Ian Rankin: Why, after 25 books, is Repos still Rankin’s crime fighter | books | entertainment

Shortly after joking that Sir Ian Rankin’s social media gives the impression that visitors to Edinburgh are pretty much guaranteed to bump into him, an American tourist has been walking around telling author his best-selling novels Inspector Repos among his reasons for coming to the city.

In fairness, we’re sitting at The Oxford Bar – Rebus’ favorite watering hole and practically his creator’s club. Portraits of the author adorn the walls, and as we enter, the landlady is handed a stack of correspondence, some simply addressed: “Ian Rankin, bull, Edinburgh.”

But there is a wide spread about the 62-year-old, especially, I would say, if you follow his daily rides around town on Twitter.

He smiles: “Well, I walk everywhere, I don’t take taxis or buses. There’s always a meaning, I’m going to meet someone or give an interview. I’m not the type to make money and start buying designer clothes and a fast car.”

It’s reassuring that despite book sales of 30 million, Ian didn’t have to give up on the Edinburgh he revived and championed in his stories. His brilliant 36-year career as he published his Twenty-fifth Repos, brilliantly titled A Heart Full of Tombstones, which will soon be more.

Settling in with a pint, he admitted that the 1987 plot of Knots and Crosses — which introduced his soldier-turned-cop, still carrying the mental baggage of his time in the Special Forces — was almost completely formed.

“I still have the notes,” he recalls. “It’s a lined paper that says, ‘A cross of matches is sent to the man and knotted pieces of string and he doesn’t know why.'”

“I signed the contract for my first book, The Flood, my literary novel, that day. I went back to the digs, and I sat down and John Rebus jumped in my head. Like he’s waiting for me.”

Ian grew up in a ruthless Fife mining community, and had no pretensions to writing. He admits, “As a working-class kid, I wanted to write books that people would pay to read.” “I was a huge fan of Clive Parker and Ramsey Campbell and thought, ‘Oh, these books sell so much, maybe I should write horror? “I actually started making one of them but it never really got anywhere. I wanted to sell enough copies to become a full-time writer, but I’m respected within the literary community.”

The ambition has come true, I suggest.

“It took him a long time, a double-edged sword to write a chain,” he smiles. “I think it puts people off too, looking at my books and there’s 24/25 in a series, they might think, ‘I don’t want to start that, it’s a big commitment.

The intriguing protagonist of Knots And Crosses and the twisted plot set a model for later books, but life went on unchanged and Ian’s next efforts were the spy novel Watchman – “An Attempt to Become John le Carré” – and the technical thriller Westwind. Not selling well.

Then he asked his editor, “What happened to that man Repos, I loved him?”

Ian continues: “And I went, ‘Yeah, I liked him too, maybe I should give the crime novel again?'” “I couldn’t find anything else to try. Once I had done two or three operations, my path was set, but there was a time it might not have been the case.”

Hide And Seek, Tooth And Nail, and Strip Jack followed in quick succession, but success remained elusive. It wasn’t until Rebus’ eighth book Black And Blue that it won the prestigious Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the year that things started to change. “The book next, The Hanging Garden, spent one week at number 10 on bestseller lists. It was Rebus 11, Set In Darkness, before I hit number one.”

Had he started today, Ian doesn’t think he’ll stand a chance.

“Now the bean counters say you make it big and small or you don’t succeed at all,” he says. “I’m so glad I grew so slow.”

“By the time success came, I was level. If Knots And Crosses had been a worldwide hit, I would have been completely unbearable; there were helicopters everywhere and gold-plated pinball machines in every room in my mansion.”

“Today Ian and his wife Miranda, a civil servant turned professional weaver, live modestly, giving 30-40 percent of their net annual income — a decent six-figure sum — to charity. The couple have two children, including youngest son Kate. , 27, has a rare genetic Angelman syndrome and lives in foster care near the family home.

Ian spoke poignantly about how his anger over Kate’s condition was at the root of his early work when the family was living in France and he was struggling to write. Passion – and anger – lingers. A Heart Full of Headstones begins with Rebus – now retired and facing ill health and loneliness – in court for premeditated murder and ends with a great cliffhanger.

It was written in an intense rush of creativity with its deadline fast approaching.

