The Rebus series has been one of my favourites over the years and A Heart Full of Headstones definitely doesn’t disappoint. Those who found this one boring probably need to do their homework - ie, delve into previous novels by this master of the genre. Written by Gregory Burke, the first series of the show, which will depict Rebus as a recently demoted 40-year-old detective, has just gone into production and will be launched on the Viaplay streaming platform in 2024. The long-running Rebus detective series books may be somewhat sporadic in recent years, yet this latest release is most welcomed nonetheless.

Although I don’t read an awful lot of crime, I do enjoy the Rebus novels (and Rankin’s other work too) in no small part because of the Edinburgh setting. Rebus, a curmudgeonly, rather unlikable retired Scottish police DI, just can't keep his nose out of his former job. In Ian Rankin's latest addition to his Scottish crime series featuring the Edinburgh based retired, in poor health, Detective John Rebus is wonderfully intricate and complex, with a barnstormer of a beginning in which Rebus is in court, shockingly in the dock, but we are given no hint as to what he is charged with. It didn’t have to be a Rebus, it didn’t have to be set in Edinburgh and I’ve had this idea for quite a few years of this little stand alone story that would be set in London amongst the super wealthy.A Heart Full of Headstones by Ian Rankin opens with John Rebus in the docks facing serious charges, It all started when Rebus was asked by his old nemesis Ger Cafferty to find a man who once stole from him, Rebus doubts the altruistic reasons Ger gives for wanting to find the man but his usual curiosity is piqued as well as his desire to know what Cafferty’s really up to.

He has so far avoided exhausting the potential of Rebus, though with this many books in the series it has to be a risk. She’s a really good detective with great emotional intelligence and she’s got this slightly fraught home life, having to organise carers for her mum, and is a young woman who cycles everywhere because that’s the only way to get around speedily. This alarms the hierarchy at Police Scotland and Haggard's former colleagues who are willing to do whatever it takes to try and protect themselves. Talk to a member of staff at the auditorium entrance if you have a disability that means you can’t queue, or you need extra time to take your seat. Inherent vices and scalpel-sharp jokes vie with a very human concern for those least garlanded in the rat race of life.No genuinely, I’ve got two friends who like listening to records, old school friends, so when I was furnishing this place I thought I just need three chairs, one for me and two for my mates. 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. He’d spent his whole life in that world, a city perpetually dark, feeling increasingly weighed down, his heart full of headstones. But it all comes together brilliantly, as only Rankin can do with his ability to incorporate current events into his books, and with his trademark dark humour.

The Rise releases on November 1, 2023 and is available as an eBook from Kindle Unlimited , or in audiobook format from Audible, narrated by Indira Varma.They have different reactions to the past, and whether or not they feel the need to make amends for it.