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Series · police procedural
Inspector Rebus
The Inspector Rebus series by Ian Rankin has 25 known books (27 published) and is best read in publication order, starting with Knots and Crosses (1987). The latest book with a fully recorded publication date is Midnight and Blue.
- Books
- 25 known books (25 novels + 2 collections)
- Published
- 27
- First published
- 1987
- Status
- ongoing
- Shelved under
- Mystery & Crime
- Last checked
Start here: Knots and Crosses (1987) — then read straight through in publication order.
Reading order
The date order of published books and any announced future entries — the default way to read the series.
- Book 1:
Knots and Crosses
Knots and Crosses (1987) introduces Ian Rankin's John Rebus, the hard-drinking, insomniac Detective Inspector whose stubborn instinct for Edinburgh's underside launches a series that would run for decades. At 253 pages, it's the compact start of a career Rankin wrote to be read in publication order, with the next entry, Hide and Seek, following in 1991.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Knots and Crosses - Book 2:
Hide and Seek
Hide and Seek (1991), the second Rebus novel at 267 pages, continues Ian Rankin's tartan-noir look at Edinburgh -- the tourist Old Town sitting atop a darker underworld of gangsters and old grudges that Rebus keeps colliding with.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Hide and Seek - Book 3:
Tooth and Nail
Tooth and Nail (1992) is the third Rebus book, 304 pages, arriving between Hide and Seek and Strip Jack as Rankin kept building his detective's reputation for rule-bending and insubordination toward his own superiors.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Tooth and Nail - Book 4:
Strip Jack
Strip Jack, the fourth novel at 287 pages, followed close behind Tooth and Nail in the same year, 1992, continuing the early run of Rebus procedurals set against Edinburgh's political and criminal undercurrents.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Strip Jack - Book 5:
A Good Hanging and Other Stories
A Good Hanging and Other Stories (1992) is a collection of early Rebus short fiction that sits alongside the numbered novels rather than within the main sequence -- Rankin himself frames it, like its later companion The Beat Goes On, as an optional extra for readers already invested in the character rather than a starting point. It runs 263 pages and falls between Strip Jack and The Black Book chronologically.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Good Hanging and Other Stories - Book 6:
The Black Book
The Black Book (1993), 346 pages, is the fifth numbered Rebus novel, deepening the series' ongoing preoccupation with Edinburgh's corrupt councillors and gangland ties beneath its tourist-friendly surface.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Black Book - Book 7:
Mortal Causes
Mortal Causes (1994) is the sixth Rebus novel, 320 pages, drawing on the old sectarian grudges that Ian Rankin threads through Edinburgh's darker New Town as a recurring backdrop for the series.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Mortal Causes - Book 8:
Let It Bleed
Let It Bleed (1995), the seventh entry at 368 pages, keeps Rebus working his mystery-of-the-week cases while his uneasy, feud-turned-alliance with gangster Big Ger Cafferty continues to simmer beneath the plot.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Let It Bleed - Book 9:
Black & Blue
Black & Blue (1997) is the eighth Rebus novel and, at 512 pages, one of the series' longest -- a substantial entry in Rankin's ongoing, real-time chronicle of his detective's Edinburgh career.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Black & Blue - Book 10:
The Hanging Garden
The Hanging Garden (1998), 424 pages, is the ninth book in the sequence, sitting between Black & Blue and Dead Souls as Rankin continued serialising Rebus's relationships and record book to book.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Hanging Garden - Book 11:
Dead Souls
Dead Souls (1999) is the tenth Rebus novel, 472 pages, published as Siobhan Clarke -- introduced as a rookie DC in the earlier books -- continued growing into the more capable detective she becomes across the series.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Dead Souls - Book 12:
Set in Darkness
Set in Darkness (2000), the eleventh entry at 466 pages, is a millennium-era Rebus procedural, part of the unbroken publication-order run Rankin wrote his detective's ageing career into.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Set in Darkness - Book 13:
The Falls
The Falls (2001) is the twelfth Rebus novel and, at 496 pages, among the series' longest, continuing Rankin's use of Edinburgh itself as almost a character alongside his detective.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Falls - Book 14:
Resurrection Men
Resurrection Men (2002), 474 pages, is the thirteenth book, arriving between The Falls and A Question of Blood in Rankin's continuous, publication-order account of Rebus's CID career.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Resurrection Men - Book 15:
A Question of Blood
A Question of Blood (2003) is the fourteenth Rebus novel, 440 pages, following Resurrection Men as Rankin kept the series' morally grey tone and serialised relationships moving forward together.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Question of Blood - Book 16:
Fleshmarket Close
Fleshmarket Close (2004), the fifteenth entry at 448 pages, precedes The Naming of the Dead in the sequence, another instalment in Rebus's rule-bending, Edinburgh-soaked run of cases.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Fleshmarket Close - Book 17:
The Naming of the Dead
The Naming of the Dead (2006) is the sixteenth Rebus novel, 472 pages, arriving after Fleshmarket Close and ahead of Exit Music as Rankin's real-time approach to his detective's career continued.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Naming of the Dead - Book 18:
Exit Music
