Edinburgh’s Ian Rankin announces release date of new Rebus novel

Bestselling author Ian Rankin has announced the release date of the next installment of his Inspector John Rebus novels.

It comes after the Edinburgh-based writer celebrated his 60th birthday in fitting style yesterday, with a pint outside The Oxford Bar in New Town.

Rankin took to Twitter this afternoon to tell followers that he had received a “slightly belated birthday present”.

Alongside a photo of the annotated manuscript of his latest book, he explained that his agent, and the US and UK editors were “all happy” with the latest draft.

Expressing his relief, Rankin wrote: “And relax…”

The novel, the 23rd in his Rebus series, will be called “A Song for the Dark Times”, and will be published in October.