Why do humans do terrible things? Ian Rankin is still finding out

Last year, Ian Rankin published Midnight and Blue- his 25th novel about Inspector Rebus, who he says is something like a Mr Hyde while he is a Dr Jekyll.

Since first introducing the character in the 1987 novel Knots And Crosses,Rankin says he’s been able to vicariously share in Rebus's exciting life and then return to his own - although his readers aren’t always aware they’re two different people.

“When fans come to Edinburgh and walk into the Oxford Bar - which is where I drink and where [Rebus] drinks - they're always a little bit disappointed to find me there and not him,” he tells Saturday Morning.

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Although many times Rankin has thought the end was nigh for John Rebus, he says the hard-drinking rogue has survived 25 books by “sheer force of personality”.

Rebus first met his end in a draft of Knots And Crosses, then when he retired in Exit Music (2007) Rankin thought the rugged ex-cop’s story was finally over… until he found a way to bring him back as a civilian.

Fast-forward to the end of A Heart Full of Headstones (the 24th Rebus novel) and Rankin’s character was on trial for murder.

When readers demanded to know what happened next, Rankin says that the answer - Rebus, as an unhealthy man in his 70s, would be found guilty and sent to jail - was too interesting not to explore in one further novel.

“An ex-cop in a jail full of people who hate him and want him dead is not a bad idea for a book.”

As “a bit of an Old Testament guy who sees the world in terms of absolutes, good and evil, good guys and bad guys” Rebus has his mind changed radically by jail time in the new book Midnight and Blue, Rankin says.

He visited the HMP Edinburgh prison and spoke to ex-cons to help make the crime and policing in the book as realistic as possible - just as he's done since the very first Rebus novel.

Although police officers have had to become a lot more sensitive and accountable since the Rebus books of the '80s and ‘90s, the worlds of criminality and law enforcement are still often very macho environments, Rankin says.

And crime stories, in whatever time period they're set, always have the same "big, basic question" at their centre - why do human beings keep doing terrible things?

“It's easy to ask and really difficult to answer.”

For Rankin, crime novels are the best vehicle for commenting on and investigating moral questions, social issues and political issues.

A police detective is a good character through which to analyse a national culture, he says, but Rebus himself has "stuck around" this long because he happens to be a very interesting person.

"The only way I could find out more about him and what makes him tick, try to get to the heart of the man, was to keep writing books.

"About nine books in, I thought, ‘This is me. I mean, I'm married to this guy now, basically.’

“The first book was published when I was 26, and I'm 65 so basically he's been in my head for 40 years, and he just refuses to leave.”

Like John Rebus, Rankin still feels like an “outsider” in Edinburgh, even though he’s lived in "fascinating" Scottish capital for almost five decades.

"It's got this kind of light and dark, the Jekyll and the Hyde," Rankin says of the city.

"There's a lot of gang crime happening and organised crime happening in Edinburgh and around Scotland, but also there's white-collar crime, of course."

Writing the Rebus books has been a way to get to know Edinburgh better and also show readers there’s more going on than Edinburgh Castle and Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Being knighted by his “favourite royal” Princess Anne in 2023 hasn’t given Rankin any special standing at his local Edinburgh drinking hole, though.

"When I walk into the Oxford Bar, they go, ‘Where's your horse?’"