he has to face the obstruction and sometimes contempt of fellow officers, but he believes in what he's doing and wants to do it well. This time though a comment of his father makes him wonder if he has what it takes to investigate a real crime and that doubt acts as a spur to him to step outside his normal boundaries. In this book we also get to know more about his colleagues, Kaye and Naysmith. The interactions between them come over as convincing and enjoyable - three team players working well together. Fox's relationships with his father and sister are further developed and this glimpse into his life outside work makes him into a more rounded and believable character.

I'm delighted to hear that Rankin may bring Rebus back to us but I sincerely hope that Malcolm Fox is here for a long run too. Highly recommended.

I've enjoyed dozens of Ian Rankin's books and felt a pang when the Rebus series finished. However, the arrival of his new detective, Malcolm Fox, in The Complaints filled the gap and heralded a fine new series. To my disappointment, this second book in the new series, is not as good as the first. It is very slow to get going: there are pages and pages of chit-chat between Fox and his two side-kicks, Kaye and Naysmith, with descriptions of journeys around Fife, the scenery as they drive to and from Edinburgh and their problems over police inter-departmental friction. Yet, with all this descriptive stuff I never really get a picture in my mind of Fox who is two-dimensional, in contrast to Rebus, who is so clearly pictured in my mind by the books that when Ken Stott appeared in the TV series he was perfect. In the first book in the new series I welcomed the fact that Fox wasn't the usual hard-drinking, smoking stereotype of most detective series, but I don't feel his character has been developed enough for the reader to identify with him in his quests for truth.

Only when one gets well into the book does the action begin and then it goes off into all sorts of tangents: terrorism, police corruption, MI5, under-cover police activity, murder, suicide plus diversions into Fox's stormy relationship with his sister and worries over his father's deteriorating health. Having been a bit bored by the first half of the book I became confused over the plethora of story-lines in the latter part of the novel.

Readers were first introduced to DI Malcolm Fox in a previous Rebus story (The Complaints, 2009).

Ian Rankin has made a seamless transition over to this new protagonist and with the author's usual easy writing style has come up trumps with a well developed character that will no doubt enthrall readers in an exciting series of tales.

Malcolm Fox is an intriguing mix of apathy and action; he is a solid character, single, drives a Volvo & doesn't drink alcohol any more, just sticking to water or Appletiser.

These stories see police procedurals from a different perspective - Rebus often broke the rules whereas Fox enforces them. He heads up a team in the Professional Standards Unit, more commonly known as 'The Complaints' of Lothian and Borders Police, the cops who investigate other cops. His cohorts in this story are DS Tony Kaye and DC Joe Naysmith.

Fox is quoted as stating: 'Maybe I want to make sure the {police} force is on the side of the angels.' For Malcolm Fox, the appeal of the Complaints was its focus on rules broken rather than bones, on cops who crossed the line but were not violent men.

Readers are taken on a journey through Edinburgh, Stirling, St Andrews and Fife - even to the State Mental Hospital at Carstairs in Lanark - as Fox and his team is asked to investigate three colleagues from the neighbouring Fife constabulary.

In the background, Fox struggles with the dilemma of balancing his work duties alongside appeasing his sister's frustration at the time and resources needed to care for their elderly father's illness.

As the story progresses, Fox is drawn into looking at the suspicious death of lawyer and nationalist Francis Vernal who was found dead in his car having crashed on a country road in Fife. There was also a gunshot wound to his head and the incident had never been fully investigated when it occurred some twenty years earlier in 1985. This part of the story bears striking resemblances to the non fictional case of nationalist Willie MacRae whose death occurred in the Highlands in 1985 in similar circumstances.

Rankin's writings are ever topical and the plot reflects the SNP and its activities in the mid 80's - perhaps especially pertinent at the moment, as the SNP party has just staged its first conference in Inverness this weekend.

EDIT: ** PLEASE SEE FictionFan's excellent comment on this review - she has kindly clarified the inaccuracies in my sentence above. **

The author's excellent descriptive skills are used to advantage to develop the personalities of his characters as well as eloquently taking readers on a journey through central Scotland.

I enjoyed this story immensely and I'm sure others will to. Rebus can surely sit back and relish his retirement!