Books by Ian Rankin and Complete Book Reviews
Edited by David Baldacci, read by multiple narrators. S&S Audio, , 10 CDs, 11 hrs., unabridged, $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-7004-3
This anthology, in which members of the International Thriller Writers society double up on 11 short mysteries featuring their famous protagonists in tandem, is both gimmicky and intriguing—and surprisingly testosterone-soaked. All but two of the...
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Edited by David Baldacci. Simon & Schuster, $26.99 (384p) ISBN 978-1-4767-6206-7
A clever concept distinguishes this anthology sponsored by the International Thriller Writers. Each of the 11 stories pairs well-known series characters created by different authors, sometimes in adversarial but more often in collegial ways, and...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $26 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-22455-0
John Rebus comes out of retirement in Edgar-winner Rankin's stellar 20th novel featuring the Edinburgh cop (after 2013's Standing in Another Man's Grave). Rebus, though, must accept a demotion—from detective inspector to detective sergeant—not that...
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Ian Rankin, Author . St. Martin's Minotaur $24.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-312-20610-9
A number one U.K. bestseller, Rankin's 13th novel featuring Scottish Det. Insp. John Rebus may be his breakout book in the U.S. Rankin's brilliant evocation of a moody Edinburgh, deeply human characters and labyrinthine plot give dimension...
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Ian Rankin, Author St. Martin's Press $20.95 (269p) ISBN 978-0-312-10553-2
For all the right reasons, Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus calls for comparison with Colin Dexter's Oxford copper Inspector Morse. Both spend a lot of time in pubs and bemoan the onset of middle age; each is a shrewd detective with a...
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Ian Rankin, Author Minotaur Books $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-16783-7
Rankin's Inspector John Rebus (Mortal Causes; Let It Bleed) is something of an outlaw cop, a hard-drinking, rock-and-roll-loving loner who tends to make his superiors see red. At the outset of his latest outing, he has been posted to one of...
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Ian Rankin, Author St. Martin's Press $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-312-19278-5
This sprawling, overloaded mystery from a justly acclaimed and usually very reliable crime author is a disappointment. Through nine previous novels (Black and Blue, 1997, etc.), dogged Edinburgh copper John Rebus has been captivating company--a man...
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Ian Rankin, Author Simon & Schuster $21 (288p) ISBN 978-0-684-83055-1
At the start of Rankin's powerful and absorbing latest tale, Edinburgh Detective Inspector John Rebus (Mortal Causes, etc.) looks on helplessly as two young kidnapping suspects avoid capture by diving to their deaths from the icy Forth Road Bridge....
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Ian Rankin, Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, $24.99 (448p) ISBN 978-0-316-03974-1
Fans of Rankin's Det. Insp. John Rebus will be disappointed by this so-so police procedural, his second stand-alone since Rebus "retired" (after Doors Open). Malcolm Fox—call him Rebus "Lite" (he doesn't drink, he broods less, and he has none of...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, $25.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-316-03977-2
Insp. Malcolm Fox proves a worthy successor to John Rebus in Rankin’s satisfyingly layered second novel featuring the Edinburgh Internal Affairs cop (after The Complaints). Fox and his two colleagues receive a frosty reception in Kirkcaldy, where...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur, $25.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-22458-1
Rankin's iconic Edinburgh copper, John Rebus, who retired in 2007's Exit Music, is now a civilian reviewing old police files in this satisfying crime thriller, which also includes Rankin's new series lead, Malcolm Fox (The Impossible Dead). Rebus...
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Ian Rankin, Author Minotaur Books $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-28027-7
For his 13th Det. Insp. John Rebus volume, Ian Rankin (The Falls) has traded the full-length police procedural for a collection of 12 gripping stories. The king of tartan noir puts his popular Scottish ""heart attack material"" supersleuth to...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $26 (480p) ISBN 978-0-316-29683-0
The 31 rewarding stories in Edgar-winner Rankin’s complete John Rebus collection span the Scottish detective’s entire career, from his early days as a policeman learning the ropes right up to the time of his quasi-retirement. The best entries, such...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $26 (352p) ISBN 978-0-316-34251-3
In Rankin’s uneven 21st John Rebus novel (after 2013’s Saints of the Shadow Bible), the Edinburgh police hire the retired cop in a “consultative capacity” to work with former partner Siobhan Clarke on the murder of Lord Minton, a lawyer found beaten
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $25 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-34257-5
A 1978 cold case brings John Rebus out of semiretirement in Edgar-finalist Rankin’s complex 23rd novel featuring the Edinburgh copper (after 2015’s Even Dogs in the Wild). Crabby from giving up cigarettes and more afraid than he would like to admit...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $27 (384p) ISBN 978-0-316-47920-2
The discovery of the body of Stuart Bloom, who went missing in 2008, in his car trunk in an isolated wooded area drives Edgar finalist Rankin’s intricate 24th Rebus novel (after 2017’s Rather Be the Devil). Bloom’s ankles being secured with police...
