About the Author

Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987 and the Rebus books are now translated into twenty-two languages and are bestsellers on several continents. 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. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Hull and Edinburgh. He has also 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.

Reviews

Like all good crime novels, it takes you to places that you did not know existed - and, even if you did, would not wish to visit. Fox, brave and kind beneath his world-weary exterior, makes for an excellent guide. Rankin's legion of fans will have no grounds for complaints - EVENING STANDARD - Mark SandersonGetting to know this man [Fox], an intriguing mix of apathy and action, is almost like a courtship - each new situation reveals something that makes the reader want to know yet more - THE INDEPENDENT - Rebecca ArmstrongRankin delivers, without the help of Rebus, an excellent cop novel full of action, good dialogue, well-crafted characters and an authentic backdrop - THE TIMES - Marcel BerlinsRankin's touch for literary elements outwith genre expectations continues to be excellent. Even a brief paragraph about Fox's childhood contains as much nostagic fizz as a bubble of Irn Bru caught in a spluttering kid's nostril - SUNDAY HERALD GLASGOW - Alan MorrisonRankin's trademark pace and descriptive eye are as sharp as ever, while the post-banking collapse setting, full of worried property developers and dodgy money men, gives the book a strong contemporary feel. It's a gripping police thriller - METRO - Aaron LaveryIt may be heresy to say so, but I was never very excited by Inspector Rebus. I am much more interested in Rankin's new addition to the list of E

Fans of Rankin's Det. Insp. John Rebus will be disappointed by this so-so police procedural, his second stand-alone since Rebus "retired" (after Doors Open). Malcolm Fox-call him Rebus "Lite" (he doesn't drink, he broods less, and he has none of Rebus's wit)-works for the Scottish equivalent of Internal Affairs, "Complaints and Conduct" (aka "the Complaints"), which investigates corrupt cops. Fox looks into the case of Det. Sgt. Jamie Breck, who may be trading in child pornography over the Internet. Meanwhile, when Vince Faulkner, Fox's sister's lover and abuser, turns up dead, Fox becomes a murder suspect. A torturously complicated plot follows involving the suspicious suicide of a failing property developer, large-scale money laundering, and crookedness at every level of Scottish society, but nothing's really at stake. As always with Rankin, Scotland itself is a main character-"the whole of Scotland's in meltdown," says Fox-and that may be this tepid novel's main attraction. 10-city author tour. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.