The Falls - Softcover

Born in Scotland in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh and has since been employed as a grape picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist, and punk musician.

Since publishing his first Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, in 1987, the series has become phenomenally successful, with each new installment a runaway bestseller in the United Kingdom. Rankin has been elected a Hawthornden Fellow, and is also a past winner of the Chandler-Fulbright Award. Black and Blue won the Crime Writers Association's Gold Dagger Award for best novel of the year in 1997.

He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife and their two sons.

"A...beautifully written series." -The New York Times Book Review

When the privileged daughter of a merchant banker disappears, a search through her e-mails uncovers her secret life-and a bizarre correspondence with an on-line game player who delights in macabre puzzles. The first game was for the girl. The next one is for Inspector John Rebus, a man haunted by the impenetrable riddles of his own troubled past. But the lead is soon complicated by an unexpected twist.

"Rankin is the master of the moody, modern police procedural, working on the same high plateau as Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, and P.D. James." -The Wall Street Journal

A hand-carved wooden doll in an eight-inch coffin is found on the grounds of the victim's home-a clue that links her vanishing to the deaths of four other women, and to a centuries-old offense that still scars the grisly history of Edinburgh.

"[A] Brilliant Series."-Entertainment Weekly

From the shadowy world of an Internet stalker to the quicksand of lies in the missing girl's dissolute family, Rebus is led into the soul of evil. And to a shattering crime that only he, a man who treads the fine line between investigative brilliance and personal oblivion, could ever hope to understand.

"Finish one of Rankin's book, and you'll feel you've been taken inside the river body of Edinburgh from top to the darkest bottom, a journey that calls Charles Dickens and Wilke Collins to mind as often as it does Inspector Morse." -Los Angeles Times

Outstanding Praise For Ian Rankin And His Award-Winning Rebus Novels

"A modern Dickens...A remarkable achievement."-The Daily Mail

"A dark and gritty read that never disappoints."--San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner

Set In Darkness
"Rebus is surely one of the most rounded, warts-and-all characters in modern crime fiction...those who want to plunge deeply into a world of convincing characters and brilliantly rendered atmospherics can't do much better than this."-Washington Post Book World

"Ian Rankin is one of the shrewdest writers working the mystery turf."-Chicago Tribune

"The Falls...pushes all the crime fiction buttons while delivering the heady whiff of real life as it is lived. Pity readers of 'serious' fiction who would look down their noses at this gritty detective story. They don't know what they're missing."-Philadelphia Inquirer

"Brilliant...mesmerizing...think Patricia Cornwell/Kay Scarpetta with a bit of Walter Mosley tossed in."-Fort Worth Morning Star-Telegram

"Mr. Rankin has created a character in John Rebus who makes crime fiction a joy to read."
--Dallas Morning News

"Gritty...intensely paced...powerful."-Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Sharply plotted...among the most consistently well-plotted, fully realized series in the genre. Rankin is at the top of his form in The Falls."-Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"The plot is worthy of the series: raging and racing and teetering on the edge of falling apart, before Rankin slams the reader with a final masterful twist."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Set in Darkness is filled with memorable sequences, well-drawn characters, and enough Scots words...to make some readers think of John Buchan's Thirty Nine Steps."-Wall Street Journal

"Gritty...atmospheric...you can't go wrong with Rankin."-Orlando Sentinel

"[A] consistent level of excellence unmatched in the field of British crime fiction."-The Times of London

"Rankin's best novel to date."-New Statesman

"A series whose time has come...complex, humane, and gripping, this is a perfect introduction to the art of Ian Rankin, head capo of the Scots mystery MacMafia."-Manchester Guardian

"One of the very best practitioners of police procedurals around today." -Library Journal, starred review

"Like Philip Marlowe, Rebus is a knight in search of a hidden truth'."-Newark Star Ledger

"A novelist of great scope, depth, and power...brilliant."-Jonathan Kellerman

"Ian Rankin brings a compelling voice to the genre." -BookPage

"The murder mystery is intelligent and entertaining, and the characters...retain that feeling of genuineness while dealing with power-struggles and intrigue."-BookBrowser