Tartan Noir: Crime, Scotland and Genre in Ian Rankin's Rebus Novels

Tartan Noir: Crime, Scotland and Genre in Ian Rankin’s Rebus Novels

Agnieszka Sienkiewicz-Charlish

Julie H. Kim in her introduction to Race and Religion in thePostcolonial British Detective Story (2005) notices that thedetectives today are more and more defined by theirethnicity rather than by Poe’s style of ratiocination(4). It is hard to disagree with this statement. Onelook at book covers seems to confirm this view.Detective stories are now sold as “Tartan Noir,”“Nordic Noir,” or “Emerald Noir.” Hence, the detectivesare no longer defined only by their outstandingsleuthing abilities, but through such issues ascultural background and national identity.

Arguably, Scottish crime fiction has proved one ofthe most popular and fast-evolving creations of theScottish imagination in the past 20 years. Scottishcrime writers such as Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, ValMcDermid and Alexander McCall Smith are recognized notonly locally, but have achieved international success.Scottish crime fiction has even acquired its own label– “Tartan Noir.”1

Ian Rankin is a best-selling Scottish crime writerwho is best known for his series of novels featuring DIJohn Rebus (1987- ) and whose name is inextricablyconnected with Tartan Noir. Far from simple“whodunits,” the Rebus novels, as they have beencalled, are characterized by a complex plot, an arrayof interesting and original characters, a strong focus1 The term “Tartan Noir” is used to describe a wide range of

authors and texts. Its characteristics are loosely defined.Stephen Knight, among others, defines it as the mode ofrepresenting “crime, social difficulties and nationalaspirations in Scotland” (200).

2 Agnieszka Sienkiewicz-Charlish

on the local and an interest in social and politicalissues. Genre syncretism, including the hard-boileddetective story, the police procedural, Gothic fictionand the psycho-social novel, is another definingfeature of the novels. In this paper I am going toexamine how Rankin combines the conventions of thehard-boiled detective story and the police proceduralwith the themes of the Gothic and psycho-social novelin order to redefine the genre.

Echoes of ChandlerNo reader would fail to classify the Rebus novels asexamples of detective fiction. In each novel there isat least one corpse and a murder mystery to be solved.However, rather than follow in the footsteps of ArthurConan Doyle or Agatha Christie, Rankin uses the themesand conventions that are typical of the American hard-boiled detective novel. First of all, the character ofRebus owes a lot to the clichés of the American hard-boiled detective. He is a lonely and obsessiveindividual who drinks and smokes a lot, has troublesustaining relationships and often faces violence.Rebus is also characterized by his cynicism, and awisecracking abrasiveness that clearly echoesChandler’s Marlowe:

‘Do you drink?’‘Teetotal is my middle name.’ The Major grunted his

satisfaction. ‘Trouble is,’ Rebus went on, ‘my first name’sNot-at-all.’ (Black & Blue 210)

However, it is not only in the figure of the detectivethat we find echoes of the American hard-boileddetective novel. Rankin’s depiction of Edinburgh alsobrings to mind the “mean streets” of Chandler’s L.A.(237). The city of the hard-boiled is typically anurban world which epitomizes an empty modernity,corruption, and death. It is a world perverted by evil

Tartan Noir: Crime, Scotland and Genre in Ian Rankin’s RebusNovels 3

and crime. Gill Plain calls it, “a fragmented landscapeof alienation, corruption and decay” (Ian Rankin’s Black andBlue 33) whereas John Cawelti points out that the cityof the hard-boiled detective fiction is “a wasteland, aman-made desert” (155). Accordingly Rankin presentsEdinburgh as a place full of crime, violence andcorrupt morals2:

It was everywhere, crime. It was the life-force and theblood and the balls of life: to cheat, to edge; to takethat body-swerve at authority, to kill. The higher up youclimbed into crime, the more subtly you began to move backtowards legitimacy, until a handful of lawyers only couldcrack open your system, and they were always affordable,always on hand to be bribed. (Knots & Crosses 39)

Moreover, Edinburgh is presented as the city full ofcontrasts. On the surface it is an attractive placewith historic monuments and beautiful architecture –this is the side of the city that the tourists see:

Such a beautiful place, and prosperous. So little crime.They thought to be dangerous a city had to look dangerous.London, Manchester, Liverpool – these places were dangerousin their eyes. Not Edinburgh, not this sleepy walking-tourwith its monuments and museums. (“Death is Not the End”349)

