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Announcing the new Rebus novel: MIDNIGHT AND BLUE

Following the epic cliffhanger at the end of  A Heart Full of Headstones , we’re delighted to reveal that the highly-anticipated new Rebus thriller will be published this October – and we can now share the title…

That’s right, prepare for  MIDNIGHT & BLUE , the brand new John Rebus thriller from iconic number one bestseller Ian Rankin. And here’s a little taste of what to expect… John Rebus spent his life as a detective putting Edinburgh’s most deadly criminals behind bars.

Now, he’s going to join them.

In this tense, gripping game of cat and mouse, the inimitable Rebus faces a case unlike any other…

Further details of the plot are being kept firmly under wraps for now, but we’ll be able to share more info – and the cover – very soon.

MIDNIGHT & BLUE will be published 10 October 2024 in the UK, and you can pre-order a copy using the links below…

WATERSTONES – SIGNED COPIES

And for readers around the world, you can also pre-order in AUSTRALIA , NEW ZEALAND and CANADA

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The new Rebus thriller is coming: Autumn 2022!

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A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES – the latest Rebus thriller, in paperback 29 April 2021

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Home » Book review: A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin

Book review: A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin

Flawless plotting and impeccable characterization describe A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin , the new Inspector Rebus novel.

Scottish author Ian Rankin has many series and standalone books under his belt and I’ve intended to read his books for years. However, for reasons unknown, A Heart Full of Headstones , featuring his most famous character, John Rebus, is the first of Rankin’s titles to appear on my to be read pile. I prefer to read books in a series in order. But I kept hearing about this one, probably because it’s the first Rebus novel since 2020 and highly anticipated. So when I saw advanced review copies were available, I immediately requested the book. Happily, the publisher approved the request. About a dozen pages in, I fully realized what I’ve been missing by not reading Ian Rankin until now. He is indeed an astonishingly good writer. Sadly, I can’t say how this Rebus novel stacks up against the past ones. All I can say is this one is so good that I intend to find out. And this time, sooner rather than later.

A Heart Full of Headstones (An Inspector Rebus Novel #24)

by Ian Rankin

Published by Little, Brown

on October 18, 2022

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Genres(s) Mystery & Thriller, Mystery & Detective, Private Investigators

ISBN 978-0-316-47363-7

John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. But what drove a good man to cross the line? Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke may well find out. Clarke is tasked with the city’s most explosive case in years, an infamous cop, at the center of decades of misconduct, has gone missing. Finding him will expose not only her superiors, but her mentor John Rebus. And Rebus himself may not have her own interests at heart, as the repayment of a past debt places him in the crosshairs of both crime lords and his police brethren. One way or another, a reckoning is coming – and John Rebus may be hearing the call for last orders…

Rankin opens with a prologue that shouldn’t have been surprising given the blurb. Had I paid more attention to the summary, I might have realized what was going to happen. Or at least maybe happen. Instead, it shocked me a bit that the book began with Rebus in the dock in a courtroom on trial and facing prison. It shocked me a little initially since I knew he was a retired police detective. But, of course, the opening grabbed my attention and made me want to know more. Rankin then takes us back in time in the first chapter to the beginning of the story that plays out during the rest of the novel. From there, I couldn’t put the book down.

There are several related story lines, which make the plot complex, but the author expertly weaves them together in due time and it all makes sense. Rankin provides all the back-stories and histories we’ll need to understand the plot, jogging the memories of dedicated Rebus fans while adroitly bringing new readers like me up to speed. Even without ever reading another Rebus novel, I never felt lost. He also includes a spot-on rendering of the pandemic experience for both the individual characters and the country. The effects of the pandemic echo through the story, but always in subtle ways. This contributes to helping us feel the story is real life with all its randomness and difficulties.

I found John Rebus an intensely interesting character. By this time, he is a long since retired Edinburgh police detective inspector, but still prowls the grittiest sides of the city as a private detective. And now his past is coming back to haunt him. He is an utterly believable mixture of foibles and messy contours, a flawed, cynical former policeman, often gruff but with a wry sense of humor. He has a strong platonic friendship with his former colleague and protégé, Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke, another intriguing principal character in the book and series. And she is the driving force in the narrative as she leads the investigation into a case that eventually overlaps with a private inquiry Rebus takes on, which makes him a target of both some hardened criminals and his former police colleagues.

A Heart Full of Headstones is a dark, gritty, and engrossing tale that fans of crime thrillers will enjoy. I enjoyed it so much I’ve already purchased the first book in the John Rebus series so that I can start at the beginning with the Rebus character.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

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clock This article was published more than  2 years ago

Ian Rankin took on the challenge of finishing his mentor’s book. The result is a darkly beautiful novel.

There’s a strong tradition in mystery writing of living writers continuing the work of dead ones. Think, for instance, of Robert B. Parker completing Raymond Chandler’s unfinished final Philip Marlowe novel, “ Poodle Springs ,” and then, after Parker’s death in 2010, of his own Spenser series being extended by fellow mystery writer Ace Atkins. Other so-called continuation novels have stretched the active careers of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, thanks to Sophie Hannah, and Dorothy L. Sayers’s Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, thanks to Jill Paton Walsh, who died last year. (There’s no word on who will pick up the series, but I hope it’s not James Patterson.)

Some highbrows would scoff that series fiction lends itself to such artificial extensions of life because it’s more formulaic than so-called literary fiction and, thus, easier to mimic. (Ha! Have they ever tried? Speaking as the author of the still-unpublished Nancy Drew mystery, “The Mystery of the Silver Pap Boat,” I can tell you that Carolyn Keene, composite author though she may have been, is a tough act to follow.) A more generous take on these continuations is that mystery writers are fans like the rest of us, and when a beloved series ends, they feel the urge to put their insider knowledge to use to prolong the magic.

Such must be the case with Ian Rankin and his “collaboration from the grave” with the late William McIlvanney, whose three Jack Laidlaw books, beginning in 1977, are recognized as the first of the “Tartan Noir” school of Scottish mystery fiction. When McIlvanney died in 2015, he left behind a handwritten, unfinished manuscript of a fourth Laidlaw novel that was to have been a prequel to the Laidlaw trilogy. Rankin, who was inspired by the Laidlaw books to begin writing the John Rebus detective series, has taken up the challenge of completing his mentor’s final work. The result is a standout, lyrically bleak novel whose teasing title, “ The Dark Remains ,” can be taken to mean a few things — none of them good.

