Crime Plays: Writer Ian Rankin On His 13 Favourite Albums Auswahl 12: Jackie Leven

Ian Rankin chooses “Creatures of Light and Darkness” for the “Baker’s Dozen” series. His reasoning leads directly to his writing: Leven's male characters, who are poor at expressing their feelings, seemed to him fitting music for Rebus. Rankin recalls that Leven in turn read the novels and got in touch via the publisher after his name was mentioned. From this developed their personal meeting and the joint recording for Cooking Vinyl.

A second focus is “Standing in Another Man’s Grave”, the new Rebus book dedicated to Leven. Rankin explains the title as his own mishearing of a Leven song title. He also describes how he built the misunderstanding into the novel: after a funeral, Rebus listens to Leven in the car and likewise mishears the words. Rankin also says that different Leven songs open the sections of the book.

Finally he connects the album title with the moral ambivalence of human action, which also interests his crime novels. The source thus documents Rankin's own interpretation of the connection between Leven's music and Rebus, a year after Leven's death.