[ Inspector Rebus (Ian Rankin) ]
edited 2026-06-19A complete reading and viewing order for Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series — 25 novels following Edinburgh detective John Rebus from 1987 through 2024, two short story collections, and two TV continuities. Covers the original STV/ITV series (John Hannah, then Ken Stott) and the 2024 BBC revival starring Richard Rankin.
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▾novels27 items · 27 unwatched
01NOVEL
1987The debut novel introducing Edinburgh detective John Rebus, published in 1987. Rebus is receiving cryptic taunting letters alongside a serie…
168 pp›02NOVEL
1991The second Rebus novel, published in 1991. An apparent drug overdose in an Edinburgh squat appears straightforward until Rebus spots an inve…
210 pp›03NOVEL
1992The fourth Rebus novel (1992). Gregor Jack, a popular Edinburgh Member of Parliament, is found in a police raid on a brothel, and his politi…
256 pp›04NOVEL
1992The third Rebus novel (1992), taking the Edinburgh detective to London for the first time. Rebus is seconded to the Metropolitan Police to h…
304 pp›05COLLECTION
1992A 1992 short story collection featuring twelve Inspector Rebus stories spanning one calendar year in Edinburgh, from 'Playback' in March thr…
253 pp›06NOVEL
1993The fifth Rebus novel (1993). The remains of a man missing for five years are found in the ruins of an Edinburgh hotel fire. The case links…
278 pp›07NOVEL
1994The sixth Rebus novel (1994), set during the Edinburgh Festival. A young man is found tortured and murdered in an Old Town close, and parami…
336 pp›08NOVEL
1995The seventh Rebus novel (1995), set against the backdrop of Scottish devolution debates and the privatisation era. When a car crashes throug…
278 pp›09NOVEL
1997The eighth Rebus novel (1997), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger. Rebus investigates a series of murders echoing Edinburg…
320 pp›10NOVEL
1998The ninth Rebus novel (1998). Rebus investigates a suspected Nazi war criminal living in Edinburgh, while simultaneously policing a gang war…
529 pp›11NOVEL
1999The tenth Rebus novel (1999). Rebus is drawn into three intersecting cases: the return of a childhood friend's missing son, the death of a p…
406 pp›12NOVEL
2000The eleventh Rebus novel (2000), set against the opening of the Scottish Parliament. A skeleton is discovered in the fireplace of a newly re…
415 pp›13NOVEL
2001The twelfth Rebus novel (2001). A student at Edinburgh University disappears, and among her belongings Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke find a st…
475 pp›14NOVEL
2002The thirteenth Rebus novel (2002), winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel. Rebus, after an outburst at a superior officer, is sent to a po…
440 pp›15NOVEL
2003The fourteenth Rebus novel (2003). A disgraced ex-soldier shoots dead two pupils and a teacher at a Scottish private school before turning t…
360 pp›16NOVEL
2004The fifteenth Rebus novel (2004). The skeleton of an undocumented immigrant is found beneath the floorboards of a Portobello pub, and a Kurd…
399 pp›17NOVEL
2006The sixteenth Rebus novel (2006), set during the 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles. As world leaders assemble and anti-globalisation protests des…
416 pp›18NOVEL
2007The seventeenth Rebus novel (2007) and the conclusion of the original series run. Rebus faces mandatory retirement from Lothian and Borders…
496 pp›19NOVEL
2012The eighteenth Rebus novel (2012), the first after a five-year absence from the series. Retired from the police, Rebus is now working as a c…
432 pp›20NOVEL
2013The nineteenth Rebus novel (2013). As the Scottish independence referendum approaches, a cold case emerges — a historic death investigated b…
336 pp›21COLLECTION
2014The complete collection of Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus short stories, published by Orion in 2014. Contains 30 short stories and one novella…
611 pp›22NOVEL
2015The twentieth Rebus novel (2015). A reclusive former Lord Advocate is found murdered, and a powerful Edinburgh lawyer receives a death threa…
352 pp›23NOVEL
2016The twenty-first Rebus novel (2016). Rebus becomes obsessed with a 1978 Edinburgh cold case — the murder of a wealthy woman in a hotel room…
310 pp›24NOVEL
2018The twenty-second Rebus novel (2018). The discovery of a private investigator's body in a car — missing for a decade — reopens a case that p…
372 pp›25NOVEL
2020The twenty-third Rebus novel (2020), partially set during the Covid-19 pandemic. Rebus's daughter Sammy calls: her husband is missing, suspe…
327 pp›26NOVEL
2022The twenty-fourth Rebus novel (2022). The novel opens with Rebus in the dock — charged with the attempted murder of Big Ger Cafferty — and w…
331 pp›27NOVEL
2024The twenty-fifth Rebus novel (2024). Rebus is serving a sentence in HMP Edinburgh — convicted following A Heart Full of Headstones — when a…
352 pp›▾tv adaptations5 items · 5 unwatched