New versions of Hercule Poirot keep coming, and that’s a good thing

“The Dark Remains” is set in Glasgow, Scotland, in fall 1972. (References to topical events such as the U.S. presidential election sporadically pop up on the margins of the story.) Laidlaw has been newly assigned to the Glasgow Crime Squad. He’s young, but has already established a reputation for having “a sixth sense for what’s happening on the streets.” That gift will come in handy, given the turmoil that’s about to erupt among rival organized crime syndicates in Glasgow after the disappearance of a crooked lawyer named Bobby Carter, the “right-hand man” of gang boss Cam Colvin. Colvin’s ease with brutality is efficiently established in two sentences: “Colvin’s was a name to instill fear, a reputation stretching back to teenage years when he had strode into a surgery demanding to see the doctor. Asked what the problem was, he had said nothing, instead turning round to show the receptionist the blade jutting out from between his shoulders.”

Carter’s corpse quickly turns up “lying spread-eagled in a handy puddle,” and as Glasgow turns into a battle zone, Laidlaw, along with his new partner, Detective Sgt. Bob Lilley, who’s always three steps behind, race around a city awash in rain, whisky, vice and blood, ferreting out the sins of the past that motivate the crimes of the present.

As in the original Laidlaw trilogy, the writing here is so sharp that nearly every sentence could split open a haggis. (And I defy even the most ardent fans of McIlvanney and Rankin to determine which man wrote which passages.) For instance, here’s a pub owner thinking back to his youth about how lucky he was to escape life in the shipyards: “Schooldays had been little more than a stretched-out assumption that he and his kind were destined for manual labour.” The doctrine of social class as predestination has rarely been presented so succinctly.

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The distinct appeal of “The Dark Remains,” of course, is that it allows us readers to encounter McIlvanney’s philosopher-detective before he hardened a granite legend. We peek into Laidlaw’s unhappy marriage, where the tensions are so palpable that Laidlaw spends most nights in a hotel. (The feeble excuse, as always with these guys, is that work comes first: Laidlaw insists that he needs to be in Glasgow proper, not in a suburb, while he’s in the thick of an investigation.) And even the friendliest of Laidlaw’s new colleagues finds his lofty turns of phrase and reading material hard to stomach. Take this one-sided exchange between Laidlaw (whose desk is littered with volumes by Unamuno, Kierkegaard and Camus) and Lilley. Laidlaw says:

“ ‘The law’s not about justice. It’s a system we’ve put in place because we can’t have justice.’

“Lilley thought: the man speaks like the books on his desk, the lines honed by rehearsal. But did they mean much of anything?”

As any student of noir — Tartan or otherwise — could tell Lilley, nothing turns out to mean much of anything in this fallen world. The solution to the mystery of “Who killed Bobby Carter?” is agreeably unexpected, but, as in so many excellent crime stories, by the time it emerges, many of us readers will be hazy on what set this investigation in motion in the first place. The point is the journey, to savor walking down the mean streets of 1970s Glasgow once again with the stoic Laidlaw. For that pleasure, we have Ian Rankin to thank and, one final time, the man himself, William McIlvanney.

Maureen Corrigan , who is the book critic for the NPR program “Fresh Air,” teaches literature at Georgetown University.

THE DARK REMAINS

By William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin

Europa. 256 pp. $27

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Ian Rankin to complete William McIlvanney’s final novel The Dark Remains

Due out next year, the novel will see the Rebus creator fill out notes for another Laidlaw mystery left by the revered Scottish crime writer on his death in 2015

Ian Rankin has spent most of lockdown writing a novel – but it isn’t a new Rebus. Instead, the Scottish writer has been putting the finishing touches to a handwritten manuscript left by the late William McIlvanney, the so-called godfather of “tartan noir” and author of the Laidlaw detective books.

McIlvanney died in 2015, at the age of 79 , leaving behind a trilogy of novels that Val McDermid says “changed the face of Scottish fiction”. The manuscript of The Dark Remains was found by his widow Siobhan Lynch among his papers. Set in October 1972, it was intended to be a prequel to the author’s hardbitten, Glasgow-set detective novels featuring Jack Laidlaw, about his first case.

Lynch approached McIlvanney’s publisher Canongate to see if they could do anything with it, and the publisher asked Rankin if he would be interested in finishing it. “Ian is the writer Willie would have chosen,” said Lynch.

“It’s notes towards a book, a few scenes, some central characters, a sense of what the story might actually be about, but fairly incomplete,” said Rankin. “Canongate asked me to take a look, and I said, ‘Well, no promises.’ But immediately I was completely entranced. I was back in William McIlvanney’s world.”

Rankin approached the project with a little trepidation. “I’m a huge fan so I didn’t want to do him a disservice. I wanted the book to be as good as it possibly could be, as good as a Laidlaw novel. I owe him a huge debt, as pretty much every Scottish crime writer does – he’s the godfather, so you want it to be right. You want it to be his world, his story and his voice. And I’ve not tried to get inside the head of another writer before, tried to try to mimic their style. I would find myself waking up in the middle of the night with a line that felt like a Willie line and I would scribble it down, a little bon mot I could imagine Laidlaw coming out with.”

Rankin went over the notes McIlvanney left behind with a fine-tooth comb. “Willie doesn’t quite lay out who the killer is, so I had to get inside his head to see what he was actually saying,” he said. “It seemed like he had two or three stories that he was juggling … It was an act of archaeology, and an act of detection.”

Rankin first met McIlvanney in 1985 at the Edinburgh book festival, two years before the first Rebus novel was published. He asked McIlvanney to sign one of his books for him, and told him he was writing his own novel that was “like Laidlaw but set in Edinburgh”. McIlvanney inscribed his novel: “Good luck with the Edinburgh Laidlaw.”

“I wanted to write detective stories in a city that I knew, and he had done that for Glasgow – the books are as much about Glasgow as they are about Laidlaw. And although I wanted to write about Rebus, I really wanted to write about Edinburgh, so he was always an influence,” said Rankin. “It’s doubtful I would be a crime writer without the influence of McIlvanney’s Laidlaw.”

Canongate will publish The Dark Remains by McIlvanney and Rankin on 2 September 2021. Publishing director Francis Bickmore said: “In his later years, Willie and I talked about his work on one of Laidlaw’s early cases. But death robbed him of the chance to finish it. And to our delight, Ian felt this was one case he couldn’t turn down. The result is gobsmacking. It’s Laidlaw at his very best – white-knuckle plotting, real-life complexity and writing sharper than a gangster’s blade.”

Lynch said she was “overjoyed to be able to share Willie’s last words with his beloved readers and introduce Laidlaw to a new generation”.

McIlvanney is not the first author whose character has continued after their death: Sophie Hannah has written a number of new Hercule Poirot novels; Anthony Horowitz, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffrey Deaver have continued the James Bond thrillers; and Eoin Colfer wrote a final novel in Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide series.

But Rankin said The Dark Remains was unlikely to be the start of a franchise. “It’s just there was that one unfinished book and there was enough material there that meant it could be finished,” he said. “And why wouldn’t you want a new William McIlvanney book out in the world?”

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Rebus writer Ian Rankin on his newest crime thriller, and how you can read it with Kindle Unlimited

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Ian Rankin’s newest story, The Rise , sees a murder story play out in London’s most exclusive high-rise, with every shadowy resident becoming a potential suspect.

“If it's as much fun to read as it was to write, I'll be a happy author!"

A gleaming residential tower, ‘The Rise’ is newly constructed from steel and blackened glass, standing on a patch of prestigious London real estate. Looming imposingly over Hyde Park, only multi-millionaires need apply for one of its sumptuous apartments.

But when the young night concierge is found murdered in the building’s lobby, the elite residents quickly find their gilded lifestyles under unwelcome police scrutiny. Investigating officer DS Gish has her work cut out.

When talking about what inspired him to write the book, Ian reveals the idea of a shorter publication on Amazon, and how the length propelled the pacey and sharp murder mystery set in the heart of London.

"The Rise is a story that has been in my mind for quite some time but I could never find what felt like the right format for it - until Amazon asked if I might write something that could be read or listened to in a single sitting.  This suited the pace I had in mind for the story - a propulsive tale of murder and intrigue amidst the rich and famous cocooned in a big shiny glass and steel tower.”

As DS Gish continues her investigation into 'The Rise', it seems horribly certain that one of the residents must be the killer. The only suspects, those who live in the building, aren’t accustomed to police interrogation Could it be the Russian oligarch? Or the lonely actress? Maybe it’s the family of the career criminal? Or perhaps it’s the building’s reclusive developer who lives alone in the penthouse?

Obstructed continually by locked doors, governments both foreign and domestic, and an apparent absence of motive, can DS Gish solve this impenetrable mystery and apprehend the murderer – before they slip away forever?

The Rise releases on November 1, 2023 and is available as an eBook from Kindle Unlimited , or in audiobook format from Audible, narrated by Indira Varma.

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A Heart Full of Headstones: The #1 bestselling series that inspired BBC One’s REBUS Paperback – 25 May 2023

Purchase options and add-ons, the brand new rebus thriller from the iconic number one bestseller. one of the must-read novels of the year..

• Book 24 of 24 Inspector Rebus Novels
• Print length 416 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Orion
• Publication date 25 May 2023
• Dimensions 21.5 x 14 x 2.9 cm
• ISBN-10 1398709387
• ISBN-13 978-1398709386
• See all details

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Product description

Book description, from the back cover, about the author.

Ian Rankin is the multimillion-copy worldwide bestseller of over thirty novels and creator of John Rebus. His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. Rankin is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards, including the Diamond Dagger, the UK's most prestigious award for crime fiction. In the United States, he has won the celebrated Edgar Award and been shortlisted for the Anthony Award. In Europe, he has won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the German Deutscher Krimipreis. He is the recipient of honorary degrees from universities across the UK, is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature, and has received an OBE for his services to literature. Website: IanRankin.net X: @Beathhigh Facebook: IanRankinBooks

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Orion; 1st edition (25 May 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1398709387
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1398709386
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 21.5 x 14 x 2.9 cm
• 125 in Legal Thrillers (Books)
• 160 in Hard-Boiled Mystery

About the author

Ian James Rankin, OBE, DL, FRSE (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Photo byTimDuncan (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Rebus review: Promising Ian Rankin adaptation brings us into the murky, violent world of ‘Tartan Noir’

Lead star richard rankin takes up the mantel from ken stott, who played the detective for itv two decades ago, article bookmarked.

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It’s boom time for hard-bitten Scottish crime dramas on TV. BBC One’s reboot of Rebus arrives after the success of Neil Forsyth’s Guilt and Irvine Welsh’s Crime , which certainly puts the pressure on Richard Rankin as its lead. The 41-year-old Outlander star has to stand out not only from Ken Stott’s original portrayal of the seen-it-all Edinburgh polis but from Dougray Scott’s tortured, substance-abusing DI from Crime and Mark Bonnar’s funny, crooked lawyer from Guilt , too.

Of course, there’s depth of characterisation to draw on – Sir Ian Rankin (no relation) has published 24 Inspector Rebus novels and counting (there’s a new one out in October) – and it doesn’t hurt that the actor has a certain physical similarity to Stott, who played the detective in four series for ITV in the Noughties. He has some of his humour and charm, too, but perhaps not quite the mordant gloom of his scowl. There’s a relatable quality to Rankin, though, which is evident from the very first shot.

It’s an unusual one: a bloodied DS John Rebus, smoking a cigarette in neon-lit darkness, turns to look at the camera, holding the audience’s gaze for several long seconds. Then he strolls over to a crashed car containing a trapped detective colleague, his mentor George “Dod” Blantyre, before continuing his walk to a nearby ambulance, inside of which sits crime boss Ger Cafferty, whom he tries to murder.