However, this is only a superficial view of theScottish capital because underneath the attractivelayer lurks menace:

Edinburgh’s an easy beat, his colleagues from the westcoast would say. Try Partick [area of Glasgow] for a nightand tell me that it’s not. But Rebus knew different. Heknew that Edinburgh was all appearances, which made the

2 All Rebus novels are set primarily in Edinburgh, except forTooth & Nail which is set in London. I have also discussed therepresentation and function of Edinburgh in Rebus novels inanother article, see: “A Crime Scene Waiting to Happen.” Forthe discussion on the interface between fiction and reality inthe representation of Edinburgh in Rebus novels, see Sandrock.


crime less easy to spot, but no less evident. Edinburgh wasa schizophrenic city, the place of Jekyll and Hyde sureenough, the city of Deacon Brodie, of fur coats and noknickers (as they said in the west). (Knots & Crosses 193)

Arguably, such depiction of the city echoes the LosAngeles of Raymond Chandler, which is alsocharacterised by imitation, artifice and fakery. AsLiahna Babener observes: “Marlowe’s Los Angeles is acity of facades, of stucco and fake marble. It is thehome of Hollywood, ‘the kingdom of illusion’” (Babener127). Similarly Rankin calls Edinburgh “a city of furcoats and no knickers” drawing the reader’s attentionto the fake and showy representation of the city. Thisjuxtaposition of what is seen and what is hidden is afundamental characteristic of the city of the hard-boiled. As John Scaggs points out:

The fakery and artifice that characterize the modern cityof hard-boiled fiction drive wedge between what is seen andwhat is known, and in this way the private eye’s quest torestore order become a quest to make sense of a fragmented,disjointed, and largely unintelligible world byunderstanding its connections, or, more often, its lack ofconnections. The various connections that the private eyemakes between appearance and reality, surface and depth,past and present, and truth or falsehood, offer thepossibility of making meaning, and the structure ofdetective fiction is a manifestation of this. (72)

However, one has to point out that the search for thetruth behind a glossy surface is characteristic of alot of detective novels and therefore should be seen asa more universal feature of the genre of detectivefiction as a whole. After all, the detective’s missionis always to search for the true meaning behindappearances. This view is shared by Kirsten Sandrockwho points out that:

This dictum of searching for the truth behind the façadehas much to do with the genre of crime fiction itself as adetective novel is based on the idea that certain parts ofreality are hidden and must be unveiled by the protagonist


to uncover the truth. Inspector Rebus follows this dictateof the genre and constantly seeks to unearth the secrets ofthe city and its people. (84)

The setting in Rankin’s novels is characterized by manyof the typical features of the conventional hard-boiledfiction’s setting; however, the focus on the local isalso characteristic of the urban realism ofcontemporary British police-procedurals. MartinPriestman points out that “Such localism has been a keyelement in turning attention away from the well-heeledclosed society and eccentrically brilliant, detectivetowards a more “realistic” notion of crime as somethingthat happens every day, arising from the pressures of acommon life” (27). Scaggs makes a similar observationnoting that:

The localised beats of the British procedural, from real orfictional small-town Britain to the contemporary reality oflarge urban centers, are an element of the realism of theprocedural, in particular in the portrayal of crime as aneveryday occurrence arising from the tensions of modernlife. (93)

The strong focus on the local in not onlycharacteristic of Rankin’s fiction, but can be found inthe works of other Tartan Noir writers. For example,William McIlvanney in his Laidlaw trilogy explores thecity of Glasgow with its different social spheres andthe culture of violence. Similarly, Denise Mina’sdystopian Garnethill trilogy investigates into the urbanand suburban terrain of the city painting a depressingpicture of the city’s institutions and organs ofgovernance. Glasgow also features prominently in LouiseWelsh’s The Cutting Room, as Monika Szuba demonstrates inher article also contained in this volume. The mappingof the city is characteristic of many othercontemporary Scottish crime writers and one could arguethat it is one of the defining features of the genre.


