A Heart Full of Headstones: Pre-Order The Brand New Must-Read John Rebus Thriller Now

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The novel is set in a small village in England, with a clever, unique, uncompromising older woman sleuth. It was my first Christie, my first Miss Marple, and the first novel I ever discovered for myself. Best of all was looking at the front of the book and discovering that Agatha Christie had written one or two other novels.

A contributor to BBC2's Newsnight Review, he also presented his own TV series, Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts, on Channel 4 in 2002. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, and opted to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons. Also on the team, DC Christine Essen, a couple of detectives from previous MIT investigations, a couple of fresh faces, plus DCI Malcolm Fox. Since finishing the last Rebus book, Rankin has worked on The Dark Remains, an unfinished story by the late William McIlvanney, which was published in the autumn, as well as taking part in a murder mystery TV series for Channel 4. The novels are all great, but my favourites include When the Sacred Ginmill Closes and A Walk Among the Tombstones. They are the perfect hardboiled mix of grit and poetry: cool jazz with surface noise.

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Fmr. Officer Haggard has been threatening to bring all those hidden sins out in the open if charges against him for domestic abuse are not dropped. Then he is found murdered in an apartment he could ill afford. How did Haggard afford that apartment and who rented it to him? More important is who killed him and why? Rankin has used a common literary device where he starts the story near what is probably the end of the story. In the opening paragraphs John Rebus is in court on trial for an unknown offence. It whets the appetite of the reader to continue to read to discover why this antihero has finally being prosecuted. We know he bends the rules but, this time has he broken the rules? I am not sure if this hook is necessary in a Rebus’ novel. The title and plot of the next Rebus thriller however are being kept top secret for now, with people urged to "keep an eye out" over the next coming months. Through the novel, Rankin brings in previously introduced characters and continues to prove he is not afraid to "age" his characters. Emad Akhtar, publisher at Orion, told The Scotsman: “A new novel from the iconic Ian Rankin and his much-beloved creation John Rebus is a reading highlight in every book lover’s year.

Well, it’s always going to be five star for my favourite detective of all time and yes, I have read all 24! A couple of my recent fiction reads have included the effect of COVID at the time. Rebus has a lanyard that excuses him from wearing a mask. I wonder how long it will be before a writer centres a crime around the conditions that COVID created?

I plan to decompress in 2023, which means you might not be hearing much from me. Meantime, here are some of my favourites of the year in books, albums and films. Rankin is always great with a big cast of characters and the snarky, sarcastic banter that strikes me as very Scottish, but he is also coming off as thoughtful and poetic in this noir-ish world. This was one that I couldn’t stop reading. As soon as my eyes were rested, I’d start another chapter. Yet it wasn’t a fast thriller. With its large cast of characters, I probably would have been lost except that I had been reading the Rebus novels for more than two decades, so many of the recurring players and their past interactions were well fixed in my memory. I can't help but think that once you get to a certain age most of us will have one or two headstones in our heart. And some will have more than others.

At the same time, police detective and long-time ally Siobhan Clarke is tasked with a domestic violence case involving a police detective. The case soon becomes a sprawling investigation involving decades of police corruption and misconduct based out of a historically notorious police station that certainly will involve much larger implications and possibly even John Rebus.The retired detective will make his next appearance on October 13 under the deal, allegedly worth seven figures, with publisher Orion. I have loved Tana French’s Cassie Maddox from the moment I met her, as seen through the eyes of her partner, the narrator of In the Woods: “Barely medium height, with a cap of dark curls and a boyish, slim, square-shouldered build … There was something about her: maybe the way she stood, weight on one hip, straight and easy as a gymnast; maybe just the mystery.”