If that isn’t enough to convince us we’re in the murky, violent world of “Tartan Noir”, then a nasty street stabbing and a punishment for a drug-stash shakedown involving a very sharp pair of secateurs surely will. Rebus is handed the job of solving the knife attack in the historic old town, noting that it’s fine for the perpetrators to “chop each other up in the schemes, not in the City”, with his default cynicism.

What unfolds from there is a knotted tale of rival gangsters (Stuart Bowman, incidentally, was so good as crime lord Joe Lynch in Guilt that he gets the chance to double down as criminal kingpin Cafferty here), stretched loyalties and deadly acts of revenge. It’s not long before a brush with drug runners from loyalist paramilitary group the UDA adds a blowtorch to the mix. The tension is high, the danger palpable, and Rebus can’t avoid becoming morally implicated.

Meanwhile, he’s juggling his job with trying to stay off the booze, struggling to come to terms with his ex-wife’s new relationship and stay close to his daughter, and attempting to exit an affair that’s much too close to home. “Things feel like they’re unravelling, everything’s slipping out of control,” he tells his counsellor (“Andrea, ma wee shrink”). And, inevitably, where there’s a troubled, maverick cop, there’s someone from internal affairs – or in this case, professional standards – lurking close by.

There’s a healthy dose of social commentary. Rebus is introduced to his new partner, the fast-tracked DC Siobhan “Shiv” Clarke (Lucie Shorthouse), fresh from the detective course – “I hear it’s a whole week now,” he says by way of greeting. Budget cuts are further grumbled about, as well as the way the English are drawn to Edinburgh’s scenic charms – “They go to the uni and they get a degree and they fall in love with the place. So they stay and they get married and they have kids and they start f***ing Instagramming and cycling aboot the place like they’re in Denmark or something.”

Like most detective dramas, Rebus relies on the push and pull of its central relationships. Naturally, there’s history between the detective and his ex, Rhona (the excellent Amy Manson), and it hangs in the air in every interaction between them. There’s history, too, between Rebus and Cafferty, and their scenes together are charged with sly threat and counter-threat. Rebus and fast-tracker Shiv, though, are just getting to know each other – “You have no culture?” she accuses; “I have a culture of not liking things,” he replies. They’re not cooking on gas yet, that’s for sure, but there are hints that they could grow into a bankable duo.

There’s not much time to explore that, though. Events move relentlessly on in this six-parter, the darkness gradually enveloping almost everyone within it, and the lurch in the stomach that accompanies it shows Rebus is capable of holding its own. Sometimes it feels a little overworked – the dizzying shift from stressed, struggling former soldier to military-grade gangland player of Rebus’s brother Michael feels like a major stretch. And sometimes it feels as if screenwriter Gregory Burke and author Rankin are grappling with the difficulties of how to present this world of hard men, without offending the sensitivities of today’s BBC, but they get by. There’s serious competition in the crime world now, and Rebus will have to work hard to get ahead, but this is a strong start to what could turn out to be a successful franchise operation.

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7 Best Ian Rankin Books (2024)

Rankin is a Scottish writer who specializes in writing the best crime stories out there. Some of the best Ian Rankin books you will find are his Rebus series and his Malcolm Fox series. Aside from them, this list also features five other novels that you’ll be glad you read if you are a fan of crime fiction. The books and series by Ian Rankin on this list are chosen to be the most exciting and promising out of most of his works.

It might not seem like it, but Ian didn’t plan to become one of the best crime writers known today . Although many of the best-selling Rankin books would say otherwise, Ian had various jobs before becoming a full-time writer. This list includes a grape picker, alcohol researcher, or hi-fi journalist.

Best Ian Rankin Books

As a result of a few of the best-rated Rankin books, he has received several awards. The list is quite long, but a few of them include an Edgar Award, Grand Prix du Roman Noir, Chandler-Fulbright Award, an Open University honorary doctorate, and lots more. Many of the awards are mostly for Rankin’s Inspector Rebus series. Aside from those, here are 7 of Ian Rankin’s best books that every crime-fiction fan simply must have a look at .

Inspector Rebus Series

Irresistible crime stories.

Rankin’s Rebus series contains 24 original works with a few added short stories and collections that came later. The story follows Detective Inspector John Rebus, and most of it is based in and around Edinburgh. You’re going to learn about the Inspector Rebus series by Rankin through the novels listed, but there is also quite a lot of fun to be had from the number of short stories related to Rebus as well.

Who Is Inspector John Rebus?

John Rebus is, obviously, the protagonist in the series. He was an interesting character to be turned into the star of a television series named Rebus. John was born in 1947 and was raised in a prefab home in Craigmead Terrace, Cardenden. If you want to know everything there is about the protagonist, make sure you stick by the official Rankin Rebus series chronology as everything is connected.

John was never the type to stay in school, so he left at the age of 15 to join the Army. The experience there was nothing if not traumatic, but Rebus was later offered a job with the Lothian and Borders Police.

When he was first introduced in the first book of the Rebus novels by Rankin, Knots and Crosses, it was made clear that he had quite a rough lifestyle. He has lived through dangerous car crashes, has gotten out alive with severe burns, and much more.

It all starts with the first book inside Rankin’s John Rebus series, Knots, and Crosses. This is where you get to meet the protagonist and the person who’ll be bringing most of the action-packed fun.

This is the book in which, if read carefully, you will learn most about John Rebus. You get to follow him as he works his new case and reveals a bit about him page after page. However, one crucial thing you might want to consider is to read Rankin’s Rebus novels in order if you want everything to make sense.

Every single one of the novels involves some kind of gruesome crime. It can be anything from a murder, a very suspicious death that Rebus has to get to the bottom of, and so on. The books are not filled with action 24/7 as there is so much more to them. You can rest assured knowing that Rankin’s Rebus novels are filled with romance, politics, a lot of suspense, mystery, and much more.

Women in His Life

Relationships between men and women are always among the most exciting things to read about in most books. Of course, this series also has some romance to offer to keep things exciting, and reading Rankin’s Rebus series in order will make sure everything makes sense and you meet them in the right order.

