The two-and-a-half dimension (Bleeding Hearts - Ian Rankin)

Member Name: chris105

Product:	Bleeding Hearts - Ian Rankin
Date:	05/12/01 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very well-written crime story, tightly-constructed plot

Disadvantages: nothing previously unheard-of, adopts a few cliches

It's been quite some time since I've done one of these. Not that I haven't been reading. Au contraire... But those of you who've followed my ramblings over the past couple of months know I've been away from my computer for a while. Oh well. I guess it's about time I should resume chatting away about my recent reads.

As is apparent from my reading list, I have a soft spot for English writers, preferably crime writers and possibly not too 'Hollywood'. Two of the best crime writers, apart from the divine P.D. James of course, are Michael Dibdin and Ian Rankin. The former I've spoken about at length, and am consoled in my addiction thereof by a fellow aficionada harking from the land of the Meissen pieces. Ian Rankin (whom I've spoken about too, come to think of it) is a Scottish writer renowned for his Inspector Rebus series, set in Edinburgh and recently made into a TV series in the UK.

It is a trend with a few writers to differentiate between genres in their writing by signing off in two different names: theirs for one genre, and a pseudonym for another. Thus we have the Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell dichotomy. And we have the Ian Rankin/Jack Harvey one. Jack Harvey is considerably less well-known than Rankin, so much so that marketing dicta have meant that the Harvey books have been rejacketed with the traditional "Ian Rankin" writ large on the cover, followed by a rather smaller "writing as Jack Harvey". Ah, business!

In this category Orion have recently republished the 1994 "Bleeding Hearts", thus bringing to the fore a previously-unknown title and hopefully giving it the exposure it deserves.

For "Bleeding Hearts" is - and here I finally come to the point - a bleeding good crime novel, if you'll excuse my French. Rankin lays out his Sunday best, giving us one of his most tightly-plotted novels. The usual crime ingredients are all there, plentiful an
d taut - there's a carefully-planned murder, motives galore, shadowy individuals, ruthless killers and tenacious truth-seekers, without forgetting the ever-present belle of the situation. However ... and here's the rub ... all the positions are reversed:

The killer, Michael Weston, is revealed to us on the very first page, and it is he who speaks in the first person and guides us through this adventure. We (almost) sympathise with him and his quest for the perfect murder. The detective, on the other hand, who relentlessly follows Weston through two continents, is a cynical creature devoid of scruples, intent on prolonging as far as possible his 15 minutes of fame. Leo Hoffer (even his name sounds sleazy) is an American (shock! horror!) one-man-show detective agency, whose professional and personal quest in life is to track down the so-called Demolition Man, alias Michael Weston. The latter's modus operandi for contract killing makes him a relatively easy target to follow (if not to catch).

The story (at least insofar as I'll be letting you on into it!) starts off when Weston is given, by an anonymous employer, the assignment of a contract killing of a renowned journalist. Now before you all go link this to recent unpleasant history in London (as I initially did, I admit), please note that this book was written and first published in 1994, way before the notorious murder. Anyway, back to the story:

The hit is an unmitigated success. Weston in fact prides himself on his accuracy - having only one "miss" on his otherwise perfect CV - with his signature method of a single sniper shot taken from a safe distance. Something does go wrong in this assignment, though. The police are onto him in no time at all, practically a couple of minutes after the shooting. This leads Weston, who has suddenly turned from hunter to hunted, to suspect that he has been set up.

The rest of the novel preoccupies itself (and the read
er) with Weston's twofold quest: his search for the mysterious employer who set him up (or did he?), and his desperate escape from detective Hoffer and other unnamed men who seem intent on killing him.

I shall not divulge any further what goes on, if not to advise you that the development of the story is very tightly-constructed, with ample action and your usual lucky escapes and car chases. Indeed, there is sometimes an element of the "James Bond" theme here. Some scenes are heavily action-oriented, and could conceivably have been written for a different genre of book. However, Rankin's "effortless skill in writing" (to quote the blurb!) turns these otherwise-over-the-top scenes into good fiction, making for quick but fun reading.

There's much more, of course, but you'll have to read the book to find out. There's also a good pun in the title of the book, which'll become apparent as you read of Weston's distinguishing feature.

This is not the book to end all books - it will not reinvent the meaning of literature. However, as a gripping thriller having something more than your average Grisham, it satisfies.

Thus, for example, characters are firmly believable and go beyond the cardboard constructions of general fiction. They may not be fully fleshed out 3 dimensional characters, but they definitely make it into the 2 1/2 dimensional category. Weston's comrade-in-arms, Bel, is perhaps one of the least successful of the characterisations (IMHO...). She is in turns a defenceless girl, a weapons expert, a country girl with no big city experience, a seductress, a streetwise spy and a "smouldering temptress" (if you'll forgive my looting from my favourite film at the moment, Moulin Rouge). Bel is never turned into a real character, one we can relate to or at least believe. There's that feeling that the author tried to do too much there, not quite succeeding to the full.


But I'm nitpicking here. The book is great. Really. Just as long as you know what you're going in for (a crime/action thriller, more decently written than the norm but not in the Dibdin range), you'll have a smashing time with this book. You'll be enjoying a well-written, well-plotted story with ... need I say? ... a twist at the end.

Happy reading.

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