Excellent article in the Guardian today on how he writes by Ian Rankin –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/19/ian-rankin-how-to-write-book
Very interesting. Curiously, I am the opposite – I get easily distracted at home and seem to be more focused on the train.
Rankin is pretty much the number one reason that I’m writing. I can still remember reading BLACK AND BLUE in 1998 and being blown away – I still think it’s his best novel and is the bar which the rest of us set ourselves against.
I’m just about finished THE IMPOSSIBLE DEAD, his second Malcolm Fox novel – it’s very strong and slow and measured. It’s a refreshing change from the wham, bam, thank you ma’am of most detective fiction but features a lot of the tropes of Rankin’s earlier work. For those who haven’t heard, his next novel, STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN’S GRAVE will feature Fox meeting a certain John Rebus (there’s a nice allusion to the old bugger from a SOCO in THE IMPOSSIBLE DEAD).
There’s a whole section devoted to it today.
–Ed