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As the plot unfolds there are several strands going on but as usual Ian Rankin handles this with aplomb. It’s a complex but highly entertaining novel, how could it be anything else if John Rebus is involved. As for Brillo the dog, Brillo by nature! More than 30 million copies of Rankin’s Rebus novels have been sold around the globe and they have been published in at least 36 languages. The title and plot of the next Rebus thriller however are being kept top secret for now, with people urged to "keep an eye out" over the next coming months. Rankin is always great with a big cast of characters and the snarky, sarcastic banter that strikes me as very Scottish, but he is also coming off as thoughtful and poetic in this noir-ish world.
Since finishing the last Rebus book, Rankin has worked on The Dark Remains, an unfinished story by the late William McIlvanney, which was published in the autumn, as well as taking part in a murder mystery TV series for Channel 4.Sums up the pair of us, wouldn’t you say? On the other hand, you probably feel it as much as I do.’ A couple of my recent fiction reads have included the effect of COVID at the time. Rebus has a lanyard that excuses him from wearing a mask. I wonder how long it will be before a writer centres a crime around the conditions that COVID created? Literary agent Jon Wood, who was involved in the deal for the new Rebus books, added: “I'm delighted that Ian's long — and hugely successful — association with both Orion and John Rebus continues this year. William McIlvanney is widely credited as the founder of the Tartan Noir movement that includes authors such as Denise Mina, Ian Banks, and Val McDermid, all of whom cite him as an influence and inspiration. McIlvanney’s Laidlaw trilogy “changed the face of Scottish fiction” ( The Times of London), his Docherty won the Whitbread Award for Fiction, and his Laidlaw and The Papers of Tony Veitch both gained Silver Daggers from the Crime Writers’ Association. Strange Loyalties won the Glasgow Herald’s People’s Prize. William passed away in December 2015.
Filmed on the Isle of Gigha, Channel 4's Murder Island saw eight ordinary members of the public compete to find a killer filmed in October/November last year. Read More Related Articles Lew Archer was the brainchild of Ross Macdonald (the nom de plume of Kenneth Millar). Archer was a private eye who walked the mean streets of Los Angeles for decades, and saw an unwieldy evolution of humanity with every stride. He could not have existed without Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe before him. Spade had the callous unpredictability, Marlowe the snarky wit; Archer brought to the table a heart and a soul, and a way of making sense of the world that was deeply, viscerally connected to the reader. In secondary school, a teacher mentioned that the deduction techniques detailed in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work had been so well crafted that they influenced the policing of the day. That fiction could change the world was a powerful idea, and one I wanted to be part of. I’m not saying other things didn’t crop up. My Rebus stage play, A Game Called Malice, written during Covid, found a theatre and will have its world premiere in Hornchurch early in February. There has also been good news on the TV front and the streaming service ViaPlay hope to have Rebus on our screens some time in 2024 – filming is due to commence in the spring.However, great news for Rankin fans as the 61-year-old has emerged from retirement to work on a series of subsequent bases, with the most recent story taking him to the north of mainland Scotland, where his daughter Samantha has been living. He's long retired by now, and ailing, but he still wants to put away bad guys (or help Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke put them away). This time, ostensibly doing a favor for his long-term nemesis Morris "Big Ger" Cafferty, Rebus goes looking for a man once in Cafferty's employ, missing and presumed dead. This bit of unofficial sleuthing collides with a real case that Clarke is investigating: a policeman from the Tynecastle station who is abusing his wife, then disappears. Long-awaited news for Rebus fans comes as the first new novel for two years since the 23rd novel - A Song For The Dark Times - was released and people can expect a second to be in the pipeline.
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