Ian's popularity continues to grow every year - FLESHMARKET CLOSE was his biggest selling novel yet in both hardcover and paperback. Unusually for such a bestselling author, Rankin still gets swathes of critical praise. He has continued to keep the Rebus series as fresh as when it began twenty years ago. In the last five years, he has also become an important figure in the cultural life of the UK - he is regular on tv and radio and writes for the local and national press.

Shortlisted for British Book Awards: Books Direct Crime Thriller of the Year Award 2008.

Born in the Kingdom of Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982, and then spent three years writing novels when he was supposed to be working towards a PhD in Scottish Literature. His first Rebus novel was published in 1987, and the Rebus books are now translated into twenty-two languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Ian Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award, as well as receiving two Dagger Awards for the year's best short story and the Gold Dagger for Fiction. Ian Rankin is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews and Edinburgh. A contributor to BBC2's 'Newsnight Review', he also presented his own TV series, 'Ian Rankin's Evil Thoughts', on Channel 4 in 2002. He recently received the OBE for services to literature, opting to receive the prize in his home city of Edinburgh, where he lives with his partner and two sons.