We have translations of works by Irvine Welsh, Ali Smith, Muriel Spark, Alasdair Gray, Val McDermid, J. We collect translations of Rankin’s work and many other modern Scottish writers. The Rebus novels are popular throughout the world and have been translated into 26 languages. By 2015 around one in ten of all crime novels purchased in Britain was by Ian Rankin. The popularity of the novels built up slowly over the years. The novel was not an overnight success and Rebus did not reappear until 1991 when a follow up novel “Hide and Seek” was published. Although Rebus is a heavy smoker and puffs away throughout the novel Ian Rankin has never smoked. The novel is surprisingly short at 168 pages particularly in comparison with later Rebus novels.

He envisaged it as an updating of Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and a work closer to Muriel Spark in spirit than Ruth Rendell. Rankin was surprised to find out that others including his publishers thought he had written a crime novel. If he had planned a series he would almost certainly have made Rebus younger than forty in the novel. In fact he had thought about killing Rebus at the climax of the novel. Rankin never envisaged it as the first of a series. Published by The Bodley Head it had been rejected by five other publishers. Rankin was 25, unmarried and a post graduate student at the University of Edinburgh working on a never to be completed PhD about Muriel Spark when he wrote the novel.

To mark the 30th anniversary we thought we would take a look back at the first Rebus novel “Knots & Crosses”. Throughout the weekend you can also visit a free Rebus exhibition at the Writer’s Museum or a free Museum Noir Trail at the National Museum of Scotland featuring exhibits selected by Rankin. Most events are sold out but as of writing you can still get tickets for a Rebus quiz hosted by Ian Rankin and Phil Jupitus on Sunday 2nd July and a special night out with Rebus at the Queen’s Hall on the 30th June with Ian Rankin and guests.

You can tour Rebus’s Edinburgh, sample whisky at the Caledonian Hotel or attend a crime writing workshop amongst other events many hosted by Rankin himself. It is thirty years since the first Rebus novel “Knots & crosses” was published and to mark the occasion REBUSFEST a weekend of literature, art, film and music celebrating the detective is being held in Edinburgh from 30th June to 2nd July.

Knots and crosses rebus