The Police NovelDespite the fact that Rankin is clearly heavilyinfluenced by American hard-boiled detective fiction,Rebus novels also contain genre-markers of the policeprocedural. In one of the earliest full-length studiesof the police procedural George N. Dove offers thefollowing definition of the genre: “First, to be calleda procedural, a novel must be a mystery story; andsecond, it must be one in which the mystery is solvedby policemen using normal police routines” (47). Thisdefinition draws attention to two fundamental aspectsof the genre: the clue-puzzle element and the focus onthe procedures of police work, both of which can befound in Rebus novels.

Although Rebus is clearly an outsider who likes tofollow his “own hunches” or conducts “privateinvestigation,” he is still a member of the policeforce, which means that the plot revolves around theofficial police investigation and the text focuses, atleast to some extent, on the nature of police work andthe procedures followed by the police during theinvestigation, such as command and communicationstructures, interviewing techniques, or ways ofgathering evidence.

The focus on the intricacies of police work seems tobe more evident in the later novels of the series.Whereas the first novels focused predominantly on Rebusand his struggles to bring justice, later additionsfeature more of his colleagues who all contribute tosolving the case. Rebus is also more dependent onpolice information and technology. (See CyprianPiskurek’s article contained in this volume.)

The shift from narrative focused mostly on theindividual detective to focus on multiple characters isbest illustrated by the development of the character ofSiobhan Clarke (Rebus’s side-kick). Siobhan appears for


the first time in The Black Book as a newly promotedDetective Constable. She is a complete contradiction toRebus as she is much younger than he, comes from amiddle-class background and holds a university degree.But even more importantly, she is English. Throughoutthe series, Siobhan climbs the promotion ladder and byResurrection Men is promoted to Detective Sergeant. In therecent addition to the series, Standing in Another Man’sGrave, she has reached the rank of Detective Inspector.Clarke’s focus on professional development is anotherfeature that differs her from Rebus, who, except forthe one promotion at the very beginning of the series(from DS to DI), is stuck in the same rank throughoutthe series. Over the course of the series, Clarke playsan increasing role; she works closely with Rebus, butalso has her own cases to work on as well. The Falls, forinstance, is as much Rebus’s novel as it is Siobhan’s.As Scaggs notes,

Central to the development of Rankin’s John Rebus novels[…] is the growth of a team of police officers who bothfunction collectively to solve crime, and serve as a foilfor Rebus’s rule-bending and intuitive investigations. Thecharacter of Siobhan Clarke, often sourly identified by hersuperiors as ‘another John Rebus,’ mediates between thetwin poles of collective and individual agency. (94)

Thus, in later novels Rebus has somewhat less in commonwith a lonely private investigator, but is more similarto the troubled police officers found in the policenovel, e.g. McIlvanney’s Laidlaw, Mankell’s Wallanderor Martin Beck from Sjöwall-Wahlöö series.

Gothic overtonesAs I have been trying to show above, Rebus novelssuccessfully combine two sub-genres of crime fiction:the hard-boiled detective story and the police


procedural, but Rankin also produces a resonance thatis particularly Scottish.

First of all, the novels’ engagement with theScottish literary tradition is signaled by the use ofthe epigraphs that open each novel and sometimesindividual chapters. The novels are also full ofintertextual references to major texts of Scottishliterature, such as James Hogg’s The Private Memoirs andConfessions of a Justified Sinner, and Robert Louis Stevenson’sThe Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde and “The BodySnatchers.”

However, it is first and foremost through his use ofGothic conventions that Rankin places himself withinScottish literary tradition. Rankin himself admits thathe has been deeply influenced by the Gothic:

In Scotland there was no tradition of the crime novel. TheEnglish crime novel was perceived as entertainment, apuzzle. In Scotland, the tradition I was coming from wasmuch more the Gothic novel. (Interview by Robert McCrum)

Rankin not only cites Stevenson and Hogg as majorinspirations behind his novels (see Bruce-Gardyne), butalso claims that his first novel, Knots & Crosses, was notmeant to be a crime novel, but rather a re-writing ofJekyll & Hyde. However, reviewers failed to pick up on thisat the time and the novel was classified as astraightforward detective story.

It was meant to be an update on Jekyll and Hyde, a seriousliterary novel, a psychological Gothic novel. I’d neverread any crime fiction. I was horrified! I was doing a PhDon Muriel Spark. I was going to be a Professor of English.I wanted to be a serious member of the intelligentsia.(Interview by Paula Shields)

The fact that Rankin is heavily influenced by theGothic can be seen straight away in the choice of thetitles for his novels (e.g. Set in Darkness, Dead Souls,Resurrection Men) as well as the choice of the artwork for


his front covers.3 Moreover, the atmosphere of mysteryand suspense in the novels is reminiscent of that ofGothic fiction (See for example the opening of DeadSouls). One can also find Gothic echoes in the horror-story-like descriptions of crime scenes such as thosethat open Hide and Seek (11) and Mortal Causes (9).

Moreover, Rebus novels are also characterized by athematic and structural feature identified by ChrisBaldick as intrinsic to Gothic narrative: namely, thereturn of past upon present.

For the Gothic effect to be attained, a tale should combinea fearful sense of inheritance in time with aclaustrophobic sense of enclosure in space, these twodimensions reinforcing one another to produce an impressionof sickening descent into disintegration. (Baldick, qtd. inSpooner 246)

This theme is pursued by Rankin first and foremost inKnots & Crosses, the first novel of the series, in whichRebus is both metaphorically and literally haunted byhis past army life. When we first meet Rebus he is inhis forties and he has been working for the police forfifteen years. From the very beginning of the novel welearn that in his past there is some dark secret -every now and then he hears “a screaming in his memory”(12) and the suppressed memories keep coming back,sometimes even making him physically sick:

He felt weak still, and leaned against a lamp-post. He knewvaguely what it was. It was rejection by his whole being ofthe past, as though his vital organs were rejecting a donorheart. He had pushed the horror of the training so far tothe back of his mind that any echo of it at all was now tobe violently fought against. (52)

3 See for example the covers of the following editions of thenovels: Knots and Crosses (1998), Strip Jack (1993), The Black Book(1994), Mortal Causes (1999), or Resurrection Men (2002).


The truth is revealed when his brother Michael, who isa stage hypnotist, puts him under hypnosis to help himremember what he has forgotten. At this point, the textof the novel modulates into first person narrative andthe whole monologue is put into a separate chapter.Rebus’s monologue not only uncovers his past, but alsoprovides a solution to the crime puzzle. We find outthat early on in his army career Rebus decided to tryfor SAS (Special Air Service) and for that purpose wentto the special SAS training camp. Together with acolleague, Gordon Reeve, they were judged the two besttrainees and were chosen for a new elitist group whichwas to be set up from within the SAS. Its role would bethe infiltration and destabilization of terroristgroups, starting with the IRA. As part of theexamination they had been trapped and taken prisoner,and then put through a series of endurance testsinvolving mental and physical torture. Rebus managed tostay strong throughout the tests, whereas Reeve grewmore and more dependent on Rebus calling him “thebrother he never had” (165) and even mingling his ownblood with Rebus’s so that they can become bloodbrothers (165).The development of this close andintimate relationship reaches its dramatic climax whenReeve tries to kiss Rebus who finds himself compliant.

I could see Gordon bring his face up to mine and slowly –so slowly that it might not have been happening at all –plant a breathy kiss on my cheek, trying to turn my headaround so as to connect with the lips. And I saw myselfyield. No, no, this was not to happen! […] “Just a kiss,”he was saying, “just one kiss, John. Hell, come on.” Andthere were tears in his eyes, because he too could see thateverything had gone haywire in an instant. He too could seethat something was ending. (167)

It is at this very moment that an officer walks intothe cell and announces that Rebus has passed the testand will join the special unit. Reeve, however, is toremain in the cell because his “interrogation” is going


to continue. What is more, in an ironic turn of events,Rebus is now also supposed to be involved in thefurther interrogation of Reeve. Although at firsthesitant and reluctant to leave Gordon behind in thecell, Rebus eventually abandons his “blood brother” andwalks out, even though he realizes that Gordon is notgoing to cope without him (169). The decision to leaveGordon behind overshadows the successful completion ofthe training. Guilt-driven Rebus suffers a nervousbreakdown and eventually leaves the army and suppressesall the memories connected with the training and hisfriend and “brother” Gordon Reeve (170-171). However,subconsciously he feels guilty and the repressedmemories keep haunting him for the next fifteen years.Therefore he experiences physical sickness, bad dreamsand recurrent memories of someone trapped screaming,and a constant feeling of being a failure, especiallyin relationships. The memory of the kiss comes back tohim both in dreams and in reality, often during sexualintercourse (69).

