Ian Rankin Books in Order (Updated September 10, 2026)

Ian Rankin is a Scottish crime writer whose name is inseparable from Edinburgh detective John Rebus. Rebus first appeared in Knots and Crosses in 1987 and has continued through retirement, demotion, unofficial investigations, criminal alliances, court proceedings, and imprisonment across twenty-five novels.

Rankin’s bibliography also includes Malcolm Fox, three thrillers originally written as Jack Harvey, independent novels, shorter Rebus fiction, the graphic novel Dark Entries, and The Dark Remains, which he completed from material left by fellow Scottish crime writer William McIlvanney. His next novel, The Heights, is a standalone scheduled for October 2026.

Know these four things before opening Rebus

• Start with Knots and Crosses if you want Rebus from the beginning.
• Publication order is safest because Siobhan Clarke, Big Ger Cafferty, Malcolm Fox, and Rebus’s own status evolve over decades.
• Exit Music is not the end. It marks Rebus’s retirement from the police, not the end of the novels.
• Malcolm Fox begins in his own two novels and later enters the Rebus continuity directly.

John Rebus novels in the order Rankin published them

1. Knots and Crosses (1987): Edinburgh detective John Rebus investigates the abduction and murder of young girls while cryptic messages force him to confront memories from his own military past.
2. Hide and Seek (1991): The death of a young addict in an Edinburgh squat appears accidental to others, but Rebus sees signs that the scene was arranged and begins looking for the people behind it.
3. Tooth and Nail (1992), also Wolfman: Rebus is sent to London to assist detectives hunting a serial killer, forcing the fiercely Edinburgh-based policeman to work on unfamiliar ground.
4. Strip Jack (1992): Popular MP Gregor Jack is caught in a police raid on a brothel, and the scandal becomes much darker when his wife disappears.
5. The Black Book (1993): An attack on a colleague pulls Rebus toward an old hotel fire, an unidentified corpse, and secrets that Edinburgh’s criminal world has kept buried for years.
6. Mortal Causes (1994): A tortured body found beneath Edinburgh during the Festival leads Rebus into sectarian politics, extremist groups, gun-running, and the influence of organized crime.
7. Let It Bleed (1995/1996): Suicides, a murder, and the death of a prisoner gradually reveal a network involving Scottish business and political power.
8. Black and Blue (1997): Rebus investigates modern killings that echo the unsolved Bible John murders while his conflict with gangster Big Ger Cafferty becomes increasingly central.
9. The Hanging Garden (1998): A gang war between Cafferty and rising criminal Tommy Telford develops while Rebus also investigates a suspected war criminal living in Scotland.
10. Dead Souls (1999): Rebus juggles the return of a convicted sex offender, a missing teenager, and questions surrounding a former colleague’s death while his own judgment becomes increasingly strained.
11. Set in Darkness (2000): The reopening of a historic Edinburgh building exposes a long-hidden body just as the new Scottish Parliament creates fresh opportunities for money, politics, and murder.
12. The Falls (2001): The disappearance of a wealthy young woman, miniature coffins, and an internet game lead Rebus and Siobhan Clarke through different parts of the same investigation.
13. Resurrection Men (2002): After throwing a mug at a senior officer, Rebus is sent to retraining with other problem detectives and secretly tasked with uncovering corruption among them.
14. A Question of Blood (2003): Two teenagers are killed in a school shooting, and former soldier Rebus becomes absorbed in the gunman’s history while facing suspicions about a separate death closer to home.
15. Fleshmarket Close (2004), also Fleshmarket Alley: The murder of an immigrant in an Edinburgh housing scheme leads Rebus and Siobhan into asylum policy, racism, trafficking, and exploitation.
16. The Naming of the Dead (2006): During the G8 summit in Scotland, Rebus investigates an apparent suicide and a series of deaths while world leaders, protesters, and police security operations surround him.
17. Exit Music (2007): With retirement approaching, Rebus investigates the death of a Russian poet while trying to resolve unfinished business involving Cafferty and the city he is about to stop policing officially.
18. Standing in Another Man’s Grave (2012): Retired Rebus works with a cold-case unit and becomes convinced that disappearances along the same road are connected, placing him back inside active investigation despite no longer holding his old job.
19. Saints of the Shadow Bible (2013): Rebus returns to the force at a lower rank while an old case from his early police years is investigated by Malcolm Fox, forcing him to confront the questionable methods of his former colleagues.
20. Even Dogs in the Wild (2015): Threats against Big Ger Cafferty and the murder of a senior lawyer pull the retired Rebus into an investigation involving organized crime, revenge, and figures from older cases.
21. Rather Be the Devil (2016): Rebus cannot let go of the decades-old murder of socialite Maria Turquand, while Siobhan and Malcolm investigate violence connected to Edinburgh’s changing criminal hierarchy.
22. In a House of Lies (2018): The remains of missing private investigator Stuart Bloom are discovered in a car, reopening a case that Rebus worked years earlier and exposing possible failures or misconduct in the original inquiry.
23. A Song for the Dark Times (2020): Rebus travels north after his daughter’s partner disappears, while Siobhan investigates a murder in Edinburgh that may connect to people and interests surrounding Rebus’s family.
24. A Heart Full of Headstones (2022): Rebus becomes a defendant rather than an investigator as allegations about his past police conduct threaten to put him on trial and expose the methods he used throughout his career.
25. Midnight and Blue (2024): Rebus is now inside prison among men like those he once arrested, and the murder of a fellow inmate gives him a case to solve while his own survival depends on navigating a completely different balance of power.

