Knots & Crosses.

RANKIN, Ian.

$3,750.00

Item Number: 995

London: Bodley Head, 1987.

First edition of the author’s first Inspector Rebus mystery. Octavo, original red cloth. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Signed by Rankin who has additionally added the words, “Rebus, unable to move, decided it was safe to go to sleep now.” Rankin has also added his knots & crosses motif.

Rankin wrote Knots & Crosses with the intent of updating Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for modern Edinburgh (Rebus: The Early Years) The protagonist, detective John Rebus, is assigned to investigate the a murderer in the city of Edinburgh. He somehow shares a bond with the criminal, a knot of blood, and when this link causes Rebus to be relieved from duty, he faces the enemy on his own. Knots and Crosses is popularly considered the most compellingly complex detective fiction written today.