The Black Book cover art

The Black Book

The number one bestselling series that inspired BBC One’s REBUS

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

The Black Book

By: Ian Rankin
Narrated by: Ian Rankin, James Macpherson
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.20

Buy Now for £12.20

When a close colleague is brutally attacked, Inspector John Rebus is drawn into a case involving a hotel fire, an unidentified body, and a long forgotten night of terror and murder.

Pursued by dangerous ghosts and tormented by the coded secrets of his colleague's notebook, Rebus must piece together the most complex and confusing of jigsaws.

But not everyone wants the puzzle solved - perhaps not even Rebus himself...

Read by James Macpherson

(p) 2000 Orion Publishing Group©1993 John Rebus Ltd Crime Fiction Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Thriller Traditional Detectives Crime Suspense
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

No one in Britain writes better crime novels today
A very impressive piece of work ... This is totally involving stuff
There are few writers who can match him for imaginative, multi-layered plots ... thrilling
He is an addictive writer ... a remarkable talent
The quality of the writing and the scalpel-sharp characterisation ... make this a class act
Ian Rankin is a genius (Lee Child)
All stars
Most relevant
Despite the author's extraordinarily sexy voice in his introduction and my being one of his ardent fans, the description of this novel as being an 8-hour book is incorrect. I listened to it in a one brief afternoon and felt short changed, especially as it it is certainly not one of his best. But congratulations on his literary prize.

SHORT CHANGE

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyed this even more than when I read it years ago. Love the Rebus series and James Macpherson is a fabulous narrator

Good old Rebus

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
too short a story. excellent narrator. disappointing compared to other lan Rankin books lve read.

review

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.