Rebus reaching the end of the line

I have to agree with Jenny D on this point in that I, too, can’t really imagine what it must be like to write about a character for seventeen books and then be thinking about killing him off. Never mind that for Ian Rankin, writing the last Inspector Rebus novel is such an event that it could potentially be charted from beginning to end, with leaks spilling out about the character’s fate in advance of publication.

Which is why this Observer interview, taking place in his childhood home in Cardenden, Fife, seems kind of bittersweet. Especially since Rankin’s still deciding what to do with his famed character. ‘I haven’t decided what will happen to him yet, but I might just do him

in,’ he says with a wry smile. ‘He could come back, as a private

investigator, or maybe he could stay in the force. But killing him is a

very real possibility.’