“Rebus is a born detective,” he tells Crime Scene. “It’s how he deals with the world, looking into other people’s problems to stop him looking at his own. He can’t give it up, it’s in his blood, and without it he almost ceases to exist.” Like his fictional detective, Ian Rankin is a man who’s at home in a pub. John Rebus is, of course, a regular at the Oxford Bar in Edinburgh. The real-life pub attracts Rebus tourists and receives fan mail for Rankin, who has a permanent presence alongside the actor who played the detective. “There’s a picture of Ken Stott above the bar, because he came in for a drink once, and there’s a picture of me,” says Rankin. “That’s about as much immortality as they’ll give…
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Crime Scene (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 7