Page Updated: 04/09/2007

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Ian Rankin - Page 4

Black and Blue Herbert In Motion and other stories Let it Bleed Bloodhunt Mortal Causes

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First British Edition Orion (1997)

Black and Blue
See Review by John Baker
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
See Review by Val McDermid - Gold Dagger winner & creator of Lindsay Gordon, Kate Brannigan & Tony Hill
WINNER OR THE GOLD DAGGER AWARD FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL 1997
Bible John killed three women, took three souvenirs. Johnny Bible kills to steal his namesake's glory. Oilman Allan Mitchison died for his principles. And convict Lenny Spaven to prove his point... Inspector John Rebus must disinter all four cases to nail just one killer. And do it while facing the glare of an internal inquiry led by a man he has just accused of taking backhanders from Glasgow's Mr Big, and with TV cameras at his back investigating a miscarriage of justice. One mistake is likely to mean an unpleasant and not particularly speedy death or, worse still, losing his job.
'His fiction buzzes with energy… Essentially, he is a romantic storyteller in the tradition of Robert Louis Stevenson… His prose is as vivid and terse as the next man's yet its flexibility and rhythm give it a potential for lyrical expression which is distinctively Rankin's own… Rankin controls the material with extraordinary authority and even delicacy… Rankin ranks alongside P.D. James and Michael Dibdin as Britain's finest detective novelist' Scotland on Sunday
'First rate crime fiction with a fierce realism' Sunday Telegraph
'When this traditional set-up (boozy, loner cop determined to get to the truth) is used by a novelist like Rankin - a cunning plotter and a writer of considerable style and intelligence - the result is closer to classic than cliché' Morning Star
'One of the fastest-rising contemporary British sleuths' Time Out
'Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus is one of the most realistic creations in crime fiction ... [he] builds his story layer by layer until it reaches a gripping climax' Sunday Telegraph
'Others in the Rebus series have been uniformly first rate: Black and Blue outreaches them in excellence… His is a superbly drawn character; matched by the edgy authenticity of the Scottish locale and dialogue. With Black & Blue Ian Rankin joins the elite of British crime writing' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'Superb crime fiction' Literary Review
'Marks the series' coming of age… A powerfully complex crime novel that offers a panoramic portrait of modern Scotland, from Glasgow gangland to the oil platforms of the North Sea.' Mail On Sunday

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British Pbk Original - Revolver (1997)

Herbert In Motion and other stories
This edition is limited to 200 signed and numbered copies.
Herbert In Motion 1996 First published in Perfectly Criminal, edited by Martin Edwards
The Serpent's Back 1995 First published in Midwinter Mysteries, edited by Hilary Hale
My Shopping Day 1997 Previously unpublished
No. 79 1997 Previously unpublished
Cover art Bruce Murray

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Hardback Orion (1996)

Paperback - Orion

Let it Bleed
Two boys hug and jump.
One man blows his brains out and does his lady a last favour.
Alone in his cell another sets a ball rolling that may demolish a glittering political career.
Everyone keeps secrets, and sometimes not just their own ...
Struggling through another Edinburgh winter Rebus finds himself sucked into a web of intrigue that throws up more questions than answers. Was the Lord Provost's daughter kidnapped or just another runaway? Why should Councillor Tom Gillespie be shredding documents that were waste paper from a fraud case years old? And why is Rebus himself suddenly invited to a clay pigeon shoot at the stately home of the Scottish Office's Permanent Secretary, Sir Iain Hunter?
Pulled into the machine that is modern Scotland, Rebus is confronted by the fact that some of his enemies may be beyond his reach, even beyond justice.
"Rankin strips Edinburgh's polite facade to its gritty skeleton" The Times
"First rate plotting, dialogue and characterisations" Literary Review
"Rebus is the kind of detective who enjoys a deep dark mystery with a good moral conundrum" New York Times

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First British Edition Headline (1995)

Bloodhunt
Row, row, row your boat
Gordon Reeve teaches survival. Ex SAS, he runs an Outward Bound centre in the Scottish Highlands. It attracts a wide range of people - from executives tired of paintball weekends to trainee bodyguards and gung-ho believers in the coming apocalypse. But his own apocalypse is just around the corner ...
Gently down the stream
It begins with a phone call. His brother has supposedly committed suicide in his car in San Diego - the car was locked from the inside. In the US to identify the body, Gordon comes to realise that his brother has in fact been murdered. What's more, he is being followed, and it is soon obvious that his own life is in danger.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Once back in Scotland he finds out from his wife that there have been more visitors than usual to their house. Fearing the worst, he immediately dispatches his wife and young son to a secret destination, then discovers that his home has been bugged by professionals.
Life is but a dream ...
But Reeve is a professional too - a trained soldier, a trained killer. And now someone is forcing him back into that life, that way of thinking and being. He hasn't felt this way since time spent deep undercover in Argentina during the Falklands War. He was half of a two-man unit with someone he came to fear, then to hate. It looks like his Nemesis is back. The horror has just begun ...
Praise for Witch Hunt
"Sterling quality ... an exciting, tense thriller" Edinburgh Evening News
"Rankin has earned an enviable reputation ... Sophisticated, wholly convincing and thoroughly professional. Harvey could well turn out to be the Ian Fleming of the nineties" Birmingham Post
Praise for Bleeding Hearts
"Jack Harvey does a superb job of building tension ... the book is beautifully constructed and the story packed with interesting characters" South Wales Evening Post
"Strong stuff that keeps the reader glued to the quickening plot" Manchester Evening News
"Good old-fashioned kill or be killed, deftly put together with a coolness typical of Rankin" Sunday Telegraph

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Hardback Orion (1994)

Paperback - Orion (1997)

Mortal Causes
The last people to die in Mary King's Close had been plague victims. But that was in the 1700s. Now a body has been discovered, brutally tortured and murdered, in Edinburgh's buried city. Inspector John Rebus discerns a paramilitary link, but how can this be true? It is August in Edinburgh, the Festival in full swing. No one wants to contemplate terrorism in the thronging city streets.
But things take a turn for the worse when the victim turns out to be a gangster's son, and the gangster wants revenge on his own terms. For though 'Big Ger' Cafferty may be behind bars, he can still muster muscle and fear in equal measure. Soon Rebus finds himself in a no-man's land where friendly fire is as likely to score a hit as anything launched by the unseen enemy.
Troubles enough? Not quite. Add a psychopath who spouts Latin, a policeman known as The Clockwork Orangeman, and a lady advocate with her sights set on Rebus, and you get a flavour of the latest and fieriest John Rebus mystery.
'John Rebus, an outstanding creation. . . very ambitious and very confident with acute observation of the not so bonny side of Scotland' Mike Ripley, Daily Telegraph
'Inspector John Rebus is one of the most realistic creations in crime fiction' Sunday Telegraph
"Suspenseful riddling, with exemplary eye to the plod of police through civic jungle" The Sunday Times
"The gritty, canny Inspector Rebus, unravels a political and sexual web with his customary blend of angst, insouciance and subtlety" The Times
"A gripping and sinister tale ... The plot is complicated, as is the author's exploration into the psychology of guilt, revenge and fear" Independent
"A classic personality detective-story in the tradition of Holmes right through to Morse" Birmingham Post
"Simply awesome" Time Out
"Rebus is a fine creation" H R F Keating

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