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They say that there’s a kind of brotherhood among police officers—but that brotherhood doesn’t extend to men like Malcolm Fox. Fox’s job in Edinburgh’s Complaints and Conduct department (also known more simply as “The Complaints”) makes him an outsider on the force—because it’s his job to investigate his fellow officers.
After closing his latest case, Fox is sent to work with another one of the police force’s outsider departments: the Child Protection department. An officer named Jamie Breck is under investigation in connection with a major child pornography case, and the department asks Fox and his team to dig a little deeper.
The case gets messy, though, when Fox’s sister’s abusive boyfriend, Vince, is found dead. Suddenly, Fox is a murder suspect—and Jamie Breck is handling the investigation.
As Fox and Breck explore Edinburgh’s underbelly to investigate a number of separate (but possibly connected) cases, things in The Complaints get more and more complex. Along the way, they face all kinds of goons, dirty cops, and slick businessmen—and, eventually, the story becomes hopelessly tangled in a web of set-ups, conspiracies, and shady business dealings. When it’s over, you still might not completely understand how all of the characters (and all of their dealings) fit together—or why you should care—but at least the Scottish setting and the unexpected characters make for an interesting read.
Fans of Rankin’s John Rebus series will find themselves reading about a very different hero here—a generally by-the-book kind of cop who gave up booze and listens to birds singing on the radio. Fox doesn’t have a particularly strong personality, but he’s a devoted son and brother, who would happily hand over the last change in his pocket to take care of his family. He’s a loyal friend and colleague, too—though this case makes him start questioning his loyalties.
Most of all, though, Fox’s position within the Complaints makes him an intriguing character. He’s definitely an outsider—the kind of cop that the other cops avoid like the plague—and that gives the same old police procedural a very different perspective. Instead of being treated like a brother, Fox is treated like the enemy—and he meets resistance wherever he goes (especially since most of the cops who are investigating Vince’s murder are friends of Fox’s most recent victim).
The case is made even more fascinating by the involvement of yet another set of outsiders—the Child Protection officers, who see things that no other cops want to hear (or even think) about. So the fact that their part of the story is kept to a minimum is both a blessing and a curse—a blessing because it keeps the story from delving into too many disturbing details and a curse because it feels like one of the more fascinating storylines is all but dropped in the middle of the novel.
The Complaints, then, is a mystery that’s worth reading more for its philosophical aspects than its action and suspense. The complex story is likely to leave readers feeling unsatisfied (and maybe even indifferent), but the characters and the difficult decisions they face will give you plenty to think about along the way.
