Ian Rankin

Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin joins us on this week’s episode to talk about something quite mysterious: Westwind, a little-known, standalone techno-thriller he wrote in 1990, is being publishing for the first time in the United States. Rankin discusses what it’s like to revisit this early work after 30 years, what prompted him to do so, and the challenges his best-known character, Detective Inspector John Rebus, might encounter if he began his law enforcement career in the 2020s instead of the 1980s. Then our editors offer their reading recommendations for the week, with books by Julie Paschkis (ill. by Margaret Chodos-Irvine), Lamar Giles, Patrick Radden Keefe, and Benjamin Black.