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John Rebus
Detective Inspector John Rebus is the protagonist in the Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Sir Ian Rankin, ten of which have so far been televised as Rebus. The novels are mostly set in and around Edinburgh. Rebus has been portrayed by John Hannah, Ken Stott and Richard Rankin for television, with Ron Donachie playing the character for the BBC Radio dramatisations.
In a series of books and short stories by Ian Rankin, beginning with Knots and Crosses published in 1987 and ending with Exit Music in 2007, John Rebus is a detective in the Lothian and Borders Police force, stationed in Edinburgh. After the first book, he is promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector. In novels published after his retirement at the end of Exit Music, Rebus continues to work with the Edinburgh police, either as a civilian or again as a police officer, but only in a temporary capacity.
Knots and Crosses was originally written as a stand-alone, non-genre novel and presents the fullest portrait of Rebus as a literary character. He comes from Fife, where his parents are buried, and where his only sibling Michael still lives. His father made a living as a stage hypnotist and Michael is a success in the same profession. John is divorced from Rhona and has a daughter, Samantha, who is nearly twelve.
Rebus went from school into the army and after a difficult stint in Northern Ireland at the beginning of The Troubles, signed up for the SAS. There, he and another man were subjected to various kinds of torture in an attempt to see whether they would “break”. Rebus passed the test but, having had to abandon his companion, had a nervous breakdown himself. After recovering, he became a police detective. In Knots and Crosses, he suffers from PTSD (unnamed), which is cured when his brother hypnotizes him.
In subsequent novels, more about Rebus’s background is revealed. In the first few novels, Rebus likes jazz, but by the fourth one he admits to being partial to the Rolling Stones. From that point on, his favourite music is always folk and rock from his own and youth and that of the author. In Fleshmarket Close, which deals with immigrant trafficking, Rebus recalls that his paternal grandfather was a Polish immigrant. In Dead Souls, he recalls his school-leaving party in Cardenden, Fife (Rankin's own home town) and his ill-fated plans to get a job and settle down with his childhood sweetheart.
Rebus lives in the flat he bought with his wife Rhona in the 1970s, on Arden Street in the Marchmont area. During his relationship with Patience Aitken he spends a lot of time at her flat and even rents his apartment out to students in The Black Book, though he has to move back in with them when Patience kicks him out. In The Falls, he has the flat rewired with an eye to selling it, but changes his mind. In A Song for the Dark Times, the garden flat in his own building has become vacant and he moves in as this will save him the difficult two-flight climb to his old flat.
Starting with Black and Blue, Rebus drives an older Saab 900. Before that, he had admired a Saab and wished he could afford one (in Strip Jack). In some of the later novels, he talks to the Saab, thanking it for making long trips, and he is relieved in A Song for the Dark Times when it can be repaired. In Even Dogs in the Wild, he acquires a dog, Brillo.
As Rankin developed Knots and Crosses into a series of crime stories, he allowed Rebus’s life to continue as if he were living in real time. Thus, in Knots and Crosses (1987) his daughter Samantha is “nearly twelve” and in Tooth and Nail (1992) she is about sixteen. By the year 2000, Rankin was aware that Rebus was approaching 60, the age of compulsory retirement for police. Despite some indecision about Rebus’s actual age, Rankin settled on 1947 as the protagonist’s year of birth and 2007 as his year of retirement. More recently, since Rebus's retirement, Rankin has admitted that the character is no longer ageing in real time and that he imagines Rebus as being in his late sixties in 2020, with some disabilities but still physically as well as mentally capable.
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John Rebus
Detective Inspector John Rebus is the protagonist in the Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Sir Ian Rankin, ten of which have so far been televised as Rebus. The novels are mostly set in and around Edinburgh. Rebus has been portrayed by John Hannah, Ken Stott and Richard Rankin for television, with Ron Donachie playing the character for the BBC Radio dramatisations.
In a series of books and short stories by Ian Rankin, beginning with Knots and Crosses published in 1987 and ending with Exit Music in 2007, John Rebus is a detective in the Lothian and Borders Police force, stationed in Edinburgh. After the first book, he is promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector. In novels published after his retirement at the end of Exit Music, Rebus continues to work with the Edinburgh police, either as a civilian or again as a police officer, but only in a temporary capacity.
Knots and Crosses was originally written as a stand-alone, non-genre novel and presents the fullest portrait of Rebus as a literary character. He comes from Fife, where his parents are buried, and where his only sibling Michael still lives. His father made a living as a stage hypnotist and Michael is a success in the same profession. John is divorced from Rhona and has a daughter, Samantha, who is nearly twelve.
Rebus went from school into the army and after a difficult stint in Northern Ireland at the beginning of The Troubles, signed up for the SAS. There, he and another man were subjected to various kinds of torture in an attempt to see whether they would “break”. Rebus passed the test but, having had to abandon his companion, had a nervous breakdown himself. After recovering, he became a police detective. In Knots and Crosses, he suffers from PTSD (unnamed), which is cured when his brother hypnotizes him.
In subsequent novels, more about Rebus’s background is revealed. In the first few novels, Rebus likes jazz, but by the fourth one he admits to being partial to the Rolling Stones. From that point on, his favourite music is always folk and rock from his own and youth and that of the author. In Fleshmarket Close, which deals with immigrant trafficking, Rebus recalls that his paternal grandfather was a Polish immigrant. In Dead Souls, he recalls his school-leaving party in Cardenden, Fife (Rankin's own home town) and his ill-fated plans to get a job and settle down with his childhood sweetheart.
Rebus lives in the flat he bought with his wife Rhona in the 1970s, on Arden Street in the Marchmont area. During his relationship with Patience Aitken he spends a lot of time at her flat and even rents his apartment out to students in The Black Book, though he has to move back in with them when Patience kicks him out. In The Falls, he has the flat rewired with an eye to selling it, but changes his mind. In A Song for the Dark Times, the garden flat in his own building has become vacant and he moves in as this will save him the difficult two-flight climb to his old flat.
Starting with Black and Blue, Rebus drives an older Saab 900. Before that, he had admired a Saab and wished he could afford one (in Strip Jack). In some of the later novels, he talks to the Saab, thanking it for making long trips, and he is relieved in A Song for the Dark Times when it can be repaired. In Even Dogs in the Wild, he acquires a dog, Brillo.
As Rankin developed Knots and Crosses into a series of crime stories, he allowed Rebus’s life to continue as if he were living in real time. Thus, in Knots and Crosses (1987) his daughter Samantha is “nearly twelve” and in Tooth and Nail (1992) she is about sixteen. By the year 2000, Rankin was aware that Rebus was approaching 60, the age of compulsory retirement for police. Despite some indecision about Rebus’s actual age, Rankin settled on 1947 as the protagonist’s year of birth and 2007 as his year of retirement. More recently, since Rebus's retirement, Rankin has admitted that the character is no longer ageing in real time and that he imagines Rebus as being in his late sixties in 2020, with some disabilities but still physically as well as mentally capable.