Thus, Rebus is metaphorically haunted by his past,but he is also literally haunted, because Reevereappears in his life, as a ghost from the past, andkidnaps five girls, including his daughter, to takerevenge and punish Rebus. The past then does returnupon the present in both a metaphorical and literalway, linking the crime fiction of Rankin with theGothic:

Both gothic and detective fiction … share commonassumptions: that there is an undisclosed event, a secretfrom the past; that the secret represents an occurrence ordesire antithetical to the principles and position of thehouse (or family); that to know the secret is to understandthe inexplicable and seemingly irrational events that occurin the present. Both forms bring hidden experiences fromshadow to light. (Skenazy 113)


As mentioned earlier this theme is first and foremostemployed in Knots & Crosses, but it is also evident insubsequent novels of the series. In a way, Rebus’sdefining character feature is his feeling of guilt oversome events from the past.

However, it is not only the theme of past returningupon present that links Gothic and crime fiction,another link is the unstable protagonist. As Spoonerpoints out, “When Gothic and crime fiction coincide,the protagonist is often racked by guilt, obsession,paranoia, or other psychological disturbances, or hisor her identity is misplaced or disguised” (250).Accordingly, Rebus is an obsessive individual who isoften driven by the feelings of guilt:

He wanted a drink, wanted one desperately. But he wasn’tgoing to have one, not yet. Maybe later, maybe sometime.People died and you couldn’t bring them back. Some of themdied violently, cruelly young, without knowing why they’dbeen chosen. Rebus felt surrounded by loss. All theghosts….yelling at him…begging him…shrieking… […] He knewhe’d been crying and pulled out a handkerchief. (Black & Blue381)

Moreover, from the very beginning Rebus is presented asa dubious hero: somebody who is on the side of right,but also on the side of darkness. In the first novel ofthe series, Knots & Crosses we find him stealing breadrolls and milk from his local shop: “Nothing in theworld tasted as good for breakfast as stolen rolls withsome butter and jam and a mug of milky coffee. Nothingtasted better than a venial sin” (37-38).

What is more, the narrative in this first novel isconstructed in such a way that the reader is supposedto think that Rebus might be the culprit. Firstly, as Ihave already mentioned, he is fighting repressedmemories, so we get a sense that in his past there issome dark mystery. Secondly, during sexual intercourse,he tries to suffocate his lover (120-121), and finally,


one of the rooms in his flat remains permanentlyclosed.4

This dual representation of the protagonist iscontinued in the subsequent novels of the series. AsPetrie points out: “Despite an apparent obsession withjustice, Rebus […] often appears to have more in commonwith the villains he is pursuing” (153). For example inThe Black Book Rebus uses a rehabilitated paedophile,Andrew McPhail, to catch his nemesis - Cafferty.Although McPhail ends up in the hospital badly beatenup, Rebus feels no real remorse (335). And in Black & Bluethe detective sticks up for his colleague and protégé,Brian Holmes despite the fact that he has beaten up asuspect during questioning (10-13). Moreover, Rebusoften takes the law into his own hands, which meansthat a few times he faces an internal investigation.Petrie believes this theme of Rebus as simultaneoushunter and hunted serves to intensify his feelings ofvulnerability (153); however, one could rather arguethat this presentation of the character serves tounderline his moral ambiguity.

However, the dual nature of Rebus’s character isfirst and foremost explored through his relationshipwith his chief adversary – a dangerous gangster calledMorris Gerald Cafferty (a.k.a. “Big Ger”) who is saidto rule the underworld of Edinburgh. Cafferty is firstintroduced in the third novel of the series, Tooth andNail, but it is in The Black Book that he emerges as a fullyformed character and, as Rankin puts it, “the epitomeof moral and spiritual corruption” (The Black Book,Introduction ix). On the one hand, the relationship4 When Rankin wrote Knots & Crosses he did not see it as beginning

of the series, but rather a stand-alone book, so it waspossible for him to make the detective hero the suspect. Ofcourse, the reader today will not see Rebus as a potentialsuspect as he or she will be aware that the novel is the firstone in a series.


between the two seems to be that of the detective heroand his archenemy (or nemesis):

[n]obody wanted to nail Morris Gerald Cafferty (known toall as Big Ger) as badly as John Rebus did. He wanted afull scale crucifixion. He wanted to be holding the spear,giving one last poke just to make sure the bastard reallywas dead. Cafferty was scum, but clever scum. (The Black Book28)

On the other hand, there seems to be a special bondbetween the two characters. For one thing they spendquite a lot of time together. Repeatedly throughout theseries they visit each other at home, sometimes evensharing a drink. In Set in Darkness Rebus admits that:“ʻSometimes I feel closer to that bastard than I do….’He bit off the ending to my own family” (309). The uncannysimilarity between the two characters is also observedby Rebus’s colleagues: “Rebus himself knew the rumours:that he was too close to Cafferty, that they were toomuch alike in so many ways” (Resurrection Men 51).

