"Witch Hunt" by Ian Rankin

"Witch Hunt" by Ian Rankin. I think I probably picked this up in a bargain bin somewhere, sometime, I don't remember exactly.

A better than average thriller. There were a few things that bothered me, but they did not crop up often enough to make me quit reading. One was the neurotic, petty complaints people had about their co-workers. They may be a fact of life, but I am not interested. I have plenty of my own to deal with.

Another is when the head of the department flys to Germany to rein in an over zealous agent. I don't think it would have happened that way. The agent would no doubt be called on the carpet on his return, but I don't think the boss would have made a public show of it. Better to keep things like that in the family, so to speak. Going to pick up the wayward soul would only serve to advertise the loss of control. Better to pretend it was all part of the plan in the first place. This section might have made a good dramatic section in a movie version, and maybe that was what the writer was angling for. On the other hand, it did not ring true, and I doubt it would ring true in the movie. But hey, it's a thriller, not an intellectual exercise, so what can you expect?

There was another incident that struck me as false, but I cannot remember it right off. Of course, the whole thing was based on a wacko premise to begin with, but it made a good story.