Ian Rankin is known for his series of crime novels featuring Detective Inspector John Rebus.
His first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses (1987) was quickly followed by others including Mortal Causes (1995), The Hanging Garden (1998) and Dead Souls (1999). Black and Blue, considered near faultless by critics, won the Crime Writers' association Gold Dagger in 1997.
The Rebus books are now translated into 22 languages and are bestsellers on several continents.
A collection of short stories, A Good Hanging and Other Stories, appeared in 1992. Published under a variant name, Jack Harvey, are three other novels, Witch Hunt (1993), Bleeding Hearts (1994) and Blood Hunt (1995).
Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award.
He is the recipient of four Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards including the prestigious Diamond Dagger in 2005.
In 2004, Ian won America's celebrated Edgar Award for 'Resurrection Men'.
He has also been shortlisted for the Edgar and Anthony Awards in the USA, and won Denmark's Palle Rosenkrantz Prize, the French Grand Prix du Roman Noir and the Deutscher Krimipreis.
A number of the Rebus novels were dramatised for television starring John Hannah; there's been a South Bank Show dedicated to him; in 2003, Channel 4 television broadcast his three-part documentary series on the nature of evil; he has received the OBE for Services to Literature (as well as three honorary doctorates).
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