I listened to the Audiobook version of this book narrated by Peter Forbes. He did an excellent job. I’ve generally been impressed by the readers of the audiobooks I have listened to – the free librivox ones aren’t in the same league as the paid for versions (or in my case borrowed from the library versions)

This book has lots of threads which are slowly lain before us as the chapters evolve and then tied up nicely at the end. The story focuses on a member of the police complaints who finds himself under investigation. He teams up with another cop – who is himself under investigation for subscribing to a child porn site. The levels of trust / miss-trust build up as the book progresses creating a certain degree of paranoia – which puts you in a similar state of mind as the main character Malcolm Fox.

I don’t want to spoil it so I won’t talk about the plot anymore. The Edinburgh portrayed in the book is a cold and bleak place – a real place rather than a tourist destination. Technology is also dealt with well – it’s there it’s used it s not too intrusive – and there are no dead zones to explain why a phone can’t be used.

This book is the first Post-Rebus novel and – according to Amazon – is the first in a new series featuring Malcolm Fox. He will be an interesting person to follow having been through the events of this book. I’ll be keeping an eye out for book two

Audiobook Version
The Complaints, Ian Rankin
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Orion (5 Aug 2010)
ISBN-10: 1409103471
ISBN-13: 978-1409103479