Midnight and Blue is the twenty-fifth published Rebus novel. Rankin’s official publisher describes the series in publication order and confirms that recurring characters link the books even though individual entries can often be enjoyed independently.

Rebus does not stay the same age or rank

One reason Rankin’s series rewards sequential reading is that Rebus actually moves through his career. He is not permanently reset as Detective Inspector after each case.

Exit Music takes him to retirement. Standing in Another Man’s Grave brings him back through cold-case work. Saints of the Shadow Bible returns him temporarily to the force at a lower rank, and later books increasingly make Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox the serving officers while Rebus operates around the edges.

Cafferty is the relationship that refuses to disappear

Gerald “Big Ger” Cafferty is one of the most important recurring figures in the series. He begins as a criminal adversary but gradually becomes something harder to define.

Rebus despises much of what Cafferty represents, yet the two men know each other so well that later books repeatedly force them into uneasy proximity. Their changing relationship has far more impact when experienced from the earlier books onward.

Siobhan Clarke gradually becomes more than Rebus’s junior colleague

Siobhan develops from a younger officer in Rebus’s orbit into a major investigator in her own right. By the retirement-era novels, she is often the person who still possesses the official authority Rebus lacks.

Later books increasingly divide investigations among Rebus, Siobhan, and Malcolm Fox. Starting late is possible, but publication order shows how the center of professional policing gradually shifts away from Rebus without removing him from the story.

The Malcolm Fox books before he enters Rebus directly

Malcolm Fox works for the Complaints, the internal police unit responsible for investigating other officers. Rankin introduced him while Rebus was retired, giving Fox two novels of his own before bringing him into Rebus’s continuing world.

1. The Complaints (2009): Malcolm Fox investigates police corruption while also confronting personal problems involving his family and a case that tests the integrity of his own unit.
2. The Impossible Dead (2011): Fox investigates fellow officers accused of misconduct and becomes drawn into an older political mystery involving Scottish nationalism, intelligence activity, and a suspicious death.

Read these before Saints of the Shadow Bible if you want Fox’s full introduction. That Rebus novel places Fox in the uncomfortable position of investigating misconduct connected to Rebus’s early police team.

