Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin
Jul. 14th, 2006 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme: a racist attack, or something else entirely? Rebus is drawn into the case, but has other problems: his old police station has closed for business, and his masters would rather he retire than stick around.
Siobhan, meanwhile, has problems of her own. A teenager has disappeared from home and Siobhan is drawn into helping the family, which means travelling closer than is healthy towards the web of a convicted rapist. Then there's the small matter of the two skeletons - a woman and an infant - found bured beneath a concrete cellar floor in Fleshmarket Close. The scene begins to look like an elaborate stunt - but whose, and for what purpose ... ?
Forget the murder, the real point about this story is to examine attitudes towards immigration policy, using Rebus as the magnifying lense. For all that, it is an interesting book and the way the strands come together is satisfying (as you would expect from an author of Rankin's skill).
There are some niggles - Caro Quinn, an artist who keeps a vigil outside the Whitemire Detention Centre and who is concerned about the plight of the immigrants inside is a strangely flat character. I think that Rankin is in two minds as to what to do with her - on the one hand she is set up as a potential love interest for Rebus, on the other she represents the borderline naive left-wing liberals who refuse to accept any opinion on asylum and immigration that does not tie in with theirs. As a result, I found her rather irritating and failed to see what Rebus could possibly be attracted to within her. Mo Dirwan, the immigration lawyer who keeps popping up is much more interesting, possibly because you are never quite sure whether he is genuinely interested in the immigrant community or whether he has his own political agenda. In fact, I would be interested to see this character pop up again, just to see what he does in future.
We do see the return of Rebus's nemesis, Big Ger Cafferty and in a way, I really wish we didn't because as soon as he emerges on the page you get a feel for what's really going on and as such, it's a little disappointing to be proved right. Fortunately, he's not in the book for very long so you don't have the same old taunting that we've seen in previous books, but it would still be nice for another Big Villain to come along to give some variety to Edinburgh's underworld.
Like I said, Rankin keeps the two strands of his plot moving along nicely and keeps them intertwined in an intelligent way when he needs to. I did find myself less emotionally involved in Siobhan's case (probably because I didn't feel any connection with the parents or even really get into Siobhan's motivation for getting involved), and I thought that the pay-off was more than a little pat, but there were no loose ends and every question was answered. Rebus's case is handled in a more satisfying way (although I did guess the twist) and as compared with some of the earlier Rebus stories, he does actually solve this, rather than get lucky and find himself stumbling into the finale.
The Verdict:
Well plotted, some nice twists and hangs together nicely (even if the ending is a little too neat). Well worth a look-see for fans of the genre and another solid addition to Rankin's Rebus series.
An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme: a racist attack, or something else entirely? Rebus is drawn into the case, but has other problems: his old police station has closed for business, and his masters would rather he retire than stick around.
Siobhan, meanwhile, has problems of her own. A teenager has disappeared from home and Siobhan is drawn into helping the family, which means travelling closer than is healthy towards the web of a convicted rapist. Then there's the small matter of the two skeletons - a woman and an infant - found bured beneath a concrete cellar floor in Fleshmarket Close. The scene begins to look like an elaborate stunt - but whose, and for what purpose ... ?
Forget the murder, the real point about this story is to examine attitudes towards immigration policy, using Rebus as the magnifying lense. For all that, it is an interesting book and the way the strands come together is satisfying (as you would expect from an author of Rankin's skill).
There are some niggles - Caro Quinn, an artist who keeps a vigil outside the Whitemire Detention Centre and who is concerned about the plight of the immigrants inside is a strangely flat character. I think that Rankin is in two minds as to what to do with her - on the one hand she is set up as a potential love interest for Rebus, on the other she represents the borderline naive left-wing liberals who refuse to accept any opinion on asylum and immigration that does not tie in with theirs. As a result, I found her rather irritating and failed to see what Rebus could possibly be attracted to within her. Mo Dirwan, the immigration lawyer who keeps popping up is much more interesting, possibly because you are never quite sure whether he is genuinely interested in the immigrant community or whether he has his own political agenda. In fact, I would be interested to see this character pop up again, just to see what he does in future.
We do see the return of Rebus's nemesis, Big Ger Cafferty and in a way, I really wish we didn't because as soon as he emerges on the page you get a feel for what's really going on and as such, it's a little disappointing to be proved right. Fortunately, he's not in the book for very long so you don't have the same old taunting that we've seen in previous books, but it would still be nice for another Big Villain to come along to give some variety to Edinburgh's underworld.
Like I said, Rankin keeps the two strands of his plot moving along nicely and keeps them intertwined in an intelligent way when he needs to. I did find myself less emotionally involved in Siobhan's case (probably because I didn't feel any connection with the parents or even really get into Siobhan's motivation for getting involved), and I thought that the pay-off was more than a little pat, but there were no loose ends and every question was answered. Rebus's case is handled in a more satisfying way (although I did guess the twist) and as compared with some of the earlier Rebus stories, he does actually solve this, rather than get lucky and find himself stumbling into the finale.
The Verdict:
Well plotted, some nice twists and hangs together nicely (even if the ending is a little too neat). Well worth a look-see for fans of the genre and another solid addition to Rankin's Rebus series.
