Amazon Review
Fleshmarket Close is not one of the best of Rankin's John Rebus thrillers, but his second-best is still more than excellent. Middle age is catching up with Rebus--he currently has no desk as a none-too-subtle hint from his superiors that he should seek retirement--but he and his friend and protegee Siobhan, who is still not his lover, race around investigating a variety of seemingly unconnected cases
The sister of a dead rape victim is missing; stolen medical skeletons turn up embedded in a concrete floor; a Kurdish journalist is brutally killed; the son of a Glasgow ganglord has moved in to the Edinburgh vice scene. Much of the book is dominated by two new settings--a sink estate divided between racist thugs and refugees, and a small town whose economy is dominated by an internment camp for those about to be deported; this is one of Rankin's preachier thrillers, but it is never less than intelligent and evocative in its descriptions of a contemporary squalor that spreads beyond the inner city. These are never quite orthodox police procedurals--Rebus' method is a little too like the standard private eye's way of wandering around being rude to people until something comes loose--but they have a deep seriousness about the way we live now that transcends mere noir moodiness.--Roz Kaveney
Review
Another year and another surefire bestseller for Britain's No1 crime writer, Ian Rankin (Andrea Henry DAILY MIRROR)
Of the new breed of crime writers, no one writes more gripping stories than Rankin; his imagination peopls Edinburgh the way Balzac's fantasy did Paris. The scenes which emerge...are the product of a troubling imagination and a probing intellect which uses the crime genre to examine aspects of life, especially contemporary Scottish life, that politicians prefer to ignore (Joseph Farrell TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT)
Rankin at his best, recalling Dickens both in the vigour and ambition of their social portraiture and in their campaigning thrust (John Dugdale SUNDAY TIMES)
Rankin has clearly been grooming the enigmatic DS Siobhan Clarke to take over as hero, but the cynical old soak Rebus won't leave, which is good news for the reader...With author and characters on such good form, there is no need for Rebus to go quite yet (Marcel Berlins THE TIMES)
As always, Rankin proves himself the master of his own milieu. He brings the dark underside of Edinburgh deliciously to life.. Rankin never puts a foot wrong (Tom Kyle DAILY MAIL)
It's another Rebus novel you can't put down, and Rankin at his most powerful (CHOICE)
Ironic, exiting and immediate. The plot is resourceful; characterisation sharp; humour as unexpected as a rug jerked from under your feet. Despite the wear and tear, Rebus has never looked in better shape; a long, long way, I'd have thought, from retirement (Philip Oakes LITERARY REVIEW)
Rankin's best novel yet and that's saying something (Peter Guttridge THE OBSERVER)
As ever, Rankin is superb (John Major MAIL ON SUNDAY - Christmas Books)
A powerful book, brimming with genuine social comment (Rab Anderson SUNDAY EXPRESS - 4 Star Review)
A powerful writer, able to marry social and political issues of the day with a rattling good read (Elizabeth Buie GLASGOW HERALD)
This is Ian Rankin's 16th (sic) Rebus novel and, unusually for such a long-running series, it is the later ones that are the best (Aileen Reid SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)
Unmissable (Alex Gordon PETERBOROUGH TELEGRAPH)
When it comes to complex storylines that hook you in, churn you up and spit you out, nobody does it better (Shari Low DAILY RECORD)
Works on every level, with Rankin not only delivery a superior mystery but finding ample opportunity to delivery highly evocative comments on uglier aspects of contemporary Western European society (George Byrne DUBLIN EVENING HERALD)
Ian Rankin is a master of page-turning plot and gritty detail, with each narrative delving deeper into the dark side of human nature and of present day Edinburgh... Recommended (Paula Shields IRISH EXAMINER)
Rankin is a craftsman, but far from escapism, this is an uncomfortable read, reflecting only too well the nastiness of our society (GLASGOW EVENING TIMES)
Ian Rankin's plotting is steady and compulsive...And while you just know Rebus is always going to get his man, the moral areas between good and evil are realistically hazy (Mark Robertson THE LIST (GLASGOW & EDINBURGH))
Rankin's prose is striking and he is invariably evocative and insightful. There's also a genuine and powerful righteous anger permeating Fleshmarket Cose, with its depictions of social exclusion, contemporary squalor and corruption tainting the powerful (TRIBUNE)
As always, the dialogue is witty, the Edinburgh locations evocative and REbus' laconic observations and encylopedic knowledge of rock music are amusing and interesting. As well the plot delivers some good twists and surprises. Highly recommended (DEADLY PLEASURES)
Book Description
The fifteenth Rebus novel from the Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author.
About the Author
Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into thirty-six languages and are bestsellers worldwide.Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005. In 2004, Ian won America's celebrated Edgar Award for Resurrection Men. He has also been shortlisted for the Anthony Award in the USA, won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the Deutscher Krimipreis. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Hull and the Open University.A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts. Rankin is a number one bestseller in the UK and has received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons. www.ianrankin.net Twitter @Beathhigh