A combined Rebus and Malcolm Fox route

1. Read Rebus through Exit Music: This completes Rebus’s original active-duty career.
2. The Complaints: Meet Malcolm Fox while Rebus is retired.
3. The Impossible Dead: Give Fox his second independent case.
4. Standing in Another Man’s Grave: Rebus returns to investigation.
5. Saints of the Shadow Bible: The Rebus and Fox worlds collide directly.
6. Continue the Rebus novels in publication order: Fox remains part of the recurring ensemble afterward.

Why Midnight and Blue must follow A Heart Full of Headstones

A Heart Full of Headstones puts Rebus on trial for actions connected to his police career. Its ending changes his circumstances dramatically.

Midnight and Blue begins with Rebus inside prison. That setting is not an unrelated new premise but a consequence of where the previous novel leaves him.

These two books therefore form one of the strongest direct continuity links in the entire Rebus series.

The three Jack Harvey thrillers

Rankin used the name Jack Harvey for three 1990s thrillers. They are commonly grouped together because of the pseudonym, but they do not form one continuing-character trilogy.

1. Witch Hunt (1993): Intelligence agencies across Europe pursue a highly skilled female assassin whose movements suggest that a major political killing is approaching.
2. Bleeding Hearts (1994): Professional assassin Michael Weston is drawn into a dangerous pursuit after a killing goes wrong and begins exposing people who would prefer their secrets to remain hidden.
3. Blood Hunt (1995): Former SAS soldier Gordon Reeve investigates his journalist brother’s supposed suicide and uncovers a conspiracy involving a powerful chemical company and the story his brother was pursuing.

The Jack Harvey books can be read independently. Publication order is useful for following Rankin’s writing career, but there is no shared protagonist requiring strict sequencing.

Ian Rankin standalones outside Rebus and Fox

1. The Flood (1986): Rankin’s first novel follows a Scottish mother and son living under the weight of local suspicion, family history, and the mythology that grows around a small community.
2. Watchman (1988): Intelligence officer Miles Flint begins questioning the service he works for after an operation goes wrong and discovers that institutional loyalty may be concealing betrayal.
3. Westwind (1990/1991): A British technician monitoring satellites becomes involved in a conspiracy connected to intelligence, military power, and a changing geopolitical order.
4. Doors Open (2008): Art collector Mike Mackenzie joins an audacious plan to steal valuable paintings from a Scottish collection, only for the supposedly elegant crime to attract far more dangerous people.
5. The Heights (expected October 2026): Rankin’s new standalone thriller leaves Rebus behind for a separate cast and story and is scheduled for publication in October 2026.

As of September 10, 2026, The Heights remains upcoming. It should not be counted as already published simply because preorder pages are available.

The Dark Remains belongs to William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw world

• The Dark Remains (2021), with William McIlvanney: Rankin completed an unfinished manuscript left by McIlvanney, producing a prequel featuring Glasgow detective Jack Laidlaw and the criminal city McIlvanney had established decades earlier.

This is not a Rebus novel and not the beginning of an Ian Rankin-created Laidlaw series. Readers wanting the full context should treat it as part of William McIlvanney’s Laidlaw sequence.

Dark Entries takes Rankin into graphic fiction

• Dark Entries (2009): Occult investigator John Constantine enters a suspicious reality television house in this original graphic novel written by Rankin for the Vertigo Crime line.

The book belongs to the wider John Constantine universe rather than Edinburgh crime continuity.

Rebus short fiction without turning every story into a numbered book

1. A Good Hanging and Other Stories (1992): Early short cases expand Rebus’s Edinburgh between the first novels without changing the order of the full-length series.
2. Death Is Not the End (1998): A Rebus novella centered on a missing young man gives Rankin room for a compact investigation between the larger novels.
3. The Beat Goes On (2014): This expanded collection gathers Rebus short fiction from across Rankin’s career into a single volume.
4. Long Shadows (2019), with Rona Munro: A stage play brings Rebus into another investigation through theatrical rather than novel form.
5. A Game Called Malice (2023), with Simon Reade: Rankin’s stage work uses a dinner-party game to expose secrets and suspicion among a small group of characters.

