6th September 2007

Inspector Rebus retires… for a while

Exit Music looked for a while like it might be the last book in Ian Rankin’s series about his creation, Inspector Rebus. It opens during the last week of Rebus’ career at the Lothian and Borders Police and covers the period up to his retirement.

Antonia Fraser, writing in The Spectator on 8 September, called Exit Music Rankin’s “surely most brilliant thriller”, in which Rebus’ suspension so close to his bowing out at 60 “left me gasping, wondering how the rest of this satisfyingly long book was going to be filled”.

Exit Music’s 2007 publication marked 20 years since the first book in the series, Knots and Crosses, had first hit the shelves. However, it turned out not to be the end of the saga, and was followed in 2012 by Standing in Another Man’s Grave, the 18th instalment in the series, in which Rebus has continued his association with the police by investigating cold cases.