Because the author was gradually filling in details, there may be conflicts between details in one book and those in another. In subsequent novels, we learn a little more about Rebus’s background. In Knots and Crosses, he suffers from PTSD (unnamed), which is cured when his brother hypnotizes him in Part 4 the novel. After recovering, he became a police detective. There, he and another man were subjected to various kinds of torture in an attempt to see whether they would “break.” Rebus passed the test but, having had to abandon his companion, had a nervous breakdown himself. Rebus himself went from school into the army, and after a difficult stint in Northern Ireland at the beginning of The Troubles he signed up for the SAS. John is divorced from Rhona and has a daughter, Samantha, who is nearly twelve. His father made a living as a stage hypnotist, and Michael is a success in the same profession. He comes from Fife, where his parents are buried, and where his only sibling Michael still lives.

Knots and Crosses was originally written as a standalone, non-genre novel, and it presents the fullest portrait of Rebus as a literary character. In novels published after his retirement at the end of Exit Music, Rebus continues to work with the Edinburgh police, either as a civilian or as a (brief) re-hire. After the first book, he is promoted from Detective Sergeant to Detective Inspector. In a series of books and short stories by Ian Rankin, beginning with Knots and Crosses, published in 1987, and ending with Exit Music in 2007, John Rebus is a detective in the Lothian and Borders Police force, stationed in Edinburgh. Rebus has been portrayed by John Hannah and Ken Stott for Television, with Ron Donachie playing the character for the BBC Radio dramatisations. The novels are mostly set in and around Edinburgh. Detective Inspector John Rebus is the protagonist in the Inspector Rebus series of detective novels by the Scottish writer Sir Ian Rankin, ten of which have so far been televised as Rebus.

Black and blue rebus