Leading Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin has confirmed his most famous character, Inspector Rebus, will return in a new novel to be published later this year.
The novel, called Standing in Another Man's Grave, is inspired by a song by the late Scottish singer and songwriter Jackie Leven and is dedicated to his memory.
Leven, who died last year aged 61, had collaborated with the author, on Jackie Leven Said, a mix of his music and a Rankin short story, which the pair performed at Edinburgh's Usher Hall in 2005 and later released on a CD.
Leven, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, wrote a song called Standing in Another Man's Rain.
Yesterday, at the Hay Festival in Wales, Rankin said there was "unfinished business" with Inspector John Rebus and the latest story was the "perfect fit" for him.
The detective was last seen in Exit Music, published in 2007 – the 17th Rebus novel – which also featured his retirement.
Since then Rankin has written two novels with a new main character, Malcolm Fox, who works in the internal investigations unit of Lothian and Borders Police.
Since Rebus's first appearance in 1987, the novels featuring the Edinburgh detective have been translated into 22 languages, becoming international best-sellers.
Rankin said: "I felt there was unfinished business between the two of us. He had never really gone away but was working for Edinburgh's cold case unit.
"And I knew I had a story that was a perfect fit for him."
The novel, out in November, will see Rebus finding himself in trouble with Fox.
His former partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, will also feature, advancing in her own career.
It is not yet known whether this will be the final appearance of Rebus in Rankin's work.
Leven died after a battle with cancer in November last year, but the final years of an often troubled life were marked by immense musical productivity, beginning with his acclaimed 1994 album, The Mystery of Love Is Greater Than The Mystery of Death. He sometimes recorded under the name of Sir Vincent Lone.
Edinburgh-based Rankin added: "Jackie was a great guitarist and a fine songwriter with a vein of robust romantic imagery and a voice that could melt granite.
"He was also a terrific storyteller whose life had provided no end of material.
"He's still much missed by all of us who knew him."
Rankin in fact predicted at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2009 that Rebus may return in the third Fox novel. He said then: "Whatever I say about Rebus will make the news, but I think of him only being one corridor away from Fox, probably working on cold cases.
"Maybe in book three, Fox could investigate Rebus – that would be interesting."
Rankin has written novels not featuring Rebus before, including his books under the pseudonym of Jack Harvey and also his crime novel set around the National Galleries of Scotland, Doors Open, which is currently being made into a movie starring Stephen Fry.
The author's most recent novel is The Impossible Dead, the second book featuring Fox as its main character.
Rebus has been portrayed on television by both John Hannah and Ken Stott.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article