Authors-Books Menu
Inspector Rebus
The Inspector Rebus Series
in chronological order:
Knots & Crosses
Hide & Seek
Tooth & Nail
Strip Jack
The Black Book
Mortal Causes
Let It Bleed
Black & Blue
The Hanging Garden
Dead Souls
Set In Darkness
The Falls
Resurrection Men
A Question if Blood
Fleshmarket Close
Naming of the Dead
Exit Music
More Rebus
Short Stories:
The Collections include Short Inspector
Rebus Stories:
Beggars Banquet:
The Complete Short Stories:
Non-Fiction
Rebus'es Scotland:
Introduction to the Inspector Rebus Series
I discovered the
Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the British author Ian Rankin,
in the late 1990's, I am still bewildered as to why I did not stumble upon such an excellent well written
series before.
Having read The Hanging Garden (my first purchase), I was determined to go back to the first book in the Rebus
series Knots and Crosses, when John Rebus was a Detective Sergeant and collect/read the
series in order of publication, which I did.
As for the content and style of the Inspector Rebus Series:
The Editor of the
Inspector Rebus - Wikipedia Entry
defines it far better than I could:
Quote
The books are written in third person limited omniscient mode, focusing on Rebus, with the point of view
sometimes shifting to colleagues, petty criminals or suspects. The stories belong to the genre of police
procedural detective fiction, with a hardboiled aspect that has led to them being dubbed 'Tartan Noir'.
All the novels involve murders, suspicious deaths or disappearances, with Rebus taking on the task of
solving the mystery. The resulting investigation (or investigations) depict a stark, uncompromising
picture of Scotland, characterised by corruption, poverty, and organised crime. Along the way, Rebus
has to struggle with internal police politics, a struggle exacerbated by his tendency to bend the rules
and ignore his superiors. He also has to deal with his own personal issues, which are often directly or
indirectly related to the current investigation, risking further friction with his colleagues.
Rankin has won critical praise for his elaborate and inventive plots. In particular, the later books
have multiple plot lines encompassing dozens of distinctive characters and locations. These span a broad
spectrum of Scotland, including council estates, tenements, business districts, nightclubs, prisons,
dying mining towns, secluded villages and desolate hillsides, as well as the better-known pubs and
streets of Edinburgh. Some of these locations are fictional, although they may be based on real places.
For example, the Pilmuir estate is a conflation of the two real Edinburgh locations Pilton and Muirhouse.
Other locations, such as the
Oxford Bar
, Arden Street or St Leonards Police Station, are real. Frequent references to real places, or local
politics firmly ground the Rebus series in the real world.
Another strong feature of the series is the continual linking between the books. This may be in
reference to background, previous cases and storylines, or through the characters Rebus encounters,
for example, the notorious Edinburgh crime-lord 'Big Ger' Cafferty. However, Rankin does this in such a
way that reading them in order, or a prior knowledge of the Rebus 'history' isn't required. Everything
is explained in enough detail in order not to confuse new readers, but does not become repetitive for
extensive readers of the series.
Unquote
The Inspector Rebus Books by Ian Rankin:
Knots and Crosses - 1987
The first of the Inspector Rebus series, when John Rebus was a Detective Sergeant. It was written while
Rankin was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh. In the introduction to this novel,
Rankin states that Rebus lives directly opposite the window in Marchmont that he looked out of while
writing the book.
Plot Summary:
Edinburgh has been shocked by the abduction and subsequent strangling of two young girls. An Investigative Journalist Jim Stevens uncovers Michael Rebus's drug dealing.
He suspects that his brother John, a police officer, knows or even supports his brother's illegal activities.
Detective Sargent John Rebus is meanwhile assigned to the investigative team. The investigation ist effectively stalled, and eventually two more girls disappear
Throughout the case, John's past life in the Army not only haunts him, but appears directly connected to the case. Then his former wife and daughter are abducted.
Relieved from his duty because of the personal involvement, but taking hints from seemingly cryptic anonymous
letters he decides to find and face his enemy.
Hide and Seek - 1991
The second book in the Inspector Rebus series, with John Rebus now promoted to Detective Inspector.
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector John Rebus finds the body of an overdosed drug addict in an Edinburgh squat, laid out
cross-like on the floor, between two burned-down candles, with a five-pointed star painted on the wall
above.
