Born in Cardenden in Fife in 1960, Ian Rankin graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1982 and lists in his biography work as a grape-picker, swineherd, taxman, alcohol researcher, hi-fi journalist and punk musician. His first novel, Knots and Crosses, featuring the Edinburgh detective Inspector Rebus, was published in 1987. The Rebus books have now been translated into thirty-six languages and made into a TV series. Malley and Gillespie have worked extensively with Rankin, photographing his idea of Edinburgh, both for the book covers and for an illustrated publication on Rebus’s Scotland. This portrait displays the same dark and moody style as their Rebus works, depicting Rankin in a dusky graveyard leaning on a carved headstone.