Short stories and plays are optional for a novels-only Rebus project. The twenty-five full-length novels remain the main reading spine.

The title changes most likely to confuse collectors

• Tooth and Nail has also appeared as Wolfman.
• Fleshmarket Close was published in the United States as Fleshmarket Alley.

Neither alternate title represents an additional Rebus case.

If twenty-five Rebus novels feels like too much at once

A shorter route can show the major stages of Rebus’s life without pretending the skipped books are unimportant.

1. Knots and Crosses: Meet Rebus and learn why his past matters.
2. Black and Blue: Reach the mature series and the growing importance of Cafferty.
3. The Falls: See Rebus and Siobhan functioning as increasingly distinct investigators.
4. Resurrection Men: Confront police corruption and Rebus’s own methods.
5. Exit Music: Finish his official police career.
6. Standing in Another Man’s Grave: Follow his return from retirement.
7. Saints of the Shadow Bible: Bring Malcolm Fox into direct conflict with Rebus’s past.
8. A Heart Full of Headstones: Reach the legal reckoning over Rebus’s methods.
9. Midnight and Blue: Follow the immediate consequences inside prison.

This is useful for sampling, but Rankin’s recurring characters and changing Edinburgh reward the complete publication sequence.

Why Rebus publication order beats a character-only shortcut

The official Rankin site notes that readers can enter the series at different points, and most mysteries contain enough information to stand on their own. That flexibility should not be confused with there being no continuity.

Rebus ages. He retires. Siobhan advances. Malcolm Fox moves from internal-affairs investigator to colleague. Cafferty survives into old age alongside the detective who spent years trying to put him away. Those developments are the strongest argument for beginning in 1987.

Where Ian Rankin’s bibliography stands in September 2026

Midnight and Blue, published October 10, 2024 in the UK, remains the latest published John Rebus novel and Book 25.

Rankin’s next announced novel is The Heights, a standalone scheduled for October 2026. It is not Rebus Book 26.

No later Rebus novel has been officially published as of September 10, 2026.

Questions readers ask once Rebus, Fox, and Jack Harvey overlap on a bookshelf

What is the first John Rebus book?

Knots and Crosses, published in 1987, begins the series.

How many Rebus novels are there?

There are twenty-five published full-length Rebus novels through Midnight and Blue.

Does Rebus retire in Exit Music?

Yes, he reaches retirement from the police, but Rankin later brings him back as a retired investigator beginning with Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

Who is Malcolm Fox?

Fox is an internal-affairs investigator introduced in The Complaints. After two novels of his own, he becomes part of the continuing Rebus cast.

Should I read the Malcolm Fox books before Saints of the Shadow Bible?

Yes if you want Fox’s full background. The Complaints and The Impossible Dead establish him before he investigates Rebus’s old police team.

Are the Jack Harvey books a connected trilogy?

No. Rankin published three thrillers under the Jack Harvey name, but they use different principal characters and do not require one shared chronology.

Are Tooth and Nail and Wolfman different books?

No. They are alternate titles for Rebus Book 3.

What happens after A Heart Full of Headstones?

Read Midnight and Blue. Rebus’s imprisonment follows directly from the position in which the previous novel leaves him.

Is The Heights another Rebus novel?

No. It is a new standalone thriller scheduled for October 2026.

One order keeps Rankin’s Edinburgh history intact

Read Rebus from Knots and Crosses through Exit Music, add the two Malcolm Fox books during Rebus’s retirement if you want the richest crossover experience, and then continue from Standing in Another Man’s Grave through Midnight and Blue.

The standalone novels, Jack Harvey thrillers, graphic fiction, plays, and short-story collections can remain separate. That leaves Rebus’s changing relationship with Edinburgh, Siobhan, Fox, Cafferty, policing, and eventually prison as one continuous line rather than a collection of unrelated murder cases.