Some of his colleagues are inclined to categorise it as the routine death of a "junkie", but Rebus
is perturbed by some unusual facts of the case: a full package of heroin in the dead man's room, and
some mysterious bruises on his face and body. Rebus takes seriously a death which looks more like a
murder every day, and he begins to investigate the true circumstances of the death.
It emerges that the dead man was a photographer who took and hid some sensitive photos in a specialist
private members' club, where highly-connected people in society watch illegal boxing.
Tooth and Nail - 1992
Originally entitled Wolfman, Tooth and Nail
was the third in the series of the Inspector Rebus novels.
Plot Summary:
Rebus is drafted in by Scotland Yard to help track down a cannibalistic serial killer called the Wolfman,
whose first victim was found in the East End of London's lonely Wolf Street.
His London colleague, George Flight, isn't happy at what he sees as interference, and Rebus encounters
racial prejudice as well as the usual dangers of trying to catch a vicious killer.
When Rebus is offered a psychological profile of the Wolfman by an attractive woman, it seems too good
an opportunity to miss.
Strip Jack - 1992
Fourth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title refers to the popular card game
'Strip Jack Naked', which has many alternative names including.
Beggar-My-Neighbour
Plot Summary:
A police raid on an Edinburgh brothel captures (seemingly by accident) popular young local MP Gregor Jack.
When his fiery wife Elizabeth disappears, and two bodies are found, suspicion falls on a famous local actor
and haulier, Rab Kinnoul.
Detective Inspector John Rebus is sympathetic to the MP's problems, and interviews a member of Jacks' social
circle, Andrew MacMillan, who is locked up in a psychiatric hospital after murdering his own wife many years
before. It becomes increasingly evident that somebody has 'set up' Jack, with the intention of stripping him
of his good name, political standing and maybe even his life.
The Black Book - 1993
Fifth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. It is the first book to feature
Siobhan Clarke (to be a close colleague) and
Morris Gerald Cafferty (Gangster) appears as a main character.
It is also the first book where Rebus is based at
St Leonards police station.
Plot Summary:
Rebus finds himself with a number of problems on his hands. Firstly with his wayward brother, Michael, who has returned to Edinburgh, a major new Police Operation
'Moneybags' against a Money Lending operation controlled by Big Ger' Cafferty and an attack on a Police
Colleague Brian Holmes who is put into a coma, which leads Rebus to investigate a mysterious fire and
murder that happened five years before.
A leader of one of the surveillance teams as part of Operation 'Moneybags', Rebus has a new recruit to the force Siobhan Clarke under his command.
This book sets the scene for the close working relationship between Rebus and Siobhan Clarke, the battle of wits between Rebus and Cafferty
and builds on, or introduces characters that will appear in later books.
Mortal Causes - 1994
Sixth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. Throughout the book there are references of a Joke about a squid!
Fortunately by the end of the novel, the punch line is revealed.
Plot Summary:
Set during the Edinburgh Festival, this novel starts with a brutally executed corpse being discovered in
Mary King's Close, an ancient subterranean street.
The body has a tattoo identified with "Sword and Shield", a long-thought-defunct Scottish Nationalist
group with links to sectarianism in Northern Ireland.
The victim turns out to be the son of notorious gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty, and the plot moves towards
the unthinkable prospect of a terrorist atrocity in a tourist-filled Edinburgh.
Rankin has stated that one of the minor characters is based on the Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary
Billy Wright.
Let It Bleed - 1996
Seventh in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title refers to the Rolling Stones album Let it Bleed.
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector John Rebus and colleague Frank Lauderdale start the book with a car chase across
Edinburgh, culminating with the two youths they are chasing throwing themselves off the Forth Road
Bridge and in Rebus being injured in a car crash.
Rebus' upset over this allows Rankin to show the character in a new light, revealing his isolation and
potentially suicidal despair.
After the unconnected suicide of a terminally ill con, Rebus pursues an investigation that implicates
respected people at the highest levels of government, and due to the politically sensitive nature of
what he is doing, faces losing his job, or worse. He is supported by his daughter Sammy, allowing their
distant relationship to be built upon.
Black and Blue - 1997
Eighth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title refers to the Rolling Stones album Black and Blue.
It is considered a landmark entry in the Tartan Noir genre, with Gill Plain writing a reader's guide to
it in 2002.
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector John Rebus is working on four cases at once trying to catch a killer he suspects of
being the infamous Bible John.
He has to do it while under an internal inquiry led by a man he has accused of taking bribes from
Glasgow's "Mr Big".
