Rebus is the rare crime series where the order genuinely matters, because he ages in real time - he starts middle-aged in 1987, retires on schedule, and comes back as a civilian. Start in the wrong place and you meet a different man to the one everybody talks about. These are the doors in, and the one we would use.
Editor's Picks
- Black and Blue — where the series arrives
- The Falls — the most enjoyable one
- Exit Music — the ending he meant
Don't start at book one
The standard advice is to begin with Knots and Crosses because it is first, and it is the reason a lot of people never get to the good Rebus. Rankin wrote it in 1987 as a standalone, while he was a postgraduate student, and he has been fairly candid since that he did not know he was starting a series. It is a decent thriller with a slightly lurid plot, and it is not much like the twenty-four books that follow.
Rebus himself is barely assembled yet. The drinking, the music, the insubordination and the sheer bloody-mindedness that make him worth twenty-five novels are sketched rather than built, and the Edinburgh that later becomes the whole point is only scenery.
Read it. Just don't read it first, and don't decide anything on the strength of it.
The four doors into Rebus
Unusually for a long crime series, Rebus ages in real time. He is around forty in 1987 and forced into retirement at sixty, which means the books are divided less by plot than by what stage of his life you are meeting him at. Pick the one that appeals.
Early Rebus — finding the shape (1987–1996)
Books one to seven. Rankin working out what the series is, with the quality climbing steeply. Genuinely good from Strip Jack onwards, but there is no strong reason to start here unless you like watching a writer improve in public.
Prime Rebus — the run everyone means (1997–2004)
From Black and Blue to roughly Fleshmarket Close. Big, angry, state-of-Scotland novels in which the crime is a way into something larger - the oil industry, devolution, immigration, the police themselves. Start with Black and Blue; it won the Gold Dagger and it is the clearest single leap in quality in the whole run.
Late Rebus — the retirement and after (2006–)
Rebus runs out of career, hands in his warrant card in Exit Music, and later returns as a civilian cold-case reviewer. The late books are quieter and preoccupied with obsolescence - an old detective in a force that has moved on. Very good, and they need the earlier books behind them.
Malcolm Fox — the other Edinburgh
Rankin's second detective investigates other police officers, does not drink, and is thoroughly disliked for both. Start with The Complaints. The two strands eventually collide, and the Rebus–Fox friction is one of the better late developments in either series.
01Black and Blue
Four cases, one real unsolved murder, and a Rebus coming apart at the seams. This is where Rankin stopped writing good crime novels and started writing great ones, and it works perfectly as a first book.
02Knots and Crosses
The first Rebus, written when Rankin thought he was writing a one-off. Leaner and stranger than what came after, with an Edinburgh already doing the heavy lifting. Worth reading; a poor place to judge the series.
03The Hanging Garden
War criminals, Chechen gangsters and a daughter in a coma. The book where Rebus's private life stops being background and starts costing him something.
04Set in Darkness
A body walled up in the old Parliament building as devolution arrives. Rankin writing about a changing Scotland while pretending to write a whodunnit.
05The Falls
A missing student, a carved wooden coffin and an early internet puzzle. The most purely enjoyable Rebus, and the one most likely to convert a sceptic.
06Resurrection Men
Rebus sent to police retraining college to inform on other bent coppers. A neat structural trick that turns the series' own themes inside out.
07A Question of Blood
A school shooting, an army connection and a fire Rebus cannot account for. Bleaker than most, and one of the tightest plots he has built.
08Fleshmarket Close
Asylum seekers, an illegal immigration racket and skeletons under a pub floor. Rankin at his most openly political, and it has aged unnervingly well.
09The Naming of the Dead
The G8 summit comes to Scotland and Rebus is pointedly given nothing to do. A big, angry, state-of-the-nation novel wearing a police procedural's coat.
10Exit Music
Rebus's last ten days before mandatory retirement, and Rankin plays it absolutely straight. Intended as the end of the series, and it reads like one.
11Standing in Another Man's Grave
Rebus back as a civilian on cold cases, colliding with Malcolm Fox. The book that reopened the series and merged the two strands.
12The Complaints
Rankin's other Edinburgh detective: Fox investigates other police, drinks nothing, and is disliked accordingly. A cooler, more procedural counterweight to Rebus.
Three ways to read on from here
Forward in order from where you started. The most rewarding approach, because the recurring cast - Siobhan Clarke above all - develop properly, and Rebus's decline has a shape you only feel in sequence. Siobhan is the strongest argument for reading in order; she arrives as a junior officer and ends up carrying the series.
Backwards to the beginning. Perfectly workable. Start at Black and Blue, and once you are committed, go back and read one to seven as prehistory. The early books are more interesting when you already know what the man becomes.
Sideways into Fox. If the Rebus formula starts to feel familiar, The Complaints is a genuine change of register - colder, more procedural, less romantic about policing - before the two strands merge.
What we would avoid is dipping in at random late in the run. Unlike most series detectives, Rebus does not reset between books. Turning up at book sixteen means meeting a man whose losses you have not witnessed, and the books assume you have.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to read the Rebus books in order?
Not strictly, but more than with most crime series. Rebus ages in real time and the recurring cast - especially Siobhan Clarke - develop across the run, so the books assume you have watched it happen. Reading in order from wherever you start is the sensible approach; dipping in at random late on is the one thing to avoid.
Which Ian Rankin book should I read first?
Black and Blue. It won the Gold Dagger, it is the clearest step up in the whole series, and it works as a first book without needing anything before it. If you would rather begin at the true beginning, Knots and Crosses is book one - just do not judge the series on it.
Is Knots and Crosses worth reading?
Yes, but not first. Rankin wrote it as a standalone in 1987 and the Rebus everyone talks about is only half-formed in it. It reads much better as prehistory once you already know the character, and its plot is more lurid than anything he wrote later.
Where does Malcolm Fox fit in?
Fox is Rankin's second Edinburgh detective, introduced in The Complaints, and he investigates other police officers. His series runs parallel to Rebus for three books, then the two strands merge from Standing in Another Man's Grave onwards. You can start with Fox, and some readers prefer his cooler tone.
How many Rebus books are there?
Over twenty-five novels since 1987, plus short stories, and Rankin has continued adding to the series well past the retirement he wrote for Rebus in Exit Music. The good news for a new reader is that the quality holds up remarkably late into the run.
Do I need to know Edinburgh?
Not at all - the books work as a guide to the city rather than requiring one. Edinburgh is the real subject of the series: the closes and stairwells of the Old Town, the respectable New Town, and the estates most visitors never see. Readers often report the novels changed how they saw the place.
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