Peter Robinson interviews Ian Rankin

1. When you were pulling this collection together, did you uncover anything about Rebus that you had forgotten about? Do you keep a Rebus dossier?

I used to keep a Rebus dossier. Years ago I was giving a talk in Edinburgh and someone asked a question about one of the early books and I couldn't remember the (minor) character in question. Afterwards, a fan approached me and offered to put together a database of all the characters in the series. That has proved very useful, though I lost touch with the guy a few years back. Did I discover anything from these stories? Short stories allow me to show Rebus with a lighter touch - there is more room for humour, I think.

2. After you had submitted the book to your UK publisher, you found the story 'My Shopping Day' (which is included in the US edition). How did this come about?

I'm trying to remember who it was who found My Shopping Day. Maybe a fan mentioned it online, or someone at the publishing house found a reference to it. I had dug back through various old computers and floppy disks looking for uncollected stories, but I think My Shopping Day was probably written on a typewriter! It appeared in a very limited edition 'chapbook' featuring four stories, and was ( I think) the only one to feature Rebus. Plus, he only plays a cameo role, so maybe I can be forgiven for forgetting it!

3.Do you find writing short stories more difficult than working on a novel?

Short stories can be a lot of fun. They are short jogs which aren't going to tire you out, unlike the marathon involved in writing a novel. They can be places to experiment, to try out narrative twists, to explore sides of your characters that haven't been explored in your novels. There isn't the same constant worry that what you're writing is no good - with a novel, that gnawing feeling can go on for weeks and months.

4. In the introduction, you say that the novella 'Death is Not the End' was 'cannibalized' into your novel Dead Souls. Do you use short stories as a way to explore ideas that could become novels? Or do you find that the story form is markedly different?

Death Is Not The End was written to order. But after it was delivered, nothing happened. I didn't think it was ever going to see the light of day, but I liked the central premise so decided to use it in my next novel. Then the novella ended up being published anyway. I think I use the plot, theme and characters in a different way in the novel, and I knew I was working in a grand tradition - Raymond Chandler used to cannibalise his pulp short stories for material in his novels, too! My short stories are often very short, leading up to a single narrative twist - this is a structure that wouldn't work at novel length, so any idea I get like that, I know they're going to be Eire discrete short stories or else maybe minor sub-plots in full-length novels.

5. These stories were written over a long period of time and much has changed—cassette tapes are (basically) gone, mobile phones have been introduced and Rebus is a little bit creakier. What is it like to look back over this time period with Rebus? Do you sometimes long for a detective’s world without DNA analysis, CCTV and computers?

In the real world, they keep changing the structure of the police force in Scotland - and that is really annoying because I have to keep taking those changes on board. Plus, yes, technology changes and I have to be conscious that Rebus mistrusts these new developments and cannot get to grips with them. But that means I can have fun with him, too. Cellphones were game-changers for novelists, too - we have to be aware of them. If someone is being abducted, we need to ditch their phone.

6. And in that vein, what’s next for Rebus?

There's a new Rebus novel due out in the U.S. in January 2016 - Even Dogs In The Wild. After that, who knows? But I reckon there's life in the old dog yet. ..