Ian Rankin News

IF YOU ARE NEW TO IAN’S BOOKS, WE HAVE PICKED A FEW TO START WITH   Starting to read books by an author with a large backlist can be daunting. Where do you start? If […]

THE WHOLE SERIES, ORGANISED IN THE ORDER THEY WERE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED   John Rebus is one of the most enduring characters in crime fiction, first appearing in Knots & Crosses in 1987. Each of the novels is […]

Welcome to my new-look website!   I’m not sure that Rebus would approve – he still thinks of fax machines and cassette decks as new technology – but this is the place to find out […]

REAL TIME WRITING   ‘What I usually get first is a theme – which comes from something I’m interested in or some question that’s been bugging me’ Ian Rankin   Ian Rankin has written the […]

‘The past was certainly important to Edinburgh. The city fed on its past like a serpent with its tail in its mouth’ The Black Book   There is more to Edinburgh than its history, architecture […]

MUSIC AND REBUS   As a music obsessive, it follows that Ian’s favourite bands and their music would appear throughout the Rebus novels. But Rankin’s taste is not necessarily Rebus’s taste, after all, they are […]

IAN’S LITERARY INFLUENCES   ‘As a kid, I sought out stories of all kinds’ (Ian writing in Rebus’s Scotland)   The young Ian Rankin devoured books borrowed from his local library such as A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather and One […]

JOHN REBUS WILL RETURN THIS AUTUMN   In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Ian has revealed that his new novel featuring John Rebus will be called Even Dogs in the Wild. It is the 20th book […]

From the age of 12 until I was nearly 30, I kept a page-a-day diary, and reading through the years 1986-88 has allowed me to place Watchman in its historical context.   I got the idea […]

AUTHOR IS AMONG 56 PEOPLE CHOSEN TO JOIN THE ORGANISATION   Ian Rankin was named as one of 56 distinguished individuals elected to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, it was announced […]