At the end of The Black Book Rebus puts Cafferty away;however, he subsequently “gets locked into a complexpsychological power struggle with his adversity” (sic)(Petrie 154). In Mortal Causes Cafferty puts pressure onRebus to find those responsible for killing his son.This situation is reversed in The Hanging Garden in whichthe detective asks the gangster to help him find theperson responsible for putting his daughter into coma(Sammy is a victim of hit-and-run incident). Inexchange for his help, Rebus agrees to be “Cafferty’sman,” “an action symbolically akin to making a pactwith the devil” (Petrie 154). Cafferty keeps hispromise and delivers the person responsible to Rebus.Although Rebus decides at the last moment againsthurting (or possibly murdering) the culprit (it turnsout to be a young boy), the fact that he asked Caffertyfor help in this matter changes their relationshipforever.


As the series progresses, the bond between Rebus andCafferty seems to grow stronger. In Naming of the Dead, thelast but one novel of the series, Cafferty repeatedlyvisits Rebus at his home offering him help with theinvestigation and the detective relies on theinformation obtained from the gangster. The similaritybetween the two characters is even more evident than inthe previous novels: both man are aging and find theworld around them less and less comprehensible. Also,they both need to fight to defend their positions:Rebus in the police, Cafferty in the criminal world.

To sum up, the relationship between Rebus andCafferty is characterized by “mutual dependency”(Petrie 154). This is emphasised by the fact thatCafferty saves Rebus’s life twice, and the last novelof the series, Exit Music, concludes with Rebus givingCafferty a heart massage, the last words of the novelbeing: “ʻTell me he’s going to be alright’” (380).Clearly one cannot exist without the other.

Stefano Tani argues that the relationship between thedetective and the criminal is always based on mutualdependency; they are like the two sides of the samecoin: each depends on the other for his existence. Themurderer, in effect, “invents” the detective who mustchase the murderer; in other words the detective existsbecause the murderer exists (6). However, the use ifthe motif of the double also invokes Gothic fiction. AsSpooner points out: “The doubling of the detective withthe criminal is another feature of crime fiction drawnfrom Gothic convention” (251). Also Lee Horsley notesthat: “The noir thriller is very often, like bothFrankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde, a fantasy of duality”(230).5

5 For further discussion on the duality in the Rebus series,see Haarstick.


In Rebus novels the theme of duality also pervadesthe presentation of Edinburgh, which is presented as a“schizophrenic city,” “the place of Jekyll and Hyde.”On the surface it is a genteel place; however,underneath this façade lurks menace. Rankin’s interestlies with the “hidden city” (Hide & Seek 52). Thus, thesetting of the novels also evokes the Gothic. 6

One could multiply the examples of Gothic tropes inRebus novels. This abundance of Gothic themes andmotifs is not surprising as crime fiction has beenfirmly connected with gothic fiction ever since EdgarAllan Poe and his short stories, but at the same timeit places Rankin within a Scottish literary traditionas well as within general tendencies found incontemporary Scottish fiction.7

Investigating the State of ScotlandRebus novels evoke Gothic fiction, but the text is alsopenetrated by the motifs and conventions of the psycho-social novel. The genre category of the psycho-socialnovel is a term suggested by David Malcolm.8 It is anadaptation for British literary history of what BorisTomashevsky called “the psychological novel”:

The psychological novel […] is normally set in contemporarylife […]. The usual nineteenth-century novel belongs tothis type with its love intrigue, abundance of socialdescription, etc. […] The characteristic feature of novelsof this kind is an adulterous intrigue (the theme ofmaterial infidelity). Other types of novel which leantowards this type are the family novel with its roots inthe eighteenth-century morality novel, the ordinary“popular novel,” in English and German family magazines for

6 I discuss this in more detail in “A Crime Scene Waiting toHappen.”

7 The popularity of the Gothic in contemporary Scottish fictionis discussed, among others, by Bisset.

8 See “Contemporary British Espionage Fiction: SomeTransformations of the Genre.”


“family reading” (the so-called “bourgeois novel”), the“novel of everyday life,” the “boulevard novel” and so on.(“Literary Genres” 91)

Malcolm claims that the psychological-social novel hasbeen a dominant tendency within British prose fictionsince the mid-twentieth century. In a certain sense, heargues, the British have never stopped writingnineteenth-century novels (71).