“I just couldn’t do it,” he explains. “In January we went on vacation to St. Lucia and I had a deadline in June for a book I hadn’t started yet.” “It just started. I was pressing notes on my iPhone for what I thought this book would be: who was in it, what was happening, why was it happening. I went back to Edinburgh, wrote notes and started writing and almost wrote herself.”

The book, which focuses on the corrupt West Edinburgh Police Station and allegations of domestic violence against an officer, is inspired by recent scandals.

There is a general feeling in the world of crime fiction: ‘Are detectives and police officers the knights in the shining armor with which they have always been portrayed? “I think that’s a problem that a lot of writers have. Are we doing police PR or just providing comfort cover for readers? We have to confront them with hard facts, not just give them easy answers, and when you look at the truth in the world, you see all kinds of wrongdoing happening.”

The book is partially inspired by two cases: the murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer and the murder of sisters Nicole Smallman and Pippa Henry, which sparked outrage after cops showed up at the crime scene and took pictures of the victims.

Came to the bottom of my head jumped. It was with ‘I was looking at aspects of the English policing and taking it to Scotland to discuss it. I was thinking, ‘Are the police still the good guys?’ Why do these people work for them and why do they think they can get away with it? “Critics are already interested in the book. But how does he keep it fresh after so long?

“I decided early on that Repos would live in real time, so when I sat down to write a book, his life changed,” explains Ian.

“First he’s a macho guy, a reckless cop, then he’s seasoned and a bit cynical, then he’s retired; now he’s got health issues, he’s divorced, and he never sees his daughter. So when I write, it’s like dealing with a new character. my toes.”

Repos, played on screen by Ken Stott and John Hannah, with a possible new TV adaptation in the works, was 40 years old when readers first met him (its author was 27), so his age has always been an issue.

Ian smiles, “Obviously, I didn’t know I was going to write about him for so long. But enough time had to pass for him to preclude his experiences in the army.”

Ironically, when writing the first fateful crime novel, at one point he even thought of killing Repos. He shakes his head now how that would have changed the course of his career.

At the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate this summer, American giant Michael Connelly, one of the few writers globally who can rival Ian’s popularity, spoke about the aging process of his famous detective Harry Bosch.

When asked if his character, who is now 72, might die, Connelly admitted: “If my goal was to show a full life, I think I should show it. At some point, I could, for lack of better words, kill Harry Bosch. … I would like to write the end of the story.”

Ian nodded in agreement: “Bush and Repos had very similar paths. Both were in the ex-army—Bush served in Vietnam, Repos in Northern Ireland; both broke up from their marriages; both were cops and then retired, come back, and were private investigators.”

“I’d be interested to know what Michael has in store. For Rebus, I don’t know. But the clock is ticking – for me as much as for him. Whenever I sit down to write, I hope I have another book in me.” Is it a Rebus book? who knows?

Fans will have to wait to find out. “I’m going on vacation next year or I’m going to get divorced,” laughs Ian. “My wife says we are going on vacation for a year or she is leaving, so there will be no writing, no festivals, no appearances…just fun while we still have our knees and our wits about us.”

However, there may be a new play from Rebus, written in a flurry of lock creativity. Ian is best known for his collaborations, including with Scottish songwriter Jackie Levine—whose lyrics have inspired three book titles, including the current hardcover—The Charlatans singer Tim Burgess, and Anthony Bourdain, the late chef-turned-writer and broadcaster. .

“I interviewed him onstage and had the accessory issue with him. I asked him what was inside and he brought his chef’s knives from New York because he didn’t trust anyone wouldn’t use them,” says Ian.

“I took him to The Oxford Bar and he loved it and wrote about it in one of his travel books, ‘I’ve been to the best pub in the world but I won’t tell you where it is or where you are’ I’m going there and screw it up!” Despite his spirited tweets, Ian largely avoided The so-called culture wars.

“I’m much happier to stay away from the whole thing,” he says. “I write novels. The real world is not part of my series.”

As for his homage – he was honored on June’s birthday for services to literature, and is disappointed that he will now not be awarded an honor by the Queen – he admits: “It’s a double-edged sword in a country with a large republican community.

“My parents aren’t around but they’ve been cheated, and I looked at the list of Scottish working-class writers who were knighted, and I’m basically. Young guy from the mining community in Fife, why not? But you’re still my little brother.”

• A Heart Full of Tombstones by Ian Rankin (Orion, £22) is out now. To order £18.90 with free UK P&P, visit Expressbookshop.com Or call 020 3176 3832