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Ian Rankin, Author Minotaur Books $24.95 (415p) ISBN 978-0-312-20609-3
In the 12th novel in the increasingly engaging Inspector Rebus series (Knots and Crosses; Dead Souls; etc.), Gold Dagger award-winner Rankin has woven a plot grittier and tighter than ever. When a body, long dead, is found on the site of the new...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $23.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-316-76684-5
Rankin's moody Inspector John Rebus, unorthodox pride of the Edinburgh police, begins this latest installment in hot water. He's been sent back to the police college for "retraining," with a group of other "resurrection men,"
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $22.95 (406p) ISBN 978-0-316-09564-8
The 14th novel to feature the always compelling (and, as his name suggests, perpetually puzzling) John Rebus begins with what seems to be a uniquely American crime: a madman enters a school and starts shooting, killing two students and wounding a...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $19.95 (400p) ISBN 978-0-316-00910-2
In this rather tepid thriller, Britain's security services are thrown into a tizzy thanks to the mysterious female superassassin known as Witch, who changes disguises and personae at the drop of a hat, carrying out hits and gravitating ominously
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $22.95 (420p) ISBN 978-0-316-09565-5
The Edinburgh of Insp. John Rebus has more than its share of violent crimes involving drugs and gangs, but there's always another layer of institutional vice and corruption. As Rebus says, "[W]e spend most of our time chasing something...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $24.95 (385p) ISBN 978-0-316-00911-9
Admirers of Edgar-winner Rankin's bestselling series featuring Edinburgh's Insp. John Rebus (Fleshmarket Alley
, etc.) may be disappointed by this stand-alone suspense novel, which has more in common with the works of Frederick Forsyth and...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $24.99 (378p) ISBN 978-0-316-00912-6
First published in the U.K. in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey, this routine thriller from Edgar-winner Rankin tells the story of Michael Weston, a fastidious British assassin whose life gets complicated when Hoffer, an American PI, starts to...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $24.99 (452p) ISBN 978-0-316-05757-8
At the start of Rankin's overly complex 18th book to feature Edinburgh's Insp. John Rebus (after 2005's Fleshmarket Alley
), Ben Webster, a Scottish delegate to the Group of Eight summit, dies suspiciously a couple of days before the...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $24.99 (258p) ISBN 978-0-316-00913-3
Fans of Rankin's Inspector Rebus series (The Naming of the Dead
, etc.) will welcome the U.S. publication of his second novel, a stand-alone spy thriller from 1988 that contains Rebus-like elements. Miles Flint has been a successful middle...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown $24.99 (421p) ISBN 978-0-316-05758-5
Insp. John Rebus has just 10 days to solve the apparently motiveless murder of Alexander Todorov, an expatriate Russian poet, before he reaches 60 and mandatory retirement in Edgar-winner Rankin's rewarding 17th novel to feature the Edinburgh...
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Ian Rankin, Author . Little, Brown/Reagan Arthur $24.99 (364p) ISBN 978-0-316-02478-5
In Scottish author Rankin's intricately plotted heist thriller, software millionaire Mike Mackenzie, high-end banker Allan Cruikshank, and college art professor Robert Gissing devise a plan to “liberate” forgotten works of art from...
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Ian Rankin, Author O. Penzler Books $21 (278p) ISBN 978-1-883402-77-8
With this latest action-packed adventure of Edinburgh's Inspector John Rebus, Rankin steps into the company of accomplished fellow British procedural writers John Harvey and Peter Turnbull. Events lead the inspector to consider the ``black comedy''...