Exit Music (2007), 419 pages, is the seventeenth book and was, for a time, billed as Rebus's last case before mandatory retirement -- a milestone the series would later revisit rather than end on, with Rebus returning as a civilian cold-case consultant in the books that followed.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Exit Music - Book 19:
Standing in Another Man's Grave
Standing in Another Man's Grave (2012) is the eighteenth Rebus novel, arriving five years after Exit Music and bringing the detective back to active cases as a civilian consultant on a cold-case unit -- part of the series' ongoing, real-time account of his life after formal retirement.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Standing in Another Man's Grave - Book 20:
Saints of the Shadow Bible
Saints of the Shadow Bible (2013), 389 pages, is the nineteenth Rebus book, continuing the series' serialised approach to its detective's health, status and long Edinburgh CID record as he works cases from the fringes of the force.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Saints of the Shadow Bible - Book 21:
Even Dogs in the Wild
Even Dogs in the Wild (2015) is the twentieth Rebus novel, 368 pages, pairing Rebus once again with his old adversary-turned-uneasy-ally Big Ger Cafferty as Rankin's long-running feud between the two continued into the later books.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Even Dogs in the Wild - Book 22:
Rather Be the Devil
In the Inspector Rebus reading order, "Rather Be the Devil" sits between "Even Dogs in the Wild" and "The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories" as the 21st book, from 2016.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Rather Be the Devil - Book 23:
The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories
"The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories" slots into the Inspector Rebus series after "Rather Be the Devil" and ahead of "In a House of Lies", dated 2014. It is a short-story collection rather than a novel.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories - Book 24:
In a House of Lies
In a House of Lies (2018), the twenty-second entry at 384 pages, finds an aging Rebus -- by this stage in the series dealing with declining health -- still getting pulled back into cases despite his retirements.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of In a House of Lies - Book 25:
A Song for the Dark Times
A Song for the Dark Times (2020) is the twenty-third Rebus novel, 328 pages, following In a House of Lies as Rankin continued charting his detective's life well past the point most fictional policemen would have stopped working.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Song for the Dark Times - Book 26:
A Heart Full of Headstones
A Heart Full of Headstones (2022), 336 pages, is the twenty-fourth book in the sequence, arriving as the series' portrait of Rebus's mortality -- including his COPD -- became an increasingly central thread rather than a background note.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of A Heart Full of Headstones - Book 27:
Midnight and Blue
Midnight and Blue (2024) is the twenty-fifth and, to date, most recent Rebus novel, 320 pages, continuing Ian Rankin's decades-long, real-time chronicle of a detective who keeps getting drawn into cases even as his own health and long record catch up with him.
Alternative text for cover: Cover of Midnight and Blue
About the Inspector Rebus series
John Rebus is a Detective Inspector with Edinburgh CID: a hard-drinking, rule-bending insomniac who solves cases as much through stubbornness and an instinct for the city's underside as through procedure. Ian Rankin builds each novel around a real strand of Edinburgh life — the tourist Old Town sitting on top of a much darker New Town of gangsters, corrupt councillors and old sectarian grudges — and lets Rebus's insubordination with his superiors (and his complicated, decades-long feud-turned-uneasy-alliance with gangster Big Ger Cafferty) run through the whole series. Colleague-turned-equal Siobhan Clarke grows from rookie DC in the early books into a DI running her own cases by the later ones, and the series ages Rebus in something close to real time: he retires, comes back as a civilian cold-case consultant, retires again, and by the most recent books is dealing with COPD and his own mortality while still getting pulled into cases.
What makes the series distinctive is that tension between a classic tartan-noir mystery-of-the-week structure and a genuinely serialised life — relationships, health, Edinburgh politics and Rebus's own record all carry forward book to book. It's for readers who want their police procedurals morally grey, their setting almost a character in its own right, and their detective allowed to actually grow old.
Frequently asked questions
How many Inspector Rebus books are there?
There are 25 Inspector Rebus novels, plus two short-story collections (A Good Hanging and Other Stories, 1992, and The Beat Goes On, 2014). The most recent novel is Midnight and Blue (2024).
What order should I read the Inspector Rebus books in?
Publication order, starting with Knots and Crosses (1987). The series is written as one continuous timeline, so publication order and story order are effectively the same.
Do I need to read the Inspector Rebus books in order?
Ian Rankin himself recommends starting from the beginning: Rebus's career, his rivalry-turned-uneasy-truce with gangster Big Ger Cafferty, and his partnership with Siobhan Clarke all build across the series, so reading in order gives the fullest experience, even though most individual mysteries are self-contained.
Is there a new Inspector Rebus book coming?
No new Rebus novel has been announced as of August 2026. Ian Rankin's next book, The Heights (October 2026), is a standalone thriller outside the Rebus series.
Is Inspector Rebus finished or ongoing?
Ongoing. Ian Rankin has continued writing Rebus well past the character's police retirement, with Midnight and Blue (2024) the most recent entry, and has given no indication the series is over.
If you like the Inspector Rebus series
Reading order last verified .