It is essential at this point to list the signs ofthe psycho-social novel. First of all, the novel istypically set in contemporary life. Next, it is a pieceof fiction which is concerned with the spiritual,emotional and mental lives of the characters ratherthan with the plot and the action. Moreover, thepsycho-social novel demonstrates interest in nation andhistory. It is also concerned with contemporary socialproblems; hence, there is abundance of socialdescription and the text tries to call people’sattention to the shortcomings of society.9 All of theabove mentioned genre-markers can be found in Rebusnovels.

First of all, a lot of text in Rebus novels focuseson Rebus’s memories from the past. This is veryprominent from the very beginning of the series. As Ihave discussed earlier, in Knots & Crosses, Rebus is hauntedby the memories of his past life in the army andconsequently a lot of the text focuses on his feelingsand emotions. Similarly, in the subsequent novels it isthe spiritual life of the detective hero that is givena lot of attention. Throughout the series we learnabout Rebus’s background, e.g. his childhood andteenage years in his hometown of Cardenden, his failedmarriage, troubled relationship with his daughter,

9 This understanding of the genre underlies Malcolm’s discussionof espionage fiction (72-89).


unsuccessful relationships with other women, as well ashis drink problem:

One of the reasons Rebus drank was to put him to sleep. Hehad trouble sleeping when sober. He’d stare into thedarkness, willing it to form shapes so that he might betterunderstand it. He’d try to make sense of life – his earlydisastrous Army years; his failed marriage; his failings asfather, friend, lover – and end up in tears. And if he dideventually stumble into sober sleep, there would betroubled dreams, dreams about aging and dying, decay andblight […] Drunk, his sleep was dreamless, or seemed thatway on waking. (Let it Bleed 227)

Thus, Rankin’s fiction does not only focus on thedetective’s adventures, but also on his memories,feelings, and emotions. Rebus’s spiritual life becomesan important part of the plot as important as hisadventures. Rankin’s interest in a character is alsoshown in the fact that over the course of the series wewitness the transformation and development of othercharacters (e.g. Siobhan Clarke, Samantha Rebus orCafferty). All this makes Rankin’s fiction prominentlymarked by psychological undercurrents. Thus, one cansee it as an example not only of a detective novel, butalso a psychological novel.

Moreover, the strong focus on social, economic andpolitical issues is an underlying interest of all thenovels. For example, a few novels paint a grim pictureof (real and fictional) housing schemes thus providingcommentary on social divisions and exclusions:

Niddrie, Craigmillar, Western Hailies, Muirhouse, Pilton,Granton... They all seemed to him like some horribleexperiment in social engineering: scientists in white coatssticking families down in this maze or that, seeing whatwould happen, how strong they’d have to become to cope,whether or not they’d find the exit....He lived in an areaof Edinburgh where six figures bought you a three-bedroomedflat. It amused him that he could sell up and be suddenlyrich...except, of course, that he’d have nowhere to live,and couldn’t afford to move anywhere nicer in the city. He


realized he was just about as trapped as anyone in Niddrieor Craigmillar, nicer model of trap that was all. (Black &Blue 106)

The theme of social exclusion is also explored in TheFleshmarket Close, which examines the situation of refugeesand asylum seekers. The novel opens with a murder whichlooks like a “race crime.” The investigation whichfollows takes Rebus to illegal sublets inhabited by theimmigrants as well as Whitemire, a detention center forimmigrants, which is not much different from a prison(134). Consequently, the issues of racism andimmigration become central to the narrative with Rebusnoting gloomily that: “‘We’re a mongrel nation, alwayshave been. Settled by the Irish, raped and pillaged bythe Vikings. When I was a kid, all the chip shopsseemed to be run by Italians. Classmates with Polishand Russian surnames…’ He stared into his glass. ‘Idon’t remember anyone getting stabbed because of it’”(148).