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Ian Rankin, Author Minotaur Books $11.95 (73p) ISBN 978-0-312-26142-9
Using a subplot from his last Inspector Rebus novel (1999's Dead Souls), Gold Dagger Award-winner Rankin demonstrates at novella length why his Edinburgh policeman stands at the forefront of contemporary detectives. When 23-year-old Damon Mee...
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Ian Rankin, Author, Rankin, Author St. Martin's Press $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-20293-4
Edinburgh's Det. Insp. John Rebus is beset by troubles from the past and the present in the loose and rangy 11th installment (after The Hanging Garden) of Rankin's popular (and, in England, bestselling) series. At the outset, Rebus, who's been...
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Ian Rankin, Author, James Gale, Read by , read by James Gale. Hachette Audio $31.98 (0p) ISBN 978-1-59483-878-1
James Gale proves an excellent choice to narrate this latest entry to the long-running Inspector Rebus series. It's 2005 and Rebus is mourning the unexpected death of his brother. It is a death that will cause a lot of introspective musings for
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Ian Rankin, Author, Werther Dell'Edera, Illustrator . DC/Vertigo Crime $20 (216p) ISBN 978-1-4012-1386-2
Popular mystery novelist Rankin writes fan-favorite John Constantine, from the long-running comic Hellblazer
, in this original tale from the new Vertigo Crime imprint. Although the character has a history dating back to Alan Moore's run on...
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Ian Rankin, Author, James MacPherson, Read by , read by James MacPherson. Hachette Audio $29.98 (0p) ISBN 978-1-60024-454-4
James MacPherson’s home-grown Scottish burr is put to excellent use narrating Rankin’s 17th and possibly best crime novel featuring Det. Insp. John Rebus of the Edinburgh police. At 60, it’s retirement time for Rebus and, as...
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Ian Rankin, Author, James MacPherson, Read by , read by James MacPherson. Brilliance Audio $26.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-59600-340-8
This abridgement of Rankin's 15th novel about Edinburgh police investigator John Rebus ends with an interview in which the author says he prefers to ignore abridgments. He should make an exception in this case. It's a particularly well-concei
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Ian Rankin, read by James MacPherson. Hachette Audio, unabridged, 10 CDs, 11 hrs., $35 ISBN 978-1-4789-0513-4
In Rankin’s new novel, Detective Siobhan Clarke seeks the assistance of her former partner, retired copper John Rebus, in investigating the murder of a senior government prosecutor found beaten to death. The codgers form an uneasy alliance and...
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Edited by Maxim Jakubowski. Titan, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-789097-98-6
Jakubowski (Venice Noir) has gathered some of the most notable winners of the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Dagger Award for this strong anthology. The best of the 19 selections come with a sting in the tail that undermines readers’...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $27 (304p) ISBN 978-0-316-49792-3
First published in 1990 and long out of print, this sophomoric thriller from bestseller Rankin (the John Rebus series) opens at a ground tracking station in England, where technician Paul Vincent notices that Zephyr, Britain’s latest spy satellite,...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $27 (336p) ISBN 978-0-316-47925-7
Edgar winner Rankin’s excellent 23rd outing for John Rebus (after 2019’s In a House of Lies) takes the retired police inspector from Edinburgh to a remote part of northern Scotland, where his daughter Samantha’s partner, Keith Grant, the father of...
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Ian Rankin. Little, Brown, $28 (336p) ISBN 978-0-316-47363-7
Edgar winner Rankin’s outstanding 24th John Rebus novel (after 2020’s A Song for the Dark Times) opens dramatically with the Edinburgh detective, officially retired but still working, in the dock charged with a crime that’s not revealed until the...
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Ian Rankin. Mulholland, $29 (336p) ISBN 978-0-316-47385-9
John Rebus gets pulled into a jailhouse murder case while serving time for killing his nemesis in Rankin’s satisfying 25th mystery featuring the former Edinburgh detective (after Dead Souls). When gangster Jackie Simpson is found dead in his cell,...
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William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin. Europa, $27 (208p) ISBN 978-1-60945-719-8
Set in 1972 Glasgow, Scotland, this smoothly written prequel to McIlvanney’s Laidlaw (1977) was completed by bestseller Rankin (the John Rebus series) from an unfinished manuscript by Edgar finalist McIlvanney (1936–2015). When a local mob lawyer is
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