By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Adult fans of J.K. Rowling can rejoice: She has a new novel coming, for grownups.
There is the matter of a man who ate his way through a wardrobe and another who chewed through a small airplane. And there is the alarming question of feet cut off at the ankle, wearing shoes and trying to hobble into an ancient cemetery.
There is an old saying about setting a thief to catch a thief, but in the case of "The Complaints," Ian Rankin has done something more risky by having straight cops chase corrupt cops.
Rowling's new work
To call Scottish detective John Rebus "dour" vastly understates the case. It is true that dourness may be a Scottish trait, but few have achieved the darkness of mind in which Rebus dwells.
"My wife spotted her writing her Edinburgh criminal detective novel," the newspaper quoted Mr. Rankin as telling a reporter at an Edinburgh literary festival.
Back then, she was a struggling single mother who wrote in cafes to save on the heating bill at home.
