A Heart Full of Headstones: The Gripping New Must-Read Thriller from the No.1 Bestseller Ian Rankin

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This novel is full of ancillary characters, and stories that seem tangential, for the bulk of the book. The novella is about a crime committed in a high rise, we’re sitting in a high rise, but the inspiration for the book came from Rankin’s reading around the subject of oligarchs and dirty money hidden away in vast London properties. 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.

I think the sabbatical year is my wife’s way of gently easing me into retirement, persuading me that I should be writing fewer books, not more, and start to enjoy life a bit more. That notion of these big empty glass high rises patrolled by security guards 24/7 but almost nobody living there, I thought was such an interesting location for a murder mystery. I’m really only surprised because it’s unusual to find such a well-written police procedural in such a short form, a police procedural with such well-developed characters in just eighty-six pages. Through the floor to ceiling wall of windows of the open plan lounge/kitchen we survey the city below, where daytime dog walkers, runners and cyclists move along the paths criss-crossing The Meadows, one of Edinburgh’s parks.This suited the pace I had in mind for the story - a propulsive tale of murder and intrigue amidst the rich and famous cocooned in a big shiny glass and steel tower.

For more than thirty years novelist Ian Rankin has entertained and gripped us with stories of the maverick Detective Inspector Rebus, whose daily grind involves tackling Edinburgh’s grim underbelly. So if they’ve come for a listening night we put the three chairs in a row and listen to records and then we turn the chairs round and listen to the streaming, because I’ve got two music systems in here so we can stream music or listen to records and CDs.Story arcs: Like many crime series, the books have overarching story arcs that span multiple novels. The actions leading up to this arrest expose the underbelly of the Edinburgh crime scene as well as police corruption. It whets the appetite of the reader to continue to read to discover why this antihero has finally being prosecuted. He’s comfortable with curiosity, inviting me to have a nosey around while the photographer takes pictures of him in the lounge as he apologises about the flat and wonders if he should have had his biannual haircut. I listened to this novel on audio, ably narrated by James MacPherson, at 11 hours and 43 minutes long, which I recommend.

International bestselling author Ian Rankin is synonymous with crime fiction in the UK, with his famous Inspector Rebus novels bringing Scottish noir stories to readers across the world for almost four decades. Despite its short length, The Rise delivers plausible twists and keeps the reader entertained throughout the one and a half hour that takes to complete reading this enticing short story. I only joined the Rebus fan club about five years ago and this is my thirteenth visit to this Tartan crime noir story.From there follows several paths, Siobhan Clarke is investigating an officer who has been charged with domestic violence and who in turn threatens to spill the beans on corruption in Police Scotland. Best know for his Rebus series, they deliver hard-boiled crime with a distinct Scottish flavour - sometimes cheesily referred to as "Tartan Noir". Instead, he and his wife, Miranda, will spend the year travelling to countries including Japan, India, America and Italy. One Hyde Park … a luxury high-rise development overlooking Hyde Park in London becomes the focus of a murder inquiry in The Rise. Looming imposingly over Hyde Park, only multi-millionaires need apply for one of its sumptuous apartments.

Rebus is one of fiction's greatest creations' MARIAN KEYES In the depths of Edinburgh winter, the bodies are piling up for Detective John Rebus - two suicides, a murder, and the mysterious death of an inmate in one of Scotland's largest prisons. Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature.

Obstructed continually by locked doors, governments both foreign and domestic, and an apparent absence of motive, can DS Gish solve this impenetrable mystery and apprehend the murderer—before they slip away forever? Scottish crime writing features heavily in the novel, as Karen tries to separate fact from fiction and in the process she receives a crash course in crime fiction and the vagaries of authors and publishers. 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. Detective Sergeant Gillian Gish investigates the murder of a concierge which takes place in a lavish 12-story apartment complex, the titular "Rise". His books have been translated into thirty-six languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen.