Toronto was recently lucky to have a visit from Ian Rankin, a highly renowned Scottish crime writer—probably the best. For Rankin, Scotland is an intriguing place to explore, full not only of historical mystery but of a foggy and stifling evil. Rankin writes about an underground Jekyll and Hyde sort of horror, lurking in caves—the darker side of life.
Although Rankin unintentionally fell into crime writing at first, he has come to master the genre. His deep and sinister books about an intuitive detective named John Rebus line full-length walls of bookshops in Edinburgh and much of the rest of the country. Rebus is a middle-aged Scotsman, mostly unshaven and overweight. He enjoys whisky a little too much and his job is slowly taking the life out of him, but he remains as addicted to his work as he is to his cigarettes.
The setting, Edinburgh, becomes a character in itself. Known for its beauty, elegant architecture and ancient traditions, Rankin manages to find a disturbing underworld. Rankin sees high society and Edinburgh City for what it is.
“(Edinburgh) has an effect on those who live, work and die here—especially if, like me and Rebus, the people involved have arrived here as outsiders.”
His newest book, The Falls, is another brilliant addition. An Edinburgh student goes missing, but not just any student; she is the daughter of a well-to-do, rich and impatient banker. A creepy background story slowly emerges as we desperately try to find out who did it. The Falls is already a huge success, but it hasn’t always been like this for Rankin. Born in 1960 in desolate Fife, at the age of six or seven he was making little homemade books from sheets of paper and drawing up comics with storylines about aliens. As a teenager he set his sights higher.
“I would have loved to be a rock ‘n’ roll star. But none of us was musical and none of us had any instruments.” At around sixteen he wrote a poem for school and entered it into a competition, winning £5 (about $10.) Things have certainly moved on since then, but even so Rankin has only enjoyed a writer’s fame in the last few years. His success started with Black and Blue (1997).
Earlier this month, Rankin was in Toronto for the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Alison Gordon, a Canadian crime writer, interviewed Rankin .As she poured him some “tea” (whisky in a teapot), they spoke fairly informally about Rankin’s achievements and we all got to know him a bit. Rankin has been to Toronto twice before and I get the feeling he likes it here. In any case, he has been to a Blue Jays game and allegedly bought the t-shirt.
Ian Rankin’s work was adapted for television in 2000 and shown on Showcase last week. John Hannah (of Four Weddings and a Funeral) plays a “cute and cuddly”-looking Rebus, as Rankin puts it, but acts out the required tormented soul all the same.
The films were not bad; they created the perfect criminal atmosphere and were stark and frightening, plus I had a nostalgic glimpse at those dank, steep, cobbled streets again and remembered how much I like Scotland. As Rankin says, “I met my wife here; I’ve been thrown out of pubs, been in the very occasional fight…I’ve seen some good bands, and met some good friends.”
Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow and won the 1997 Crime Writers Association Macallan Gold Dagger for fiction.
In 1992, the Chandler-Fulbright Award took him on a 14,000-mile (his website) or 20,000-mile (quoted from an interview) journey—take your pick—across America in a 1969 Volkswagen camper van.
He’s been shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award and won the CWA Short Story Dagger Award in 1994 and 1996 (shortlisted in 1999).
He was recently awarded an honourary doctorate from the University of Abertay Dundee and was elected Alumnus of the Year of Edinburgh University.
The thirteenth Rebus novel, Resurrection Men, will be published early next year and Rankin is under contract to write two more Rebus novels.
After this he would like to try writing for television, film or something new, like historical fiction or comedy.
