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Bombs are exploding in the streets of London, but life seems to have planted more subtle booby-traps for Miles Flint.
Miles is a spy. His job is to watch and to listen, then to report back to his superiors, nothing more. The job, affording glimpses into the most private lives of his victims, appeals to Miles. He doesn't lust after promotion, and he doesn't want action. He wants, just for once, not to botch a case.
Having lost one suspect - with horrific consequences - Miles becomes too involved with another, a young Irishwoman. His marriage seems ready to crumble to dust. So does his home. But Miles is given one last chance for redemption - a trip to Belfast, which quickly becomes a flight of terror, murder and shocking discoveries.
But can the voyeur survive in a world of violent action?
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Watchman is perhaps slighly dated... its set in the late 80's when the IRA bombing campaigns against London where at their height. The main character Miles Flint is tasked with "watching" an Arab assasin and also supervising the observation of an IRA bomb making cell. The winding & complicated plot ties the apparently unlinked a dead Israeli "diplomat", an Arab assasin, an IRA cell, a gay MP & into one coherent story ultimating revolving around a power struggle within MI5. It also brings in a few characters that Rebus fans will instantly recognise- journalist Jim Stevens and masseur "the organ grinder".
Watchman is not as good as the Rebus books. Miles Flint doesn't have anything like the depth of character of the Scottish cop. Likewise the locations jump too much & lack the gritty realism of Rebus's Edinburgh. Likwise the plot is slow to get going & its not obvious how the various threads tie together making the book initially quite slow & confusing. That said its still worth reading, mainly because when it does come together it REALLY comes together in an explosive ending. Anyone who enjoyed the three novels Rankin wrote as "Jack Harvey" will be quite satisfied with this.
In the midst of a career and marriage crisis, Miles is sent off to Ireland on what he believes is a simple surveillance job. Within hours he is running for his life, mixed up in a terrorist assassination on the wrong side of the border. Someone must have made a mistake, right?
Ian Rankin is renowned the world over for his DI Rebus novels. However, here we have a re-issue of an early Rankin novel, which will no doubt please his loyal fans.
Miles Flint is a great character, whose personality and confidence develops during his attempts to survive everything that MI5 throw at him. Will we see more of Miles Flint in future Rankin novels? I certainly hope so.
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