Scottish Author Ian Rankin 

comes to Washington DC

Local writer Neely Tucker interviews Ian Rankin at Politics and Prose at the Wharf.

Before my husband joined me in retirement, I would look wistfully at the Post literary calendar for the week, noting author readings and talks that we might like to attend but would not due to their time (weeknight around rush hour) and location (often downtown).  Now, however we are freer to indulge!  Recently, we ventured down to the newly developed Wharf waterfront area in southeast Washington where a branch of the independent book store, Politics and Prose, hosted Scottish detective novelist Ian Rankin.  It was a terrific way to spend the evening (dinner first at Hank’s Oyster Bar) as Rankin is an interesting and convivial author.  He was interviewed for about 45 minutes by Post contributor and novelist Neely Tucker and then he took questions from the audience of about 50 for another 15 before signing copies of his newest work, In a House of Lies.  

First, a word about Rankin’s work.  He has penned numerous novels in his detective series as well as several plays and a graphic novel.  Several of his books were made (unsuccessfully, he says) into television, but he thinks a new series may be out next year that gives the stories the time they need to develop.  Rankin’s first John Rebus novel was not intended as the start of a series but because Knots and Crossesdid so well, his publisher urged more and soon readers were treated to more novels with the crusty Edinburgh detective.  As the series developed, Rankin brought in several other recurring characters: detectives, Siobhan Clarke, Rebus’s younger partner, and Malcolm Fox, an internal affairs cop initially out to get Rebus.  The crime bus in Edinburgh, “Big Ger” Rafferty is frequently Rebus’s nemesis. Rankin says he painted himself into a box with Rebus, who is 58 when the series starts.  A friend wrote to him and reminded him that the compulsory retirement age is 60.  After a few books, Rebus is forced into retirement but later comes back to work cold cases.  Inevitably, they connect with current cases and Rebus again joins his old colleagues. 

Rankin admits that he has no idea what the ending will be when he starts writing and claims that this is true with many writers that he knows.  He completes a first draft (which he lets no one else read) in which he works out the plot, usually deciding on a plausible ending about 2/3 of the way through, and then goes back and does several more drafts, fine-tuning the language and fixing things that don’t makes sense – like the dog.  A couple of books ago, Rebus ends up adopting a dog that he names Brillo.  Rankin says he was through his second draft of the next book before his wife asked what he’d done with Brillo; he’d forgotten about him.  In the most recent book, she pointed out that Rebus is gone from home too long to leave Brillo and that Rankin needed to work dog feeding, walking and care into the story.  The Brillo stories brought a laugh from the crowd as did Rankin’s example of a translation problem.  When his books are translated into French, they include footnotes to clarify Anglo clichés and cultural references.  In one book, he makes an analogy to Kansas and Toto, referring to what he assumed is a well known book and film.  The footnote indicates that he is referring to two 1980’s American bands.

Mysteries are often dismissed as lighter weight, a genre that is enjoyable but which does not have the gravitas of better literature. Rankin suggests that mysteries are a way to explore why people do things, specifically commit evil acts.  A detective as the protagonist has the ability to move through all of the rungs of society, from street criminals and homeless people to the wealthy who live privileged lives in gated communities.  Rankin’s novels, like most detective stories, feature murders, although unlike American mysteries in which people are likely to be victims of gunshot, his victims die in many other ways.  He points out that few people in Scotland have guns, aside from hunting rifles.  Even the police don’t carry guns.  Scotland is also a small country, about 5 million, with an annual murder rate of about 60.  Rankin mentions a fellow Scots mystery writer, Ann Cleeves, who has a series set on the Shetland Islands.  She’s going to have to set her stories somewhere else, he says, as there is actually no crime there and, he asks, where’s the criminal going to go?  With this, he mimes swimming.  

We stood in line to get our books signed which gave me the opportunity to tell him we are contemplating a trip to Scotland and ask him where he thinks we should visit besides Edinburgh.  He seems puzzled that anyone would make his homeland their vacation destination – “It’s not very big, you know” – but mentions that this is a 500 miles drive up through the northern part of the country. “Beautiful, but not much up there.” But, he adds, that if we come to Edinburgh, we should let him know (ha!) and definitely hit his and Rebus’s favorite drinking establishment, The Oxford Bar.