Fleshmarket Close by Ian Rankin

Ian Rankin is an excellent crime writer, and his latest Inspector Rebus novel Fleshmarket Close does not disappoint. This book concentrates on a contemporary issue of hate crimes and asylum seekers - Scotland has in the past few years taken a large number (in relation to its population) of them and it has been causing problems. In the book John Rebus (who hasn't even got a desk after relocating to a new offices - a not too subtle hint from his superiors that he should seek retirement) has been assigned to investigate a murder of an unknown victim, believed to be a target of a race crime, on a volatile and violent Edinburgh housing estate called Knoxland. His friend and colleague DS Siobhan Clarke is working on several seemingly unrelated minor cases, each are trying to take the best out of a bad situation.

You would think that the issue of asylum seekers and refugees would be a dead horse as a subject by now, but Rankin tackles the issue masterfully without lectures or finger-pointing. Book's plot is fairly complicated with so many cases going on and several characters involved with them - but somehow it never gets confusing or tedious. Rankin's strengths are in characters, though. This is the second Rebus novel I've read, but it's number 15 in the series so you could argue that he's had time to practice - but whatever the reason, John Rebus is one of the better characters in crime fiction. But it's really character of Siobhan that most impresses me - I just mentioned how annoyed I was with the weak female characters in 1st to Die, and Siobhan is on the other end of the spectrum - in my mind the best female character as written by a male author. Honestly, she's so real because Rankin doesn't make a big deal out of her gender but makes her human - still somehow keeping the touch of that femininity.

That's it - I can't wait for another year for another book. I need to get my hands on the 13 previous ones.

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