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Revealing the cover for A SONG FOR THE DARK TIMES

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A Song for the Dark Times: the new Rebus, coming autumn 2020

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Ian’s end of year round-up: 2019

Looking back on 2019, including Ian's favourite books, records and films of the year
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Characters

  • John Rebus

    Rebus is a professional misanthrope made more cynical by the job he does. A flawed, pessimistic, multi-layered character, he delights in flouting authority; he smokes and drinks; he doesn’t play by the rules.

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  • “Big Ger” Cafferty

    The gangster who runs Edinburgh, and Rebus’s chief adversary, Cafferty runs a criminal organisation that uses intimidation, bribery and murder to deliver what he wants.

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  • Malcolm Fox

    Complaints Officer Fox is hardworking and pernickety; a team player, not cynical like Rebus, and not a drinker. Long teetotal, he is an interesting character who is somewhat repressed

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  • Siobhan Clarke

    Siobhan plays by the rules; she’s young and ambitious and she embraces the new techniques of policing. She is the perfect foil to Rebus, and the two develop a grudging respect and friendship.

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Creating Rebus

For more than twenty years novelist Ian Rankin has entertained and gripped us with stories of the maverick Detective Inspector Rebus, whose daily grind involves tackling Edinburgh’s grim underbelly. For Rebus, the city is just ‘a crime scene waiting to happen’. How did Edinburgh inspire such dark stories? FIND OUT MORE