I do so love a book that weaves history in with a fictional plot. Mr. Kerr is great at doing that. Bernie Gunther is the hero in these books. He was a police officer in Germany pre-World War II and was basically roped into becoming a Nazi soldier. That whole story is also weaved throughout the series and how they got to him – well obviously violence but you know what I mean. Bernie cannot go back to Germany in the mid-1950s due to the fact that he was officially a Nazi soldier. He has been hiding in Argentina – big surprise there – and has now made it to Cuba. I haven’t been reading these in order so not sure exactly how that came about except that no one is looked at too closely and there are many nationalities still in Cuba at this time. Batista is still in power but Castro and his rebels are starting to make a dent. There are many sympathizers to the communist way in Cuba around this time probably due to the deplorable conditions a lot of the people were having to live in.

At the start of this book mid-1930s, Hitler is in power and Bernie is working as a hotel detective in Berlin. Anti-Semitism is starting to be a part of everyday life. ‘Real Germans’ are encouraged to not give any business to Jews and the Jews are highly encouraged to get out of the country. As is true to the time no one ever questions that these are Germans. Judaism is not a nationality but a religion. Anyway even those ‘good Germans’ are having to eradicate any ‘Jewishness’ from their history to avoid any visits from Gestapo. Ridiculous as this may seem, this is part of our world history and Bernie is very good at mocking the whole system while trying to live within it.

As hotel detective, Bernie is responsible for security and dealing with any number of small or large complaints from guests. He is asked to respond to a wealthy hotel guest who is visiting on business from the States. He claims to have lost a very valuable wooden Chinese box. The night before a guest was seen in the company of a ‘lady of the night’ who seems to have disappeared and the gentleman whom she was with, to have died without warning. He was dreadfully overweight and probably had a heart attack but there is still the mystery of the woman who was nowhere to be found and his wallet and valuables untouched. These two stories plunge us headfirst into a mystery that culminates in Cuba. We hear Bernie’s commentary throughout the book and he is smart and witty albeit sometimes a little too sure of himself.

In the United States this department is called I.A. or Internal Affairs. The Complaints Department deals with the force and any suspicions against them. No one in the Police Force particularly likes Complaints. They are seen as snitching and snooping on those who keep the peace. This is Ian Rankin’s first story after his enormously successful Detective Rebus’ retirement. He wrote those in chronological order and retired him when he would have been of age. So now we meet Malcolm Fox. His job is to investigate fellow officers.

I didn’t know how I would feel about a different hero being such a huge Rebus fan, but Fox is quite brill. Obviously intelligent but also up to date on investigating. This story starts with the culmination of a case for Fox. He has finally brought enough evidence against a dirty cop and he is ready for his next assignment. Unfortunately he is sent to vice for a briefing about a cop suspected of using child pornography. As the story evolves we are introduced to Fox’s sister who is in an abusive relationship with a man she swears she loves. What a position for a policeman to be in; stand by and watch your sister get beaten up or do something about it. Of course, she won’t press charges. To add to Fox’s stress level is his father who is living in an old people’s home. He is doing well but is not completely aware of his daughter and her lifestyle.

The Complaints Department that Fox works for only has four employees. They keep things pretty tight to their chests and have very few friends throughout the rest of the police force. As is usual for colleagues, they know a lot about each other’s lives. Malcolm’s work mates are concerned about his sister as well and encourage him to think of how to remedy her situation. The story escalates dramatically when the boyfriend of the sister turns up dead. She is, of course, suspected due to the violence and her sporting a broken arm thanks to the victim. Malcolm is supposed to back off completely and not have anything to do with her case but realistically who can honestly say they will do nothing. To add insult to injury, one of the officers on her case is someone the complaints may be investigating. The plot does get stickier and stickier.

There are many different levels to this story but Rankin never leaves us out in the cold trying to remember which character is which. We meet quite a few nasty bastards and Fox gets into some very scary situations. To be honest I hope they televise these as they have done with Rebus – I think they would be great. You can imagine the Scottish underworld skulking around the back streets of Edinburgh in the wee hours. Anyway enough said – great book!