About this book
Watchman, at 480 pages the longest of Rankin's standalones here, is a 1988 espionage thriller following an MI5 surveillance officer who stumbles into a conspiracy after an assassination in Belfast.
Key facts about Watchman
Watchman is a book by Ian Rankin. Readers have had it since 1988. It runs to 480 pages.
Our list holds 1 edition of Watchman. Since each edition has its own ISBN, search for 9780754087335 to find the main one.
Ian Rankin has 35 books in our catalogue. 30 of them belong to a series, while 5 stand alone. All 35 are out now. Other books by Ian Rankin on file include Midnight and Blue (2024), A Heart Full of Headstones (2022), The Dark Remains (2021) and A Song for the Dark Times (2020).
Before this one, Knots and Crosses came out in 1987. After it came Westwind in 1990. Since then, our list has added 32 more books by Ian Rankin.
Ian Rankin has 3 series on file, such as Jack Laidlaw, Inspector Rebus and Malcolm Fox. Those series sit on our crime fiction and police procedural shelves. Meanwhile, The Heights is the latest published Ian Rankin book on file, from 8 October 2026.
About Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin is a Scottish crime writer whose Inspector John Rebus series has become one of the defining bodies of work in modern British crime fiction, and whose Edinburgh setting -- rendered in unglamorous, atmospheric detail -- is as much a character in the books as Rebus himself. See every Ian Rankin book in order.
Editions
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9780754087335