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The Impossible Dead [Kindle Edition]

Ian Rankin (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (195 customer reviews)
Print List Price: £7.99
Kindle Price: £1.49 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Product Description

Review

Fox is an engaging character from the downtrodden-but-righteous-rozzer school, and Peter Forbes's attuned reading keeps the ever-complicating plot rattling along. (Karen Robinson THE SUNDAY TIMES 2011-12-12)

Book Description

Malcolm Fox returns in the stunning second novel in Ian Rankin's new series...
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 612 KB
  • Print Length: 385 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0752889532
  • Publisher: Orion (13 Oct 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0752889532
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752889535
  • ASIN: B005I5477O
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray:
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (195 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #22 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's Ian Rankin Page
Ian Rankin
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.

Here are the Inspector Rebus stories in series order:

Knots and Crosses
Hide and Seek
Tooth and Nail
Strip Jack
The Black Book
Mortal Causes
Let it Bleed
Black and Blue
The Hanging Garden
Dead Souls
Set in Darkness
The Falls
Resurrection Men
A Question of Blood
Fleshmarket Close
The Naming of the Dead
Exit Music

Short stories:
A Good Hanging - 12 Inspector Rebus mysteries
Beggars Banquet (non-Rebus short stories)

Here are the Jack Harvey novels in series order:

Witch Hunt
Bleeding Hearts
Blood Hunt

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
142 of 151 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Rebus... 15 Oct 2011
By FictionFan TOP 100 REVIEWER VINE VOICE
Format:Kindle Edition
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. Read more ›
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42 of 47 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Readable but not great 31 Oct 2011
By Bluebell TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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25 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Seamless transition 23 Oct 2011
By Midnight TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
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. Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Leisure reading
Anything by Ian Rankin is sure to be well written.
Down-loaded to my Kindle it will be ideal for a long train journey.
Published 1 day ago by John M.McGregor
4.0 out of 5 stars Malcolm Fox versus Rebus
Ian Rankin has done it again ,his new Inspector Malcolm Fox is every bit as intriguing as Rebus, well done Rankin
Published 1 month ago by Kevin Butler
5.0 out of 5 stars 'The Inspector Fox series'
I doubted that Ian Rankin would be able to improve on Inspector Rebus but I have to say that in Inspector Fox, He has created a worthy successor.
Published 1 month ago by R Brierley
4.0 out of 5 stars Another good Ian Rankin
I really enjoy Ian Rankin novels and this is another good one. It's the 'Complaints' people with Malcolm Fox - and I really enjoyed it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sazmcd
5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsive reading
As always another great read from Ian Rankin. I found that it helped a lot that I was very familiar with the set areasand they are not fictitious.
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. M. Green
5.0 out of 5 stars Rankin is a Master
Yet another fascinating story, hard to put down. Being a newcomer to Rebus and Fox means I have many more books to read.
Published 1 month ago by Mr. A. L. Miles
5.0 out of 5 stars rankin delivers
As usual ian rankin has created a craking tale. Down to earth and full of twists and turns keeps you interested to the last page
Published 2 months ago by leslie johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Another good read from Ian Rankin,a riveting read from start to finish,with a good mix of fact and fiction.His description of Edinburgh and surrounding areas adds to the mix.
Published 2 months ago by Brian Mackie
5.0 out of 5 stars i like rankins stories
Good value good bookand very easy to read The product was exactly as described in the advertisement what else can I say
Published 2 months ago by Gerrybell
1.0 out of 5 stars The Impossibly Deadly
this reads like one long twitter feed. anorexic plot, minimal movement, monosyllabic dialog, zero characterization...and no clues! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Zangiku
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Popular Highlights

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Inspector Malcolm Fox Series The Complaints "e;
Highlighted by 10 Kindle users
"e;
POETS Day, remember! Fox smiled to himself: Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday. "e;
Highlighted by 7 Kindle users
"e;
Paul Carter was the reason they’d come to Fife. "e;
Highlighted by 4 Kindle users

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