Ian Rankin at Tangled Web UK

Page Updated: 04/09/2007

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Ian Rankin - Page 2

Rebus: The St Leonard's Years

First British Edition Orion (2003)

Paperback - Orion (2004)

A Question of Blood
A horrific shooting incident at a private school just north of Edinburgh: two seventeen-year-olds killed by an ex-Army loner who has gone off the rails. A man who finally turns the gun on himself. As Detective Inspector John Rebus puts it, `there’s no mystery’.. . except the why. But this question takes Rebus into the heart of a shattered community. Ex-Army himself, Rebus becomes fascinated by the killer, and finds he is not alone. Military investigators are on the scene, and won’t be shaken off. The man had friends and enemies to spare - ranging from civic leaders to the local Goths - leaving behind a legacy of secrets and lies.
But Rebus faces his own trials too. A petty criminal who has been stalking his friend and colleague, Siobhan Clarke, has been found burnt to death in his own home. And Rebus is fresh out of hospital, hands heavily bandaged ...
A Question of Blood is a novel about blood, about family and friendship, and about betrayal. It’s also a story of two men - one killer, one cop - united by a bond of common history.
`This is Rankin at his raw-edged, page-turning best’ Time Out
`Exceptionally well plotted . . . guaranteed to hook you and keep you hooked for a very long time’ Sunday Telegraph

Paperback - Orion

First British Edition Orion (2002)

Beggars Banquet
Collected together for the first time, these twenty-one stories from the modern-day master of crime writing represent the very best of Ian Rankin’s repertoire. Selected from ten years’ worth of material, they are taken from magazines, radio and journals. They include seven tales starring Rankin’s outstanding creation, Inspector John Rebus.
Stretching from suburban murders of loved ones to the sinister workings of a serial killer’s mind and from a bent cop with a terminal approach to his work to a hitman who gets more than he bargained for in a crowded fairground, these tales not only explore the human condition but also the inner life of a city like no other. For the streets of Edinburgh have seen more than their fair share of blood.
With Beggars Banquet, Ian Rankin once again demonstrates all the powers that have made him a consistent number one bestseller. Including two CWA Dagger-winning tales, these stories show a writer of incredible range and a storyteller at the height of his powers . . .
‘Masterfully plotted, clear and succinct’ Scotsman
'One of his great gifts is his startling ability to lead us gently down the garden path before whamming us with the shock explanation, the unexpected final trick' The Times
'Rankin forays into short stories to exhilarating effect' Sunday Times

First British Edition Orion (2002)

Resurrection Men
Rebus is off the case - quite literally. A few days into a murder inquiry following the brutal death of an Edinburgh art dealer, Rebus blows up at his superior, DCS Gill Templer, and is sent into purdah. Which, in his case, means the Scottish Police College, sited on the edge of a -village in central Scotland. Rebus has been sent there for `retraining’. In other words, it’s his Last Chance Saloon.
He is not alone. At the college, he is put into a group of similar officers - people who have a problem with the very institution that houses them. They are given an old unsolved case to work on. It will hopefully teach them the merits of teamwork, while allowing professionals the chance to assess this unholy `wild bunch’. But there are those in the team who have their own secrets - secrets not unconnected to the very case they’ve been given - and they’ll stop at nothing to protect them.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Scottish Crime Squad have a favour to ask of Rebus. They think they’ve found someone who can deliver the inside info on the east coast’s biggest gangster, `Big Ger’ Cafferty. All they need is a link-man, someone to act as go-between. They’ve decided on Rebus -whether he likes it or not. Meanwhile, back in Edinburgh, newly-promoted Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke must work the case of the murdered art dealer, a case which will take her closer to Cafferty and his world than she could ever have anticipated ...
`What is impressive in Resurrection Men is not just the deftness of the links between disparate crimes, but the fluency of the fugue-like counterpoint between investigations . . . On this form, nothing is beyond him.’ Sunday Times
‘Rankin’s Rebus novels should be required reading for anyone whose knowledge of Edinburgh has been derived from visits to the Festival . . . Rankin conveys the visceral fears and hatreds lurking just below the smart Georgian surface of the ‘you’ll have your tea’ New Town’ Sunday Telegraph
`Bears all the qualities that have established Rankin as one of Britain’s leading novelists in any genre: a powerful sense of place; a redefinition of Scotland and its past; persuasive characters and a growing compassion among its characters’ New Statesman
‘Rankin weaves his plots with a menacing ease ... His prose is understated and his ear for dialogue is as sharp as a switchblade. This is, quite simply, crime writing of the highest order.’ Sunday Express