TV journalists are meanwhile investigating Rebus over a miscarriage of justice.
Rebus travels between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen and then on to Shetland and the North Sea.
The Hanging Garden - 1998
Ninth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title refers to The Cure's song 'The Hanging Garden'
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector John Rebus is investigating a suspected war criminal.
Rebus helps a traumatised Bosnian prostitute and tries to intercede in a territory war between upstart
gangster Tommy Telford and 'Big Ger' Cafferty's established gang. Telford is known to have close links
with Newcastle gangster Mr Pink Eyes - a Chechen people-smuggler.
Rebus' daughter Sammie is knocked down in what looks like a deliberate hit-and-run. A Japanese gangster
is killed by someone trying to frame Rebus, using his Saab car.
Dead Souls - 1999
Tenth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title refers to Joy Division's song "Dead Souls" and
to the 1842 Nikolai Gogol novel Dead Souls.
from which appear at the beginnings of the two parts of the book.
Plot Summary:
While investigating a poisoner at Edinburgh Zoo, Detective Inspector John Rebus sees a known paedophile
photographing children. After a chase ending in the sea lion enclosure, Rebus decides to 'out' the man,
in spite of assurances that he is trying to reform.
As a campaign against the man starts, Rebus hears that the son of an ex-girlfriend has gone missing and
starts investigating his disappearance from a nightclub with a mysterious blonde.
A convicted killer comes back from the U.S. having served his time in prison, with an agenda he wants to
pursue. Rankin incorporated the novella Death is not the End as the missing person plot-line of this novel.
Set in Darkness - 2000
Eleventh in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title comes from the poem
'The Old Astronomer to his pupil' by Sarah Williams.
Plot Summary:
The Scottish Parliament is about to reopen in Edinburgh after 300 years.
Detective Inspector John Rebus is in charge of liaison, as the new parliament
is in his patch.
While on a tour of Queensberry House, which is to be incorporated into the new Parliament,
a fireplace where legend has it a youth was burned to death is opened up and another, more
recent murder victim is found.
Then, a prospective MSP called Roddy Grieve is found murdered, and Rebus is expected to find instant
answers.
The Falls - 2001
Twelfth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels.
Plot Summary:
A student vanishes in Edinburgh, and her wealthy family of bankers ensure Detective Inspector John Rebus
is under pressure to find her.
A carved wooden doll in a coffin found near her East Lothian home leads Rebus to an Internet role-playing
game that she was involved in.
DC Siobhan Clarke tackles the virtual quizmaster, and thus risks the same fate as the missing girl.
Resurrection Men - 2002
Thirteenth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title is a reference to the body-snatchers of the
19th century, who were known as 'resurrectionists' or 'resurrection men'.
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector John Rebus is thrown off a murder inquiry, just days after the brutal death of an
Edinburgh art dealer, for throwing a cup of tea at Gill Templer.
He is sent to the Scottish Police College for 'retraining' - this is his 'Last Chance Saloon'.
He is put with a team of officers in similar circumstances and together they are given an unsolved case
to work on. This turns out to be one in which many of the team are already involved, and they all have
their own secrets that they wish to keep hidden.
Rebus is asked to act as a go-between for Edinburgh gangster 'Big Ger' Cafferty, and newly promoted
DS Siobhan Clarke, who while working the case of the murdered art dealer, is brought closer to Cafferty
than she ever expected.
As always the cases are all linked and Rebus must use his trusted friends to uncover the truth before the
truth uncovers him.
A Question of Blood - 2003
Fourteenth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels.
Plot Summary:
At a private school two teenagers are killed by an ex-Army loner who then turns the gun on himself.
As Detective Inspector John Rebus puts it, 'there's no mystery...except the why'. In searching for
these answers, Rebus finds himself drawn into a shattered community and a link with his own past.
He becomes fascinated with the killer who had friends and enemies aplenty, from politicians to goths,
and who left behind a web of secrets and lies.
Meanwhile, Rebus faces his own trials: DS Siobhan Clarke has been stalked by a petty criminal who is
found burnt to death in his own home. Rebus is fresh out of hospital, hands heavily bandaged.
Fleshmarket Close - 2004
Fifteenth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The title is named after a real close off Edinburgh's Cockburn Street.
For the USA Market the Novel was entitled Fleshmarket Alley.
Plot Summary:
Detective Inspector John Rebus has no desk to work from, as a hint from his superiors that he should
consider retirement, but he and his protegee Siobhan Clarke are still investigating some seemingly
unconnected cases.
