#Rankin. Main character John Rebus - professional misanthrope and maverick.

The character of detective John Rebus – complete with estrange (you feel that you don’t want to understand someone or don’t want any connection) to wife, young daughter and fragile sanity (good judgement and understanding) – seemed to spring fully from young English Literature graduate Ian Rankin as he set in his bedsit (a rented room that has bed, table chairs and somewhere to cook) in Arden Street, Edinburgh in March 1985.

The book’s title ‘Knots and Crosses’ came first, with the detective’s name coming out of that ‘picture puzzle’ of knotted rope and matchstick ( the short wooden stick of a match, or a match itself) crosses of the title. Oxford had ‘Morse’ – a code, so Edinburgh would have ‘Rebus’ – a puzzle.

‘Knots & Crosses’ was not intended to grow into a series. In the first draft Rebus died at the end: but during the editing process Rankin decided to give him a reprieve (an escape from the bad situation).

This was just as well, as when sales of standalone novels ‘Watchman’ and ‘Westwind’ were slow, his publisher suggested to revive the detective, who repeated in ‘Hide and Seek’.

The word ‘curmudgeon’ (an old person who is always in bad mood) would have been invented for Rebus. The flawed but human detective we first meet in Knots & Crosses when he’s aged 40 s pretty much the character we see even in the most recent books when Rebus flirts with retirement before returning to the police force when the rules changed.

Rebus is a professional misanthrope (someone who dislikes and avoid people) made more cynical y the job he does. He delights in floating authority; he smokes and drinks; he doesn’t play by the rules.

He’s an ultimate maverick (a person who thinks and acts in independent way) cop who prefers ‘old school’ graft (work) to new-fangled modern- day policing methods. He’s a flawed, pessimistic, multi- layered character, a troubled, brooding (feeling sad, worried) soul and a cynical loner who can find no solace (help and comfort)  in faith, who’s obsessed with work, and happiest when popping up the bar of his favorite pub, the Oxford Bar, a glass of IPA in his hand.

The older Rebus had a little bit more flesh on the bones – literally and metaphorically; he’s a little more disillusioned, and fighting a few more demons – and not quoting quite so much Walt Whitman (Walter Whitman was an American poet and journalist) or Dostoevsky.

The Rebus novels are written in real time, so Rebus aged along with each book. As the series progresses, we learn more about him. Born in 1947, Rebus grew up in Cardenden, Fife, with his brother Michael, the sons of the stage hypnotist (a person who uses hypnosis as method of treatment or sometime entertainment), and grandsons of a Polish immigrant.  Rebus left school at aged 15 to join the army whiles his brother followed in his father footsteps. Rebus served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, before being selected for the SAS (Special Air Service) in 1971 where he excelled in training but he left the army shortly afterwards which brought in a nervous breakdown. Following lobbying from the army, Rebus joined the Lothian and Borders Police in 1973. Rebus has been married, but divorced sometime in the 1980s. His ex-wife, Rhona, and his daughter Samantha, appear frequently in early novels.

We first meet Rebus in 1987 in Knots & Crosses when he is a Detective Sergeant working on the case Of the Edinburgh Strangler, a serial killer who had been abducting on strangling (to kill someone by pressing their throat so that they cannot breath) young girls. He is based at the (fictional) Waverley Road police station where he receives anonymous letters containing knotted ropes and matchstick crosses…