Paperback - Orion (2001)

First British Edition Orion (2001)

The Falls
A student has gone missing in Edinburgh . . .
She’s not just any student, but the daughter of extremely well-to-do and influential bankers. There’s almost nothing to go on until Detective Inspector John Rebus gets an unmistakable gut feeling that there’s more to this than just another rebel, high on daddy’s money and more. Two leads emerge: a carved wooden doll in a six inch coffin abandoned at a rural beauty spot and an internet role-playing game run by a mysterious cyber guru. The ancient and the modern, brought together by uncomfortable circumstances and a curmudgeonly detective happier with long playing vinyl than MP3s.
Putting together a misfit team from the Lothian & Borders forest, Rebus takes the unpromising historical material and runs with it, leaving DC Siobhan Clarke to take her chances with the virtual Quizmaster. She’s young enough to know how to navigate the net, but is she old enough and wise enough to pick up the clues in such a complex case?
Rebus takes his eye off the ball, intrigued as to how his clue relates to sixteen similar coffins found on an Edinburgh hillside in 1836. Will he react in time? Or see more coffins filled in a game where lives, real and virtual, depend on split second timing?
`Ian Rankin, at his brilliant, mordant best’ Sunday Telegraph
‘An inventive and absorbing book... The plot skilfully entwines the dark memory of Burke and Hare, the historic mystery of the miniature coffins placed on Arthur’s seat . . . Once again the city, cast in shadows and light, is centre stage, as complex and brooding as Rebus himself’ Scotsman
‘It may be the 12th time out for Rankin’s maverick detective, but The Falls still feels as fresh as ever . . . If you haven’t read the other 11 Rebus novels, it’s about time you did’ Mirror
‘ An extraordinarily rich addition to crime literature’ Independent on Sunday
‘Rankin masterfully pulls his fascinating plot together, and his sense of place casts a powerful shadow over this subtle tale of the recurrence of evil.’ Guardian
‘The Falls pulses with vitality. Suspense vigorously propels you through its pages. Rankin’s prose is crisp, laconic and witty. So is his tangy dialogue’ Sunday Times
`An extraordinary rich addition to crime literature’ Independent on Sunday
`This is the work of a very good crime writer at his very best . . . whatever it is that makes a good crime writer, Ian Rankin has it in spades’ Irish Times
`The Falls is an inventive and absorbing book which lives up to the technical term of a rebus as an enigmatic puzzle.’ The Scotsman
`The Falls, the 12th full-length Inspector Rebus story, finds his creator, Ian Rankin, at his brilliant, mordant best, with the dark heart of the city featuring almost as strongly as Rebus himself’. The Sunday Telegraph
`Few would disagree that Ian Rankin is making a contribution to crime fiction that will last. His novels are playing a significant part in redefining Scotland’s image of itself in literature. He is one of a handful of British crime writers whose books are not only commercially successful but also build a strong case for why crime fiction at its best, can and should be considered as literature.’ The Independent on Sunday

Rebus: The St Leonard's Years
Strip Jack: MP Gregor Jack is caught in an Edinburgh brothel with a prostitute only too keen to show off her considerable assets. Then Jack's wife disappears. Someone wants to strip Jack naked and Rebus wants to know why.
The Black Book: When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body and a long-forgotten night of terror and murder. Rebus must piece together a jigsaw no one wants completed.
Mortal Causes: It is August in Edinburgh and the Festival is in full swing. A brutally tortured body is discovered in one of the city's ancient subterranean streets and Rebus suspects the involvement of sectarian activists. The prospect of terrorism in a city heaving with tourists is unthinkable.