There are going to be a total of 5 important women in John’s life. Reading these Ian Rankin books in order will make sure you meet each of them at the right time. These women include Gill Templer, his boss and at times girlfriend, Rhona, his separated wife, Jean Burchill, a friend of his and Gill Templer, Patience Aitken, an ex-girlfriend, and Deborah Quant, who you get to meet later in the series when Rebus retires.

Roles to Play

All of these women will have important roles to play in the series, and it would be very wise if you stick to reading Rankin’s John Rebus series in order to make sure you follow the story correctly.

Malcolm Fox Series

Cop who investigates cops.

The next action-packed crime series we have here is Malcolm Fox. Rankin’s books featuring Malcolm Fox are something to look forward to if you enjoy reading some of the best crime stories out there. Malcolm is a cop living and working in Edinburgh, same as John Rebus, who works for the Complaints.

There are two primary books in this series that feature Malcolm doing what he does best, which we will explain soon. Also, there are three other books in the series that feature John Rebus and Fox working together on some complicated and disturbing cases.

The Complaints

This is the name of the first book in Rankin’s books with Malcolm Fox, and it’s also the name of the organization Fox works for. The Complaints are known as the Dark Side as they are a department whose job is to investigate other cops. You can probably imagine why they’d be hated so much.

On top of being hated by many, Fox also has quite a lot of personal problems to deal with as well. He has a father who is in a nursing home and a sister who is a part of a very abusive relationship. And now, he’s been given a new case, one that appears to be quite challenging to handle. This latest case involves a dirty cop named Jamie Breck and is about to show you why Rankin’s Malcolm Fox novels are a few of the best crime fiction novels out there.

The Impossible Dead

This is the second book of the Malcolm Fox novels by Rankin, and the action continues here after the events of the first book. The Impossible Dead talks about an ongoing investigation of three cops who might be covering for one of their coworkers, Detective Paul Carter. Paul has already been found guilty of a particular sexual assault crime, and three of his coworkers are suspects as well.

It won’t take long for this case to get way out of control and for you to realize why this is one of the best books by Ian Rankin. The trouble only gets bigger as you read page after page, and it finally reaches its limit when a murder occurs. The plot will have you dancing around, not knowing who to trust and who to point fingers at.

Malcolm Fox and John Rebus

The other three books within this series all feature John Rebus as well. If you were reading all of Rankin’s Rebus books in order, then you won’t have trouble keeping up with events here. Each of the books focuses on a different case that involves either murder or another kind of crime that only these two crime fighters can solve.

Standing in Another Man’s Grave

The story in this book talks about a disappearance that has occurred over the course of ten years, and it involves three women who are also the victims. This case was already looking like a lost cause as the trails had gone cold, and there were almost no leads. Then, Rebus got on the case, and it all started changing. The events that follow confirm the fact that this is one of the best Ian Rankin book series out there.

Saints of the Shadow Bible

This next book also focuses on a case that has been forgotten for nearly 30 years and has now yet again resurfaced. Rebus and Fox are working together to solve this one once and for all. Remember, make sure you follow Fox’s and Rankin’s Rebus novels’ order if you want it all to make sense.

Even Dogs in the Wild

And the last book features a story about John Rebus while he is retired. It appears that he doesn’t quite like being retired and is once again willing to get back out on the field. The new case he wants in on will prove more dangerous than ever considering his age and not-so-in-shape body. Out of many Ian Rankin book reviews, this book has gotten to be among the most favorite of the series.

This book is known for two things. It’s one of the best Ian Rankin books of all time and the first book that he ever published. The book began his career and threw him into the exciting world of crime fiction writing . It might even be Ian Rankin’s best book ever, we will see.

The Accident

In this story, the main character is Mary Miller, a girl who’s had a pretty rough life as she was pushed in some chemicals and was burnt as a child. But that’s not the part that makes this the best Ian Rankin novel, that part is when the person who pushed Mary suddenly died in an accident only two days later.

Few Years Later

After reading about the so-called accident, the story skips a few years into the future where Mary is now a single mother. The story has all it takes to turn into the best Ian Rankin book ever, and you can find out for yourself how difficult it is being a single mother and running away from a dark secret from the past.

Daring Spy Thriller

Westwind is one of the best spy thrillers you can ever read by Ian that has just enough of everything, including mystery, crime, and unforgettable characters. It’s one of his earliest books he ever published if you’re planning to read Rankin’s books in chronological order.

The story in Westwind revolves around a colossal conspiracy that has something to do with a satellite glitch and a spaceship crash. It all starts when a glitch occurs and a British satellite, called Zephyr, suddenly loses contact with Earth and goes dark for nearly 4 minutes. While all of this is happening, a US space shuttle, known as Argos, crashes and leaves only one person alive, Major Michael Dreyfuss.

At the station controlling the Zephyr satellite, a character known as Paul Vincent is beginning to have suspicions about this sudden loss of connection and the crash, so he starts asking questions. Because of this, he is sent on medical leave and is kept from leaving the hospital. Both his and Michael’s lives soon become at risk, and the two are being chased by a variety of different characters. They are all after them to silence them forever and help create one of the best Ian Rankin novels ever.

A Cool Head

Very unlucky guy.

Sometimes, even staying away from crime is not enough to be safe and not have any danger in your life. This is one of the cases as the next one from our Ian Rankin novels list is about to tell you the story of Gravy, the protagonist.

Sudden Surprise

Gravy is the main character in this story. He has a steady job working at the graveyard, which might not be an ideal place to be every day, but at least it’s a living. He probably sees dead bodies every day, which is a normal thing in most of the best Rankin series and books, but one day, it was his friend Benji’s body. Gravy found Benji in a strange car with a bullet in his chest. That’s something else that Gravy didn’t see every day.

Alongside Benji’s body was a lot of blood and a bag full of money. As a result of this bag of cash, Gravy was now in the middle of a lousy robbery and is the target for both criminals and cops. The reason this one is among the top Rankin books out there is that things are about to heat up in this man’s life, and you can find out how it all turns out for yourself.

Urge for Thrill

This list of 10 of the best Ian Rankin books is slowly coming to an end as there are only two books left to review. Doors Open is a story about Mike Mackenzie and one of the most thrilling robberies you will ever read about in any of Rankin’s novels.