Mortal Causes, on the other hand, explores the theme ofsectarianism. The novel opens with the discovery of abrutally murdered young man. It emerges that the corpsebelongs to the estranged son of “Big Ger” Cafferty,Billy Cunningham, who has been working for anunderground Scottish nationalist group called the“Sword and Shield” - a terrorist organization withlinks to Northern Ireland. The plot provides aspringboard for the discussion of the issues connectedwith nationalism and the Catholic-Protestant sectariandivide in Scotland. The fact that these issues areimportant for the understanding of Scottish society isperhaps best illustrated by the description of theOrange march10 and the “ordinary” men that attend it:10 Orange Order is an exclusively Protestant organization which

engages in public marches around the 12th of July. Thesemarches commemorate religious and political conflicts of thelate seventeenth century.


All these semi-inebriated working men and retired men,quiet family types who might belong to the British Legionor their local Ex-Servicemen’s Club, who might inhabit thebowling green on summer evenings and go with their familieson holiday to Spain or Florida or Largs. It was only whenyou saw them in groups like this that you caught a whiff ofsomething else. Alone they had nothing but a naggingcomplaint; together, they had a voice: the sound of thelambeg [a large Irish drum] dense as a heartbeat; theinsistent flutes; the march. (159)

Even Rebus has been influenced by this aspect ofScottish tradition and history. As we find out, he also“marched in his youth” (159) and also has served in thearmed forces in Northern Ireland – “Early in thehistory of ‘the Troubles,’1969, just as it was allboiling over” (81).

Other novels touch upon such themes as internalpolice politics and corruption in high places (e.g. Hide& Seek, Let it Bleed, The Hanging Garden), the lack of coherentScottish identity (Black & Blue), the theme of devolution(Dead Souls, Set in Darkness), or Scotland’s involvement inglobal politics (The Naming of the Dead), to name just afew. As Peter Messent points out: “Rankin is clearlyinterested in addressing major social issues in hispolice novels, especially as they figure within aScottish political and cultural context” (182). One canargue that Rankin uses the formula of detective novelas a vehicle for examining “the state of Scotland.”This is discussed, among others, by Duncan Petrie inContemporary Scottish Fictions:

By utilizing the framework of the detective genre, Rankinhas created a vast canvas upon which broad and challengingthemes and ideas have been subsequently elaborated anddeveloped to great effect […] while some of the earlynovels featured lone killers and psychopaths, the moreambitious additions have Rebus uncovering entrenchedstructures of organized criminal activity or institutionalcorruption. This in turn raises fundamental, social,psychological, political and economic questions pertinent


to the state of contemporary Scotland, and arguablyRankin’s real motivation as a writer. (152)

Plain develops this argument even further and arguesthat “Rankin is less interested in whodunit, or evenparticularly in why they did it, than in what it meansto live in a society in which such crimes are possible”(Ian Rankin’s Black and Blue 29). I agree with Plain up to apoint. In my opinion, Rebus novels are still first andforemost detective novels albeit with a much biggerfocus on social issues and the psychology of thecharacters. However, the fact that they belong to thegenre of crime fiction means that the question“whodunit?” is still central to their narrative.

This interest in “Scottish issues” is, however, notincidental and is not characteristic only of Rankin’sfiction, but is a defining feature of all Scottishcrime writing. Plain argues this forcefully in“Concepts of Corruption: Crime Fiction and the Scottish‘State’”:

Crime writing has been a vibrant dimension of Scottishliterary culture since the 1980’s, when a range of writersadopted the genre as a means of exploring systemic ratherthan individual criminality. The alienated figure of thedetective was a trope well suited to the articulation ofopposition to Thatcherism, and from these polemical rootscrime fiction developed into an ideal formula forinvestigating the state of Scotland. (132)

ConclusionTo conclude, Rankin’s novels are in many waysconventional detective novels, which combine theelements of the hard-boiled detective fiction andpolice procedural. However, there is no denying thefact that Rankin is playing with the conventions,tampering with the genre. By introducing highly-literary genre-markers of the psycho-social novel and


Gothic novel to the text he offers a deautomatizationof detective novel and challenges the boundaries of thegenre.

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Tartan Noir: Crime, Scotland and Genre in Ian Rankin's Rebus Novels