The Hidden Assassins

by: Robert Wilson

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Fleshmarket Alley

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This is the first novel I've read by Ian Rankin – but it won't be the last. Fleshmarket Alley isn't at all what the title suggests, and Mr. Rankin's knowledge of the seedier side of Edinburgh, Scotland is written to immediately engage our interest. Ian Rankin has penned a number of other Inspector John Rebus novels and I only wish I could read them all – unfortunately lately it seems to be a case of 'So many books – so little time!' Fleshmarket Alley adroitly combines illegal immigrants, crooks, a rapist and Irish terrorists along with a healthy dose of murder. Who could ask for more?

Detective Inspector John Rebus has been transferred and dumped into less than ideal conditions at Gayfield Square along with his sidekick, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke. He's been dumped there primarily because his superiors don't know what else to do with him. So - Rebus takes every opportunity afforded him to escape the place – and the first thing that comes along is the discovery of two skeletons under a concrete cellar floor that's being torn up for renovation of a pub. The skeletons are of a mother and a baby.

Siobhan gets a plateful: John and Alice Jardine were the parents of a daughter Tracy, who had been raped by Donald Cruikshank and eventually had committed suicide because of it. Rebus and Clarke had been on the case. Now their only other daughter, Ishbel, has gone missing, and they've come to Siobhan, begging for help. Meanwhile Rebus is investigating the homicide of Stef Yurgii - a Turkish Kurd immigrant and a father who has left behind an entire family who doesn't speak English. The family is being held for eventual deportation in a complex reminding one more of a prison than a deportation center.

Donald Cruikshank, who was incarcerated for rape, is now free. He's also eventually dead – murdered brutally. Complications arise, and the various situations begin to blur. Howard Slother (Howie) appears on the scene. Howie is a teenager of about fifteen who first attempts to stop a man's protestations about the treatment of illegal aliens with a rock. Later he's seen hobnobbing with one of the suspects in the Stef Yrgii murder case. Howie is Irish. Caro Quinn is a young woman Rebus meets outside the walls of the deportation complex called Whitemire. Caro has made it her objective to perform a vigil outside the gates in protest of immigrant treatment. She's an artist. Caro has also seen Rebus drive to the center while his car was loaded with toys for the Yurgii kids.

Of course, that's hardly all the personnel involved. There's Dr. Alexis Cater, son of a famous USA movie star, who thinks he can win Siobhan over with either his name or his good looks. He knows something about the discovered skeletons. There's Ray Mangold, owner of the pub where the skeletons were found, who claims the concrete was poured prior to his taking over the site. Felix Storey, a black Immigration official, has inside hints on exactly what's going to happen next in his field. Morris Gerald Cafferty, known as Big Ger, is a supposedly retired gangster, but witnesses to his dealings had all suddenly disappeared. Kawame Mana, calling herself Kate, is a student at Pollock Halls who works part-time in a sleazy pub as a dancer. Kate is also in a home-made porn movie Rebus where Rebus discovers the identity of still another man who is part of the jigsaw puzzle. Stuart Bullen, Peter Hill, the names increase as the whole operation slowly unravels.

The underlying reasons for the murders reach much farther than one would initially suppose. Rebus and Siobhan manage to uncover them all, with Rebus giving us all a final surprise at the very end of the novel. In Fleshmarket Alley, Ian Rankin proves once more that he's an exceptionally good teller of murder mystery tales, well worthy of his many awards and honors.

Alan Paul Curtis

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