Mike Mackenzie

You can probably guess that Mike is the main character in this book. He is described as a self-made man who started with nothing and has just recently sold his software company. But now, Mike feels bored with life and has found the perfect job to satisfy his need for thrill. This new need is part of the reason why this book has what it takes to be on top of many Ian Rankin books ranked lists.

Mike is a fan of art, and he has a friend who knows art and knows how to steal it. This friend’s name is Professor Robert Gissing, and he has just shared with Mike the perfect way to lift anything they wish from the National Gallery of Scotland. We won’t spoil the plan that makes this one of the most popular Rankin books of all time as you can get familiar with it yourself.

Miles Flint

This is the last book we have to show you. It’s not the last book he ever published, but it is the last on this list. However, it would be a wise idea to know Ian Rankin’s novels’ chronological order if you want to read everything as it was written and published.

Life of a Spy

This is one of the author’s earlier works, as you might be able to tell if you’ve recently read any of Ian Rankin’s latest books. There is a slight difference, but this is in no way a bad thing. The story in Watchman focuses on a character called Miles Flint.

Miles works as a spy and is totally in love with his job. Out of many Rankin series and novels, Miles is a character who you’re most likely to get to like a lot. He is the type of person who doesn’t want too much action. All he has to do is carefully watch those who he is supposed to from afar, gather intel, and report back.

Too Involved

The job was perfect, and everything was going great for Miles until he got a bit too involved with his latest case. Now, we won’t spoil what makes this one of the best books ever, as that part is up to you to find out. Out of all of Ian Rankin’s books you read about here, you can choose your favorite and begin exploring the mind of this brilliant crime fiction writer .

Michael Englert

Michael is a graduate of cultural studies and history. He enjoys a good bottle of wine and (surprise, surprise) reading. As a small-town librarian, he is currently relishing the silence and peaceful atmosphere that is prevailing.

Rebus on BBC One review: this unrelentingly bleak show has flashes of brilliance

T he first five minutes of Rebus set the tone for the entire show quite neatly. A police officer is critical at the scene of a car accident. And burning with righteous fury, detective John Rebus sneaks into an ambulance where the suspect is being held and attempts to suffocate him then and there.

As that opening suggests, the BBC’s newest six-part series is an unrelentingly bleak show that does not pull its punches – not a surprise, considering the material it’s based on: Ian Rankin ’s dark Inspector Rebus books. And like the Rebus novels, the show manages to be both twisty and gripping.

Set in Edinburgh , we’re introduced to a younger version of John Rebus than the one we’re used to in the source material. Played with barely-concealed menace by Richard Rankin, this Rebus is a therapist’s nightmare.

He despises authority (the classic loner, he never does anything By The Book), he punches his brother Michael (Brian Ferguson) in the face on a family visit, and he has a very strained relationship with his daughter, whose new stepdad is apparently a kind, open-hearted millionaire: everything he himself is not.

But it’s not all happy families. Soon, a fresh case arrives on his desk when a prisoner on day leave is almost stabbed to death in broad daylight. And when he starts digging, Rebus discovers a spider’s web of deceit that swerves between Edinburgh’s criminal underworld, his own dark past and takes in a healthy dose of police corruption along the way.

Pre-watershed viewing this is not. The c-word is sprinkled around liberally. Characters do despicable things (Stuart Bowman’s gangster Ger Cafferty is particularly loathsome). And it’s violent: in one scene, a man has his throat cut in a hospital bed. In another, a boy has his finger snipped off with a pair of pliers.

Fortunately, there is a bit (a very little bit) of light relief in the form of newbie cop Siobhan Clarke – played by We Are Lady Parts’ Lucie Shorthouse with just the right amount of cheery naivety. “You’re in the city of John Knox, Shiv. Life’s supposed to be difficult,” Rebus tells her at one point; boy, does she come to realise that.

Like the books, the show also attempts to examine the socio-political context of the world Rebus operates in. And the situation is pretty bleak: ex-servicemen are living on the streets, we see desperately poor pockets of Edinburgh and Glasgow, there’s drug-dealing on street corners.

Hell, there’s even some commentary on the gig economy, in the form of Michael’s stint as a package courier (before he’s fired for not meeting his targets, naturally).

It’s an admirable ambition, but doesn’t always work: a spectacularly heavy-handed bit of dialogue in the second episode sees Rebus ranting about the jails being full of ex-servicemen, only for Siobhan to respond with scepticism: “I’m just saying, you can help yourself if you want!”

With so much going on, Rebus has to juggle a lot of different elements – but it’s a testament to the show and the strong performances that it all hangs together. Spectacularly gory, unrelentingly bleak, it’s nevertheless a fascinating watch. Fans of the books should leave well satisfied... if they can stomach it.

Rebus is available as a boxset on iPlayer, and will be streaming on BBC Scotland at 10pm, and on BBC One from May 18

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Ian Rankin: By the Book

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The crime writer, whose new Rebus novel is “In a House of Lies,” is giving his archives to the National Library of Scotland: “There might be material there for some future Ph.D. researcher … long after I’m dead.”

What books are on your nightstand?

Too many! The latest offerings from Michael Connelly (“Dark Sacred Night”) and Lee Child (“Past Tense”), for starters. Then there’s Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” which a fan gave me on my recent U.K. book tour. The last book I read was “Hush Hush,” by the British mystery author Mel Sherratt.

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

I do most of my reading either last thing at night in bed, or when I am traveling. Right now I am doing a lot of traveling. Trains, planes and ships. I’ll plug in headphones, play some ambient music and lose myself in a book.

What’s your favorite book of all time?

That’s such a tough question and the answer would change from day to day. Maybe Muriel Spark’s “ The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie .” If I describe it as an absolute Tardis of a book, “Dr. Who” fans may understand. It is bigger on the inside than the outside.

Which books got you hooked on crime fiction?

Ruth Rendell was one of the first crime authors I read. The Scottish novelist William McIlvanney also wrote three hugely influential books featuring a detective called Laidlaw. Then there were the Americans: Lawrence Block, Sara Paretsky, James Ellroy.…

Who (besides Inspector Rebus) is your favorite fictional detective? And the best villain?

Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch might just be my favorite detective. He reminds me so much of my own character John Rebus. But I also have a lot of time for TV’s Columbo. As for villains, the gangster in my Inspector Rebus series (Morris Gerald Cafferty) owes a lot to Mick Ballou in Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder series.

What makes for a good mystery?

I think mystery fiction offers the complete package: a strong sense of place, complex main characters, moral and societal issues, roller coaster plotting. If you give me all of those, I’m happy as a reader.

What kinds of stories are you drawn to? And what do you steer clear of?

I’m fairly eclectic in my tastes. I’ll be rereading “Bleak House” one week and Carl Hiaasen or Elif Shafak the next. But I do have blind spots. For example, I love science fiction movies but don’t seem able to read sci-fi. I used to have to apologize to my friend Iain M. Banks about that.

What books might we be surprised to find on your shelves?

There’s a British novelist called Jilly Cooper. Her work is often called “women’s fiction.” She writes frothy romps with vast rosters of mainly comically exaggerated characters. I “discovered” her when I was trapped by snow in a French farmhouse and those were the only books in there that I hadn’t read. “Rivals” became a particular favorite. It’s all about the battle for a TV station franchise.

Who is your favorite overlooked or underappreciated writer?

I’m going to have to say Muriel Spark. She was an international best seller in her time but seemed to fade from view. In this her centenary year fans have been shouting her name from the rooftops. There are new editions of her novels (I’ve contributed an introduction to her New York novel, “The Hothouse by the East River”), and two places in Edinburgh (the city of her birth) have been named in her honor. She remains an author of great power and complexity.

What kind of reader were you as a child?

I grew up in a home with few books. My parents left school at 14 or 15 and I only ever remember them reading books on summer vacation. But comics provided affordable literacy and I got hooked on them — Batman, Superman, Fantastic Four, etc. Our village library was both refuge and place of wonder to me, and soon I realized that there were movies I wasn’t allowed to see (the likes of “The Godfather” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” being restricted to those 15 and over) but that no librarian or bookseller was going to censor the written versions. Those were the books I began to devour, and soon enough I was trying to write my own comics and stories.

Favorite childhood literary character or hero?

I’d probably have to come back to comics again and say Batman. Such colorful adventures and mind-bending villains. The village of my childhood may have been gray, but my imaginative world was kaleidoscopic and technicolor.

What’s the last book you recommended to a member of your family?

Having devoured Kate Atkinson’s “ Transcription ,” I then pressed it on to my wife Miranda — not that she needed much encouraging! We met at university, both of us studying literature. Miranda also reads a lot of mystery fiction and is the first reader of any new manuscript of mine. She’s not slow to pass comment, so my novels have already been “edited” before they go near my publisher.

What’s the best book you ever received as a gift?

When I was a postgraduate student (writing a thesis on Muriel Spark), a friend presented me with a birthday gift of the first three volumes of Anthony Powell’s 12-novel sequence “A Dance to the Music of Time.” Powell was a terrible snob and his books mostly deal with the upper crust and their lives of privilege. But he was also an extremely elegant stylist and though I was reluctant I became a fan, devouring all 12 volumes. We follow the central character, Nicholas Jenkins, from school days through World War II to eventual old age as a respected novelist. The cast is large and memorable and I learned a lot from Powell about how to write about a central character who ages over the course of an extended sequence.

If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be?

Maybe the poems of Robert Burns. President Trump has Scottish blood on his mother’s side, so Burns seems apt. The “poet of the common man” is full of wisdom, empathy and humanity along with a respect of the natural world and its fragility.

And the prime minister?

The current British prime minister could do worse than read something European, perhaps a history of the continent, especially post-World War II.

What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s 1932 novel “Sunset Song” has been voted the best Scottish book of all time. I’ve tried to read it a couple of times but, to my shame, it has defeated me. I can’t really explain why; I just couldn’t get on with it. I’ll happily give it another try at some point in the future. The last book I failed to finish was probably one of Iain M. Banks’s science fiction novels. We were friends and I loved his non-sci-fi work, so I persevered with his sci-fi but to no avail.

If you were to write something besides mysteries, what would you write?

If I did not write mysteries, maybe I would write comics/graphic novels. I still read them and love them. I have a fantasy that one day I will write a great Judge Dredd story.

Whom would you choose to write your life story?

I’m not especially keen on the notion of my life story being written. Writers tend to have adventurous inner lives but pretty mundane histories. Having said which, I am about to donate my archive to the National Library of Scotland. This comprises manuscripts (some unpublished), unrealized projects, correspondence with other authors, book contracts and so on. I suppose there might be material there for some future Ph.D. researcher or literary biographer — hopefully long after I’m dead.

You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

I would be a mute host, listening intently to the conversation between Muriel Spark, Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens. Actually, I would have one question for R.L.S.: What was the original plot of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which his partner Fanny disliked so much he destroyed it?

What book do you think everybody should read before dying?

I wouldn’t prescribe any one particular book. As long as people are reading something, I’m content.

What do you plan to read next?

I am about to start a book tour in Canada, so am packing a few books, including Joseph Finder’s forthcoming thriller, “Judgment,” a perfect airplane read.

An expanded version of this interview is available at nytimes.com/books.

