When you go to see Ian Rankin you’re half expecting a gloomy, overweight, bleary-eyed chain smoker, a version of John Rebus in short. Which is why you’re a bit thrown by the genial guy telling you how he used to write pop songs for a band that mostly existed in his head. And no, he’s not dark, not in public at least. But he confesses that he is still in constant conversation with John Rebus.
You’ve often said that you landed up on the crime shelves by accident. Are you more comfortable being a crime writer now?
Yes, I’m much more comfortable. Once I realised that I was going to be placed as crime fiction I began to read a lot of crime fiction and I liked the sense of place and the strong narrative structures and characters you get, like the detective. I decided that I wanted to write about contemporary society and the problems that exist in cities and I thought the crime novel was perfect for that. I can’t think of any other fictional character other than a detective who can be interviewing politicians and policemen one minute and in the next be talking to the dispossessed. So yes, I’m happy to be a crime writer now.
How did the idea for Rebus come up?
I used to keep a diary back then and I’ve still got a page which says “I’ve got a new idea for a character.” I was sitting in my bedroom doing nothing in particular when I had this idea — someone would be receiving coded messages — picture puzzles — the word for a picture puzzle is a Rebus. I thought, who could be receiving these puzzles? Maybe he’s a cop and the sender of these messages is someone from his past, someone who had a grievance against him and wanted to play this dangerous game with him. That was it. I knew nothing about the police and wasn’t a fan of detective fiction but that night I had the plot of Knots and Crosses, the first Rebus novel.
So after Knots and Crosses did you realise the detective novel was your style?
No, it was never meant to be a series. After that I wrote a spy novel set in London and a hi tech thriller. Both weren’t successful. Knots and Crosses wasn’t successful either but my editor suggested that I bring Rebus back. At the time I was in London, and I didn’t like London so I thought, “lets bring Rebus here and he can be my spokesperson.” I had no idea there would be 17 books but I liked the character and I knew he was going to be around for a while. The books didn’t sell — up until book number eight — Black and Blue — which was a success in terms of sales and awards.
Did you sense that Black and Blue was going to be the breakthrough book?
I think all the other books were leading up to it in some way. The earlier books gave me a sense of what I could do with crime fiction, what themes I could explore. But by the time we get to Black and Blue I was more confident. At the time my youngest son had been born disabled and I felt in my real life and my family, I had no control over things. But when I went home I could control things in this universe that I had created — Rebus’ universe. So it’s a much angrier book because I was channeling all that anger Into it.
Is this also the time that you started to referring to real places and events?
Just about. Until Strip Jack, Edinburgh was mostly fictitious. At the end of the book I burned down Rebus’ police station and moved him to a real one. I changed the street names and bar names to real ones. I also used a real life case in the book, that of Bible John who was a real criminal in Glasgow. I learnt that from the American writer James Elroy. I was a big fan of his and I learned that a lot of the characters and a lot of the incidents in his books really happened. So that made me a lot more involved in his world. It’s a trick that you play with the reader really.
Do you think that sets you apart from other crime writers?
Well, some. I can’t think of many crime writers who age their characters in real time. One decision I made was that Rebus would get older as the series progressed and he would learn from his mistakes. Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes for instance, almost never refer back to previous cases whereas Rebus is very attached to all his cases and all the victims. Its almost like these ghosts are swirling around in his head.
Weren’t you tempted to stop the clock when Rebus got to 60 and had to retire?
Of course, I was tempted. My publisher kept suggesting it but I think the real time thing became strength of the series. People liked the fact that he got older and I thought at that point it would be cheating if I stopped the clock.
Was it hard for you to decide which lines Rebus would cross?
The stories decide all of that. When I begin a novel I have a question that’s bothering me about the world. It could be about asylum seekers in the UK or the G8 summit — issues of personal and collective responsibility. So I’m trying to make sense of this and then I find a crime so I can get a character in. Now the crime is usually a murder but when I begin the book I don’t know who the killer is. I don’t know how the story ends. This is not advice I would give to a young writer though. Sometimes it’s a problem. In one book — The Hanging Garden — I’d gotten to the end of the first draft and I still had no idea who the killer was.
Were you trying to make your new character Malcolm Fox different from Rebus?
Yeah, I didn’t want anyone to think they were getting Rebus with a different name. So I decided that he wouldn’t drink and he wouldn’t listen to music. He just listens to background stuff like birdsong. Then someone said you could have just made him a musician and I thought, damn, I wish I had done that. Because I love talking about music in my books. I’m a bit of a frustrated rock star really.
What do you think of Edinburgh? Do you really think it’s as dark and gloomy as in your books?
It’s a Jekyll and Hyde city. I wrote the first couple of Rebus novels actually trying to update that theme. When you first arrive you see this wonderful image of monuments and culture and history but behind that there’s this real contemporary city with social issues that no one was talking about. When I began the series Edinburgh had the worst heroin problem in Europe but nobody was talking about it. So I thought I wanted to write about the real city.
But also, with a character like Fox there’s a possibility of showing Edinburgh in a different way. Rebus had become so cynical about the city and about the job that he couldn’t see how beautiful Edinburgh but I think Malcolm Fox can. He hasn’t been a cop for as long and he’s not as cynical in his heart.
You never stray too far from this element of morality in your books. Was that always there?
In later books much more so. When you look at society you get a real sense of injustice and a crime novel is perfect for looking at that. And Rebus always had his own personal morality. Although he didn’t follow the rules he had his own code. Even the villain in the books, Cafferty has that code. That’s why they’re similar. Rebus is aware that if Cafferty goes to jail his position will be filled by younger, hungrier, less moral gangsters so it’s almost better the devil you know really.
Has Rebus served as something of an outlet for you?
Yeah, he’s my spokesperson. He allows me to say things that I would find difficult to say. I do think that all writing is therapy, whether the writer realises this or not. It’s your way of dealing with the world. I think that’s why writers, even really successful ones keep writing. Because they can make sense of the world through their books.
— jayantsriram@gmail.com
John Rebus is a never-ending story
He was forced to retire at 60 but he’s still working for the police. I know exactly what he’s doing. He’s working for a very small department that really exists in Edinburgh. It’s got four people. Three are retired detectives and one is a serving police officer. They look at old unsolved cases and they decide if there is anything they can glean from them with all the new technology available. There are still cases from the 60s where the victim’s clothing has been kept. And now, with new technology, you can get a DNA image of the killer from the victims clothing. Rebus would be perfect for that kind of job. So that’s what he does. He’s based in police headquarters, the same place Malcolm Fox (from The Complaints) is based. His unit is there. So whenever Fox wanders down the corridor Rebus is six feet away. Your not seeing him but I know he’s there and in know he’s still working.