The sister of a dead rape victim is missing; stolen medical skeletons turn up embedded in a concrete
floor; a Kurdish journalist is brutally murdered; and the son of a Glasgow gangster has moved into the
Edinburgh vice scene.
The book uses two new settings; a sink estate divided between racist thugs and refugees (based on Wester
Hailes), and a small town whose economy is dominated by an internment camp for asylum-seekers (based on
Dungavel).
The Naming of the Dead - 2006
Sixteenth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels. The book is set in real time; during July 2005 the
week of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, and other real events that happened during that week, such as the
7/7 London bombings, the 2012 Olympic bid and George W. Bush falling off his bicycle are covered. or at
least comment on in the plot.
The title refers to: the ceremony Clarke's ageing left-wing parents attend, where the names of a
sampling of the dead from the Iraq War are read out; the list of victims created by Rebus and Clarke
as they try to unravel the crime; and also to John Rebus' evocation of grief in naming the many of his
own friends and family who have died in the course of his life.
Plot Summary:
An underlying thread throughout the book is that of familial relationships: Introduced by the Funeral of
Rebus' brother Michael, continued by Siobhan Clarke's relationship with her parents and finally between
victim and killer.
With Politics, Council, National and International, plus Police Internal Politics. The Arms Trade and the Governments relationship with a major player
in it, the G8 Summit. both resulting in Special Branch involvement.
Serial killing of former former offenders, helped by a website set up by the family of a victim.
Siobhan Clarke is placed in charge of the investigation, although she is outranked by Rebus, and finds
herself having to compromise with Edinburgh gangster Morris Cafferty (for whom one of the victims was
working as a bouncer) in hunting down the identity of the riot policeman who apparently assaulted her
mother at a demonstration.
Complex and a riveting read, this book, which shows how crime permeates society, has been called
'Ian Rankin's' finest novel. Which as they are all excellent is praise indeed.
Exit Music - 2007
Seventeenth in the Inspector Rebus Series of novels.
Plot Summary:
Just a week before Rebus’s retirement, Rebus and Clarke are investigating a murder at King’s Stables
Road. They find the body of a famous Russian poet who has been mugged and beaten to death.
It seems that the murder was a random attack but a second murder takes place days after. This time it
was a recording artist with close ties to the dead Russian poet.
Rebus looks for the connections between these two murders so that he may find the killer.
But halfway-through the investigation, Rebus is suspended for the way he interrogated suspects and
getting on the wrong side of Scottish bankers and politicians.
Rebus continues to solve the murder unhindered by the suspension with the support of his partner Siobhan.
Note: The Short Story Collections (not in my Library): A Good Hanging and Other Stories (1992), Beggars Banquet (2002) and The Complete Short Stories (2005) which combines the earlier collections with an additional story, feature Inspector Rebus to a large extent.
The Inspector Rebus Audio Books on CD by Ian Rankin:
I do NOT have any Inspector Rebus Audio Books in my Library, however out of either necessity, or choice
some people prefer this medium. Below I have listed the CD Unabridged Versions of the Books.
Some of the Books are available in abridged form on Cassette and other CD Versions exist in MP3 Format
Knots & Crosses CD
Hide & Seek CD
Tooth & Nail CD
Strip Jack CD
The Black Book CD
Mortal Causes CD
Let It Bleed CD
Black & Blue CD
The Hanging Garden
Dead Souls CD
Set In Darkness CD
The Falls CD
Resurrection Men
A Question Of Blood
Fleshmarket Close CD
Naming of the Dead
Exit Music
Ian Rankin
Photograph by:
Tim Duncan
Quick Links
Rebus Collections
The Early Years
Knots & Crosses,
Hide & Seek, Tooth & Nail
The St. Leonards' Years
Strip Jack, The Black Book, Mortal Causes
The Lost Years
Let it Bleed, Black & Blue,
The Hanging Garden
Capital Crimes
Dead Souls, Set in Darkness,
The Falls
Three Great Novels
Resurrection Men,
A Question of Blood,
Fleshmarket Close
More by Ian Rankin
Fiction
Writing as Jack Harvey:
Blood Hunt:
Bleeding Hearts:
Witch Hunt:
The Jack Harvey Novels:
Other Novels by Ian Rankin:
Doors Open:
Watchman:
The Flood:
Westwind:
Short Stories:
Beggars Banquet:
The Complete Short Stories:
Non-Fiction
