Our-Featured-Genre
… this is a new feature on Scorpion Press each month we will create a new page here highlighting the many unsolved crimes and keep you in suspense. This month we feature Ian Rankin, best selling British crime writer. We intend to feature a sub genre of crime fiction and comment on the scene of the scene as best we can ….
Rebus & Rankin | Ian Rankin collectors editions
Edinburgh police Inspector John Rebus and his locale and heart-felt past comes from a literary tradition of engagement with the reader and concerns of the world. Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels are literary crime novels. They can be read as clever encounters with moral dilemmas and understanding of the world as well as for entertainment.
Ian Rankin had been a Literature and Language student before studying for a PhD when he published his first novel. Over the years he has broadened his appeal with cultural media contributions as radio and television broadcaster, comedy scriptwriter, and social commentator. But it is as a novelist that his mainspring energy and ambition has brought him acclaim and a burgeoning following as Britain’s pre-eminent literary crime novelist.
From the earliest Rebus books it was clear that Rebus was no stereotype – rather he would engage the reader with his unpredictable behaviour, his charm, humour and his abilities. He was a chameleon, and like the American detectives he is influenced by, he was fighting with his dark side and drink. And he was, of course, Scottish with a sense of being a just about living person in an increasing alien world with power, money and position undermining individual identify and loyalties to the past. To this mix Rankin added a particularly strong sense of realism by having true-to-life stories from contemporary life, whether they were criminals or those unfortunates who suffered. And to this he layered in big moral questions and society’s fears about possible large-scale events, in the tradition of, but not fantasised, as did his predecessors Buchan, Stevenson and Wells. But the most remarkable literary device he uses to good effect is the remarkable transformation of Edinburgh. Through the series the Scottish capital is constructed in such a manner as to emphasise its duality, the closeness of its light and dark sides.
The first appearance of Ian Rankin in a Scorpion Press book was in 1995 with the anthology of thirty British and American crime writers, No Alibi. Then came the now rare Rebus limited, Hanging Gardens (1998) with an appreciation by Andrew Taylor. It sold out on publication following Rankin’s acclaim in winning the Macallan Gold Dagger for Black and Blue. Since 2002 with the short story collection Beggars Banquet the Scorpion Press signed limiteds in a distinctive navy blue design have appeared regularly. Including the latest Rather be the Devil (2016) nine books have appeared. These books have had introductions by some of biggest 
names in crime fiction: Lee Child, Lawrence Block, Jeffrey Deaver, Peter James, Phil Rickman and Stephen Booth. Instead of an intro Stuart Neville has provided an insightful piece called “Rankin, Rebus and the Devil” for Rather be the Devil. This poses a comparison (assuming Rebus pursued an alternative career as musician) between him and Van Morrison with reflections on the John Martyn song in the book title.