John Rebus has aged in real time since 1987, which is rare in crime fiction and is most of what makes the series remarkable. He drinks too much, he is retired, he is unwell, and he is still there. Twenty-five novels run from a young detective in Knots and Crosses to a man in his seventies in Midnight and Blue. Below is the full order, the four distinct phases of the series, and the two places we would tell a new reader to start.
Editor's Picks
- Black & Blue - the breakthrough, and the best single novel in the series
- Knots and Crosses - the actual beginning, though it is not the best
- Set in Darkness - the one where Edinburgh itself becomes the subject
- Exit Music - the ending Rankin wrote, before he changed his mind
Start at the beginning, or start at book eight
Rebus is one of the few long crime series where reading in order genuinely pays. The character is not reset between books. Relationships accumulate, mistakes have consequences fifteen years later, and the version of Rebus you meet in Midnight and Blue only makes sense because of everything behind him.
The complication is that the first seven novels are not as good as what follows. Rankin has said as much himself. Knots and Crosses was written as a one-off, a modern Jekyll and Hyde rather than the first of anything, and the early run is a young writer working out what he had.
So there are two honest recommendations. Read from book one if you like watching a writer grow into a series, which is a real pleasure here. Or start at Black & Blue, book eight, which is where Rankin arrives fully formed, and pick up the earlier ones afterwards. Either way, do not read at random.
The two poles of the series: a city that keeps its secrets, and the pub where they get told anyway.
The four phases of Rebus
Twenty-five books over thirty-seven years do not have one register. The series divides fairly neatly into four, and each one starts somewhere you could begin.
The early novels, 1987 to 1996 - a writer finding it
Seven books, from Knots and Crosses to Let It Bleed. Uneven, and the second and third barely feel like the same series. Worth reading for the groundwork they lay. Start with Knots and Crosses if you want it all in sequence.
The great run, 1997 to 2004 - Rankin at full power
Eight books, from Black & Blue to Fleshmarket Close. This is the stretch that made his name and won the awards, and it is where the series stops being about cases and starts being about the city. Start with Black & Blue, which needs almost nothing before it.
Retirement, 2006 to 2007 - the ending that was not one
Two books that march Rebus to his mandatory retirement date and then stop. Exit Music was written as the last one and reads like it. Start with The Naming of the Dead, set during the 2005 G8 summit, only if you have read the run before it.
The late novels, 2012 to 2024 - old age, cold cases, consequences
Eight books in which Rebus comes back as a civilian, then a consultant, then a suspect, growing visibly older and iller as they go. Slower and much sadder than the earlier work, and several are excellent. Start with Standing in Another Man's Grave, the return.
Rankin's Edinburgh is always these two things at once, usually about four streets apart.
Eight novels, if you are not going to read all twenty-five
The best of the series, spread across all four phases. Read in the order listed and you will still get the shape of Rebus's career.
01Black & Blue
Rebus works a copycat killing tied to the real, unsolved Bible John murders while being systematically destroyed by an internal inquiry. Four plots braided into one and the point at which the series became serious literature. Start here if you are not starting at the beginning.
02Knots and Crosses
A detective receives anonymous letters containing knotted string and matchstick crosses while girls disappear across Edinburgh. Written as a standalone reworking of <em>Jekyll and Hyde</em>, and slighter than everything that follows, but it lays the foundation.
03Set in Darkness
A body walled up in the old Parliament building as Scotland prepares to open a new one. Rankin's most direct novel about the city, its money and what it buries. The one to hand a reader who thinks crime fiction is disposable.
04The Hanging Garden
A suspected war criminal, a Chechen gangster and, halfway through, a hit-and-run that puts Rebus's daughter in a coma. The book that proved the series could hurt.
05Resurrection Men
Rebus is sent to a retraining course for disgraced detectives and told to inform on the others. A neat structural trick, well executed, and one of the most entertaining in the run.
06The Naming of the Dead
Set during the week of the 2005 Gleneagles summit, with Edinburgh under occupation by protestors and police. Rankin writing recent history while it was still warm, and pulling it off.
07Exit Music
Rebus's last ten days before mandatory retirement, and a murdered dissident poet. Written as the final novel and it reads like one. Rankin brought him back five years later, but this is still the emotional close of the main sequence.
08Standing in Another Man's Grave
Rebus, now a civilian working cold cases, spots a pattern of disappearances along the A9. Older, slower, out of step with modern policing, and immediately compelling. The start of the late period.
The full Rebus reading order
All twenty-five novels in publication order, which for this series is also chronological order. Not included below: the short story collections, the Malcolm Fox novels The Complaints and The Impossible Dead, which are set in the same Edinburgh and whose lead becomes a major Rebus character from 2013 onwards, and the graphic novel.
- 01Knots and Crosses1987
- 02Hide and Seek1991
- 03Tooth and Nail1992
- 04Strip Jack1992
- 05The Black Book1993
- 06Mortal Causes1994
- 07Let It Bleed1996
- 08Black & Blue1997The breakthrough
- 09The Hanging Garden1998
- 10Dead Souls1999
- 11Set in Darkness2000
- 12The Falls2001
- 13Resurrection Men2002
- 14A Question of Blood2003
- 15Fleshmarket Close2004
- 16The Naming of the Dead2006
- 17Exit Music2007Written as the last one
- 18Standing in Another Man's Grave2012The return
- 19Saints of the Shadow Bible2013
- 20Even Dogs in the Wild2015
- 21Rather Be the Devil2016
- 22In a House of Lies2018
- 23A Song for the Dark Times2020
- 24A Heart Full of Headstones2022
- 25Midnight and Blue2024The most recent
The A9 north and a doorway off a lane. Rankin has spent thirty-seven years between the two.
When you finish the twenty-five
Rankin's Malcolm Fox books, The Complaints and The Impossible Dead, are set in the same city and the same police service, and Fox goes on to become a fixture of the late Rebus novels. Read them after book seventeen and the later books gain a layer.
Westwind, a 1990 standalone thriller reissued in 2019, is a curiosity rather than essential. A Song for the Dark Times aside, the Rebus books are the work.
For more of the same city, Alexander McCall Smith writes a warmer Edinburgh and Denise Mina a harder Glasgow. Val McDermid is the obvious next Scottish crime writer, and William McIlvanney's Laidlaw trilogy is the book Rankin has always credited as the origin of the whole thing.
Outside Scotland, the closest match in tone is probably Michael Connelly's Bosch, another detective who has aged in real time across three decades and refuses to leave.
Frequently Asked Questions
What order should I read the Rebus books in?
Publication order, which is also chronological. This series rewards reading in sequence more than most, because Rebus ages in real time and nothing is reset between novels.
How many Rebus books are there?
Twenty-five novels, published between 1987 and 2024. There are also several short story collections and the Malcolm Fox novels, which overlap with the later Rebus books but are not part of the count.
Which Rebus book should I read first?
Knots and Crosses if you want the whole series in order. Black & Blue if you would rather start where the writing is at its best and fill in the early ones later.
Is Rebus still being written?
Yes. Midnight and Blue, published in 2024, is the most recent and finds Rebus in prison. Rankin has continued to write him well past the retirement the series once planned for him.
Do I need to read the Malcolm Fox books?
Not to follow the plot, but they help. Fox appears in the Rebus novels from Standing in Another Man's Grave onwards, and his own two books explain why he and Rebus dislike each other so much.
Are the Rebus books very violent?
They are dark, but the violence is not the point and is rarely dwelt on. The discomfort in Rankin comes from the corruption, the class politics and the sense of a city that has arranged itself to look away.
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