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Midnight and Blue: An Inspector Rebus Novel Hardcover – October 15, 2024

• Print length 336 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Mulholland Books
• Publication date October 15, 2024
• Dimensions 6.25 x 1.09 x 9.5 inches
• ISBN-10 0316473855
• ISBN-13 978-0316473859
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mulholland Books (October 15, 2024)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0316473855
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316473859
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.74 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.09 x 9.5 inches
• #357 in International Mystery & Crime (Books)
• #686 in Private Investigator Mysteries (Books)

About the author

Ian James Rankin, OBE, DL, FRSE (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. Photo byTimDuncan (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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THE HANGING GARDEN

by Ian Rankin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1998

Staying on top of two complex investigations is tough enough, but what really has Inspector John Rebus up the wall is staying on the wagon. Here’s Edinburgh about to be become the scene of an all-out gang war, and there’s Rebus, the born-again teetotaler, doing what he can to stop it. Which at first isn’t much. Nor are the local thugs getting his full attention, since a new case has him running around in unproductive circles (while thinking what a power of good a wee dram might do for his morale). Rebus is investigating one Joseph Lintz, who may or may not be Josef Linzstek—a notorious Nazi war criminal who, as an SS lieutenant in 1941, wiped out an entire French village of 700 men, women, and children. And such a benign, unassuming little man this Lintz seems to be. Suddenly, unexpectedly, it turns up that he has connections to Tommy Telford, local mob chieftain. And Tommy, in his turn, has begun to demonstrate connections of a distinctly multinational flavor. Before you can say drugs and “prossies,” Rebus’s patch is awash in entrepreneurial emissaries from the Yakuza and the Chechens (Japanese and Russian mafia). Add to all this the woe and worry of a hit-and-run that fells his beloved daughter. Accident? Or is it gangspeak for —back off, Rebus—? Once again, action that’s relentlessly slam-bang, plotting that’s labyrinthine. Rebus, a puzzle to himself and an enigma to everyone else—especially that array of interesting ladies who’ve been drawn to him over the course of nine outings ( Black and Blue , 1997, etc.)—remains one of the most charismatic heroes in contemporary crime fiction.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-312-19278-9

Page Count: 332

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998

MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

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BOOK REVIEW

by Ian Rankin

by William McIlvanney & Ian Rankin

A CONSPIRACY OF BONES

by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020

Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.

A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice ( The Bone Collection , 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”

Pub Date: March 17, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | DETECTIVES & PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS | SUSPENSE | GENERAL & DOMESTIC THRILLER

More by Kathy Reichs

by Kathy Reichs

by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2015

A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be...

Box takes another break from his highly successful Joe Pickett series ( Stone Cold , 2014, etc.) for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.

Cassandra Dewell can’t leave Montana’s Lewis and Clark County fast enough for her new job as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. She leaves behind no memories worth keeping: her husband is dead, her boss has made no bones about disliking her, and she’s looking forward to new responsibilities and the higher salary underwritten by North Dakota’s sudden oil boom. But Bakken County has its own issues. For one thing, it’s cold—a whole lot colder than the coldest weather Cassie’s ever imagined. For another, the job she turns out to have been hired for—leading an investigation her new boss doesn’t feel he can entrust to his own force—makes her queasy. The biggest problem, though, is one she doesn’t know about until it slaps her in the face. A fatal car accident that was anything but accidental has jarred loose a stash of methamphetamines and cash that’s become the center of a battle between the Sons of Freedom, Bakken County’s traditional drug sellers, and MS-13, the Salvadorian upstarts who are muscling in on their territory. It’s a setup that leaves scant room for law enforcement officers or for Kyle Westergaard, the 12-year-old paperboy damaged since birth by fetal alcohol syndrome, who’s walked away from the wreck with a prize all too many people would kill for.

Pub Date: July 28, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-312-58321-7

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Minotaur

Review Posted Online: April 21, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015

GENERAL MYSTERY & DETECTIVE | MYSTERY & DETECTIVE

More by C.J. Box

by C.J. Box

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Inside Richard Rankin’s private life as he steps into shoes of detective Rebus

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Nearly 25 years after first being turned into a TV series, the Inspector Rebus novels have again been adapted for the screen.

Written by Scottish author Ian Rankin, the first novel Knots and Crosses was released in 1987, with another 23 released since then .

The book series, which follows Detective Inspector John Rebus and is mostly based in and around Edinburgh, accounts for an estimated 10% of all crime book sales in the UK, with each routinely selling half a million copies.

In 2000 the TV show, starring John Hannah as the title character was released, and went on to run until 2007, with Ken Stott playing the lead in the subsequent three seasons.  

Now it is coming back, but this version is starring Richard Rankin, best known for previously starring in Outlander .

Here’s what we know about the actor before he steps into the shows of the famed police detective.

Who is Richard Rankin?

Born in Rutherglen, Scotland, in 1983, Richard Harris spent part of his childhood in Glasgow, one of four boys born to a father on the police force and a mother in the hotel industry.

Although he initially planned a career in the sciences or Information Technology, a chance encounter during a holiday to Los Angeles changer his course.

While at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a film producer told Richard he had the look of an actor, after which he returned to Glasgow and auditioned for Langside College.

He later began using his mother’s maiden name to avoid confusion with Irish actor Richard Harris.

What other TV shows and movies has he been in?

Richard’s first acting role was in the Scottish video game show VideoGaiden in 2006.

Between 2007 and 2010 he made appearances on Legit, The Old Guys and Taggart, as well as comedy series Burnistoun.

He was then cast in WWI mini-series The Crimson Field, then appearing in Silent Witness, American Odyssey, The Syndicate and From Darkness.

However, it was in 2015 that his career reached new heights when cast as Roger Wakefield in Outlander.

He first appeared in the 2016 season two finale and then in several episodes of season three, playing the love interest of Brianna Fraser.

Since then he’s also starred in The Replacement, The Last Kingdom, Midsomer Murders and Trust Me.

He’s also appeared in various film, theatre, radio and podcast projects too.

Last year it was announced he had been cast in Rebus.

‘I’m thrilled to be taking on the role of Rebus,’ he said at the time.

‘I’m a big fan of the series and Sir Ian Rankin. I feel very lucky to be given the honour of bringing such an iconic Scottish character back to TV screens and will give all I have to do it justice.’

The author backed him ‘bringing the character to life’, adding: ‘He’s the perfect fit for the role, and not just because we coincidentally share the same surname.’

Is he married?

Richard is not married but is dating Australian sleepwear designer Sammie Russell.

He was recently pictured at the season 7 Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival with his girlfriend, Sammie Russell, the founding director of Dream With Me.

He was previously linked Cara Theobold while they were shooting for BBC One drama The Syndicate, however they never confirmed a romance.

Rebus airs tonight at 10pm on BBC Scotland and on Saturday at 9:25pm on BBC One. All episodes are now available on BBC iPlayer.

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