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<\/a><\/p>\nFleshmarket Close is the fifteen John Rebus adventure, but it does not match up to the very high standard Ian Rankin had set himself from about Black and Blue onwards. Here is a summary of the plot from the Amazon listing of the book\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cAn 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. But Rebus is that most stubborn of creatures. As Rebus investigates, he must visit an asylum seekers\u2019 detention centre, deal with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld, and maybe even fall in love\u2026Siobhan meanwhile has problems of her own. A teenager has disappeared from home and Siobhan is drawn into helping the family, which will mean travelling closer than is healthy towards the web of a convicted rapist. Then there\u2019s the small matter of the two skeletons \u2013 a woman and an infant \u2013 found buried beneath a concrete cellar floor in Fleshmarket Close. The scene begins to look like an elaborate stunt \u2013 but whose, and for what purpose? And how can it tie to the murder on the unforgiving housing-scheme known as Knoxland?\u201d <\/p>\n
The subject matter is actually quite appropriate to a blog post on the 4th of July\u2014 its about refugees, illegal aliens, the slave trade in foreign brought into Western countries by greedy persons in Scotland\u2026 or say America, greedy persons who are all to willing to turn a blind eye to the illegal status or immigrant character of a worker, if they will work for slave\u2019s wages. This is a pertinent and important topic to discuss, but this novel only scratches the surface of the issue, does not dig too deeply\u2014 shows the morass but offers few constructive responses. <\/p>\n
As for our favorite subjects\u2013 John Rebus, Siobhan Clarke, Ger Caferty\u2026 they are in this novel, but Caferty is mainly in the background, and despite hopes raised by the end of the previous novel, a Question of Blood, which was excellent, there is no further development in the relationship of Rebus and Clarke worth mentioning\u2026. not that I would mention it and spoil things anyway!! What we do get a strong sense of is Rebus being further marginalized, not given cases to manage directly, having to plug in where he can help others, not even given a decent desk in a police station, as the powers that be try to push him out the door, or make clear he is persona non grata. And totally missing in this novel is Gil Templer, or Rebus\u2019 daughter Sammy, or Rebus\u2019 brother Michael\u2026 In other words, this novel has some lacunae, some gaps, and falls short. Now were this novel by a lesser author, it would likely be seen as a good novel, raising a few interesting questions about illegal immigrants. But Ian Rankin is no ordinary novelist\u2026 and we have come to expect better of him. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fleshmarket Close is the fifteen John Rebus adventure, but it does not match up to the very high standard Ian Rankin had set himself from about Black and Blue onwards. Here is a summary of the plot from the Amazon listing of the book\u2026 \u201cAn illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":5906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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