I’ve been asked to be a real-life crime-fighter... just like Rebus
Author heartbroken by fans’ pleas
CRIME writer Ian Rankin has revealed he regularly receives private detective requests from families.
The bestselling author has been asked to re- examine the cases of convicted criminals and help people who fear they have been cheated out of justice.
But the Rebus creator insists he’s happy to leave the detective work to the characters in his best-selling books.
The 56-year-old said: “It breaks my heart when I realise that someone sees his last chance in an author of detective novels.
“And it makes me sad to see this desperation. But I make very clear that this is not my job.
“We writers are experts in inventing crimes and their fictional solving. The reality is we are not competent.
“But it shows they trust me, and I must be convincing in my description of how a detective works.”
Rankin published his 20th fulllength Rebus novel, Even Dogs In The Wild, last year.
He is due to take a year off to celebrate his character’s 30th year in print, and to work as a visiting professor at the University of East Anglia.
Speaking about where the gritty realism of the books comes from, he added: “In my circle there are more than a few petty criminals that I know of from random conversations in pubs and bars.
“I also have good contacts with some police officers, lawyers and employees of morgues.
“For me it has always been important that Rebus is real, and to describe an authentic Edinburgh. “His favourite pub, the Oxford Bar, and many other places of my novels, actually exist.
“Some cases are based on real crimes.
“A few years ago, a senior police officer in Edinburgh said quite publicly he would like a man like Rebus on his force.”
Inmates too have given Rankin the seal of approval.
He said: “Prison librarians have repeatedly told me they are very popular inside jail.
“And I also get regular positive feedback from prisoners. Occasionally they ask me for help because they are ‘innocent’.
“They hope I can get the case re-opened.”
Rank in said he was not obsessed by crime, however.
And he revealed that he had refused to meet one notorious criminal, Moors Murderer Ian Brady.
“I had the offer to interview Brady, who kidnapped, tortured and murdered children in the 1960s with his girlfriend Myra Hindley, but I refused.
“I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get him out of my head, once I had allowed him in.”
Rankin added: “Brady wrote a book about serial killers calling them a higher life form, true hunters who one must admire.
“That’s probably the only book which I would be happy if it were burned.”