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Whether or not Ian Rankin's John Rebus police procedurals or his stand-alone works are seen as "literary" is totally irrelevant to the elements that make all of them exciting, entertaining, often funny, well plotted and a cut above the ordinary. His ironic twists accelerate the pace and keep readers breathlessly carried along by the action. BLEEDING HEARTS is the newest thriller to appear in the United States --- it was published in England in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey. In it, we follow the trajectories of the lives of two men: an assassin of international repute, and a former NYPD cop now turned private eye who has vowed to track down the infamous killer and execute him.
The story opens in a hotel bar in England where me meet the killer, Michael Weston, having a drink with a passing acquaintance. In his first-person narration he tells readers that his mark has only three more hours to live, while opining to his companion: "You know what it's like these days --- only the toughest are making it. No room for bleeding hearts though of course in my line of work bleeding hearts are the business."
Today his assignment is to shoot a woman who will be leaving a particular hotel, at a particular time, wearing a particular dress patterned in yellow and blue. He has no idea who she is and doesn't really care. Later, as the police show up at almost the precise second he pulls the trigger, he can't believe what has just transpired. How could they be here so quickly? he wonders. His ad-hoc plan to leave the scene is to call 999 and ask for an ambulance because, he tells them, he's "a severe hemophiliac" who has been involved in a terrible accident and his head is bleeding.
Weston in fact is a hemophiliac, albeit a mild one, and this twist adds verisimilitude to the character that is more cerebral than physical. As happens in life, his illness is a curse and a blessing --- this time it is his means of escape and soon he is free. He now can ponder what went wrong; this was supposed to be an easy hit. His conclusion: he had to have been set up --- but by whom, and why?
Weston must escape to safety and makes his way to an isolated farm where Max and his daughter Belle live. They deal in arms of every sort and sell to anyone with enough cash to pay for them. Weston needs their support and access to their cache. He rests a bit and plans an assault on a so-far phantom enemy.
Weston has always worked through a middleman, the gunrunner Max. He never wanted to get "personally involved" with his victims or paymasters. Death is only the result of the job he has to do; it is a fact of life but not necessarily one he cares to analyze. He is very smart, very careful, very dedicated and very lethal. He looks like an average man of a certain age who is personable but reveals nothing about himself to anyone.
Meanwhile, in Vine Street police station, Chief Inspector Bob Broome comes to the conclusion that Weston, dubbed the "Demolition Man," is the shooter. But the police have no clear evidence to point to the real target. "The people on the [hotel] steps, that's another thing. We've got a journalist [dead], a secretary of state, and some senior guy from an East European embassy."
After a powwow with his detectives, Broome makes a call to the United States --- to Leo Hoffer, who ran his own detective agency. These days, Hoffer's only personal client is Robert Walkins, the father of a young woman who the Demolition Man killed in a freak accident, which so far was Weston's only miss. Walkins and Hoffer have been obsessed with finding the D-Man and killing him.
Ian Rankin is one of those writers whose prose grabs the reader with the first line. From there it's a heady journey through a fast-paced, intelligent plotline, awash with characters who jump off the page and a climax that turns everything the reader was thinking upside down. BLEEDING HEARTS is not only a thriller about a sniper and the man who tracks him. It is also a story that is timely and raises issues of good and evil to a higher plane. Rankin wants the reader inside the heads of his anti-hero and his nemesis. Their thoughts, their rationalizations, their uncertainties, their fears and their destinies are central to understanding what motivates these people who do what they do. Readers are asked to "stand back" and judge for themselves how evil or good these men are. The supporting characters play no less a part in fleshing out the architecture of the book, and they inhabit the space, each with their own personalities and agendas, be they good or bad.
BLEEDING HEARTS is a challenge to read. It is gritty and tough, but that's Rankin's trademark. All of his books explore the dark side of people's lives and the underbellies of space they inhabit --- but he balances that by shining a light into the hidden nooks and the shadowed crannies that ultimately override the bad guys. The body of work he has amassed speaks to his readability and storytelling prowess. And while loyal fans look forward to the next John Rebus installment, BLEEDING HEARTS is one of his best stand-alone novels and is certainly a keeper.
--- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
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