Ian Rankin takes his sweet time to build a case for the integrity of Michael Weston, a hired gun (now there’s a rub) with a difference. The veteran British writer also takes his sweet time to craft a complicated and resonant plot.
Originally published in Britain in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey, “Bleeding Hearts” is just making its U.S. debut. Inspired by a rogue financial transaction linked to the Iran-Contra scandal of the early 1980s, Rankin has produced a taut thriller featuring ambiguous bad guys and unlikable good guys.
A many-layered antihero
Weston, a.k.a. the Demolition Man for his practice of diversionary explosions, is not only an assassin but also a hemophiliac. He views his career as a form of self-protection; what else can a poor bleeder do in a society that won’t let him work because he’s a liability?
The book starts with Weston’s preparation for the assassination of a TV reporter. Squeamish but necessarily cold in attitude, Weston does his job with characteristic expertise, but the reporter’s proximity to top-level politicians makes him wonder whether he hit the right target. He’s also not quite sure who hired him for the job.
Meanwhile, detective Leo Hoffer, a man of great appetite and minimal morality, is after Weston in connection with another assassination – in which Weston mistakenly hit an innocent young woman. Their similarly relentless quests give “Bleeding Hearts” much of its drive.
A rich subplot involves Weston’s romance with Bel, the daughter of his armorer, Max. They seek answers in a trip across America, where Weston and the precocious, even-tempered Bel become involved with Spike, a Texas arms dealer of Rabelaisian proportions. There’s plenty of color, along with a subtle deepening. Rankin is particularly adept at developing the relationship of Weston and Bel, a pretty complex and ornery character of her own.
There are compelling minor figures, too, like Harry the Cap, a forger who gives Weston identity protection, and Major Drysdale, whom Hoffer approaches for dope on Weston.
Cults, politics and ID theft
The plot, which also touches on religious cults, the National Security Council and all kinds of identity theft, is Byzantine, befitting a character of Weston’s dimension. At first, you might not like this antihero; his profession is rather off-putting, after all. But Weston’s self-effacing personality, his protectiveness toward Bel and an intelligence that leads to clarity make him engaging, if not totally sympathetic.
Fuse striking characters to crackling dialogue and what might have been a potboiler – despite an uncomfortably coincidental close shave for Weston toward the end – is instead a superior thriller.
The author of “Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories,” Carlo Wolff is a freelance writer from Cleveland.
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Bleeding Hearts
By Ian Rankin
Little, Brown, 400 pages, $24.99
