After the wonderfully gloomy Rebus novels, we now have Ian Rankin's second great sleuth: DI Malcolm Fox, who investigates bent coppers. Here, he's in Fife checking out a possible police cover-up when he unearths an extraordinary story of terrorism in the Kirkcaldy of the 1980s. This is vintage Rankin, a five-star crime novel by an author at the height of his powers. After reading it, you'll never look at the SNP in the same light again'
READER'S DIGEST - A N Wilson

This is the second outing for Rankin's Inspector Malcolm Fox, who has the seemingly impossible job of rooting out corrupt colleagues
DAILY MIRROR - Henry Sutton

Proving there's life - and murder - after gloomy Rebus, Rankin pops up with a new cop here, DI Fox
MAIL ON SUNDAY 'LIVE'

confirms Fox as an intriguing character full of depth - and consolidates Rankin's position at the forefront of the crime writing pack
WE LOVE THIS BOOK - Doug Johnstone

Criminally good
WOMAN AND HOME - Fanny Blake

The plot, pacing and characterisation are all handled with impeccable skill, while Rankin infuses his story with subtle social commentary into the bargain. Fans may still mourn Rebus, but Fox is a worthy replacement
BIG ISSUE

No one writes dialogue that seethes with conflict as well as him
EVENING STANDARD - Mark Sanderson

This is Rankin, so it's only to be expected that the plotting should be tight, the dialogue quick-fire, the crimes disturbingly believable, taking place as they do in a world that is so thoroughly and obviously our own, today. What the creator of Rebus also gives us in Fox - initially in the inspector's first outing, The Complaints, and again here is another complex, driven policeman: difficult, largely miserable and lonely, but utterly real'
THE OBSERVER - Alison Flood

What is the most memorable here is the storyline about the deterioration of Fox's father, handled so sensitively as to make Henning Mankell's depiction of the decline of Wallander's father seem histrionic
FINANCIAL TIMES - Jake Kerridge

Fox remains a worthy successor to Rebus, retaining his outsider status and incorruptibility but operating in a much more modern context
SUNDAY TIMES - Joan Smith

Post-Rebus Rankin has lost none of his mastery of excitingly gripping storystelling
THE TIMES - Marcel Berlins

masterful thriller that will have you gripped to the very last page
CANDIS

taut, compulsive and hugely satisfying, with plenty to say about the limits of memory and the dangers of historical idealism. If this is where Rankin is now, I'm not sure I'd want him to be anywhere else
GUARDIAN - John O'Connell

Rankin remains the crime writer's crime writer - a clear-headed moralist in a grimy world
VOYAGER

He offers an account of personal and political alienation, the tactics needed to contain terrorism, and the desirability or otherwise of deceit
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT - Natasha Cooper

Rebus is one of British crime fiction's great creations. With Malcolm Fox, Rankin has the potential to trump even that towering achievement
IRISH EXAMINER

Fox's second outing is furiously readable and very satifying
MORNING STAR - Matt Coward

Fox - in so many ways the anti-Rebus - has developed into a fully realised character in his own right, despite the seemingly insurmountable hindrances Rankin has placed on him (in short, he's made a virtue out of slight, decent dullness). Chandler famously described his detective as a ''shop-soiled Galahad'', and it is fascinating how modern writers are moving away from such blatant mythologising.
THE SCOTSMAN - Stuart Kelly

This second outing for Rankin's recent incarnation, Malcolm Fox of Professional Standards, opens with an investigation into alleged perjury by detectives at the trial of a fellow officer. However, two sudden deaths lead Fox to investigate the death of a nationalist lawyer in 1985 causing the old and new worlds of Scottish nationalism to collide dangerously. The narrative is well paced, the story developing in unexpected turns with equally unexpected individuals coming under Fox's forensic focus.
JOURNAL OF THE LAW SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND

Fox is decent, rule-abiding and teetotal - more or less an anti-Rebus, in many ways, though he operates in the same world as his predecessor. He's developing into an interesting character, not least because of his simple decency
THE SPECTATOR - Andrew Taylor

Could Ian Rankin ever follow his Rebus success? Happily for his fans, he proves he can
SUNDAY EXPRESS

Last of all, envy stops me from saying more about Ian Rankin's new novel, than that it's impossibly good
THE SCOTSMAN - Philip Kerr

In the hands of a less accomplished and skilled operator, the resultant plot might feel like an impenetrable Gordian knot. However, the author unravels it inch by inch until it takes on the murky tones of an Edge of Darkness-style political thriller.
SUNDAY EXPRESS - David Connett

Fox chugs Irn-Bru while tackling tensions both on the force and closer to home. A terrific second outing for Rankin's new policeman protagonist.
TIME OUT - Daneet Steffens

A seamless blend of the personal and the political, The Impossible Dead is a subversive treatise on modern democracy masquerading as a police procedural, and a thoroughly entertaining thriller to boot
IRISH TIMES

Rebus may be gone, but Ian Rankin still walks confidently among strong passions
THE OLDIE

Another stellar performance by Ian Rankin
DEADLY PLEASURES