Reviews

loved all of it, was confused and disappointed the last chapters until i thought about it and now i love it! it had the classic ‘too graphic to read’ scenes, as is Iain Banks’ wont. but they serve an important role in the novel, even if i do have to read through my fingers as i hide my eyes. will be reading more Banks.

Content Warnings

catfus's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.5

billymac1962's review against another edition

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3.0

After reading the unforgettable The Wasp Factory, I've come to expect the unexpected from Iain Banks, and I guess I shouldn't be disappointed, since the last thing I expected was a slightly better than usual serial killer story.
Oh, there are the little horrors I've come to expect from Mr. Banks, but alas, no horrors or weirdness in Complicity. In the hands of any other writer I suppose this would have likely been a dud, but Banks is so compulsively readable and you never know what lies at the next bend,
and you can't help but remain glued to it. Still recommended.

thebobsphere's review against another edition

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4.0

Reading an Iain Banks novel is like revisiting an old friend (albeit a slightly disturbing one) Up until my late twenties, I lost interest in his books, Although I did enjoy The Crow Road, I reread The Wasp Factory and I felt that I was too old for his novels.

In 2019 our Newspaper company was holding a booksale and three Iain Banks books were selling for 50 cents each so I bought them. Complicity was read first.

Cameron Colley is a journalist and he’s caught whiff of a scoop involving the arms trade. At the same time many important people who have acted unethically are being brutally murdered. As things happen these murders are connected to Colley and in order to prove that he is innocent he has dig deep into his troubled childhood to provide clues, something he is hesitant to do.

Complicity is Iain Banks attempt at a thriller and he is good at it. The tension is ramped nicely, At the same time there’s dashes of humor, uncomfortably disgusting scenes and a couple of deceptive passages. The book flows and one can’t help rooting for Cameron, although he’s not the most decent person to walk the earth.

It’s also quite political – Watching films like Killers of the Flower Moon, we know that big corporations dictate our economy and we can’t really do anything about it. The book addresses this and at the same time poses a moral question – do we have a right to kill those who have killed others uncaringly?

I’ll say that I thoroughly enjoyed Complicity, unfortunately, I tired to read the other two books, Espadair Street and The Steep Approach to Garbadale and I couldn’t get past page 50, for the reasons I mentioned above.

This does mean the end of me reading Iain Banks but at least my last complete one was a decent swansong.

bop_oppy's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If it was anyone else I'd have liked it but compared to some of his others this was not the best

star_ansible's review against another edition

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3.0

Okay, Mr Banks has done better.

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