Ian Rankin's detective John Rebus is one of the most reliable sleuths in modern fiction. Rebus can be a rebel and a curmudgeon. He loves a good single malt scotch whisky and his collection of classic record albums. Fans of this series have endured some shocks. A few years ago John Rebus was forced to retire. Rankin's readers were stunned. How could this be? Fortunately the author relented and Rebus is back. He's working on some cold cases in Edinburgh. Or at least, that was the plan. Rebus isn't too keen on following orders.
Over the years Rankin has penned a number of short stories featuring Rebus. And since the author took a year off and didn't have a new novel for us in 2015 there were many of us who really needed to read some new Rebus. In "The Beat Goes On - the Complete Rebus Stories" readers will find a number of undiscovered gems that were previously published in periodicals. There are also some new heretofore unpublished stories in this collection. Several of these stories were written to run during the holiday season. Rebus has several encounters with Santa Claus!
The first time I interviewed Ian he came out to the studio in Yellow Springs. Since then I have spoken to him by telephone a number of times while he was in the US on book tours. He wasn't touring here for this collection. Fortunately, he's a wonderful, generous fellow. He called in to us from Scotland to record this interview. His next novel will release here in January and I'm hoping to speak to him again. He's one of my favorite writers and also one of my favorite gents to interview.
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