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IAN RANKIN, the creator of
the Inspector Rebus novels, has asked his drinking friends to finish
his latest whodunnit.
The Scottish bestseller has written the first
chapter of a "serial mystery story" based around his
favourite watering hole, the Oxford Bar in Edinburgh.
It is the choice of tavern for both Rankin and his
multi-million selling character Rebus, and the bar's website is now
home to his new murder story.
Regulars to the pub, and millions of potential
visitors to the hostelry's website, have been asked by the author to
complete the Oxford Bar story. It is set in the drinking den and
features its staff as key characters.
The tale is the crime writer's first major foray
into the interactive world of internet literature and comes only weeks
before the release of his next Rebus novel, The Falls.
Rankin has included the denizens of the Oxford Bar
in his novels before. The medical team called out in the books are
generally led by Professor John Gates and Dr John Curt.
In real life Gates is the owner of the Oxford, while
teacher Curt is a regular and friend of the author. Rankin describes
the barman Harry Curran in the books as "the grumpiest barman in
the world".
In the Oxford Bar story, an anonymous obese body is
found in the pub, which is in the centre of Edinburgh between George
Street and Queen Street.
Inspector Rebus is nowhere in sight - instead, the
newly fictionalised pub
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regulars have to piece together the
rest of
the mystery. Rankin said that he
contributed the chapter as a gesture of friendship towards the bar -
and also as a way of avoiding writing his next, untitled, Rebus
adventure.
So far the novel has not been advanced, but every
month a pub committee will vet entries and add chapters until it's
done.
Last night, Rankin said: "Some of my friends in
the bar mentioned that there was space for literature on the website,
and they asked me to do something.
"If you contribute, every month it will be
decided whether it's worth keeping to carry on the story - it will be
a rolling story.
"The central character is this unnamed fat guy
- and there are a number of regulars at the Oxford Bar who could
qualify for that role - but it's out of my hands now, it's up to other
people to carry it on."
Gates said that the novel was a "nice
addition" to the pub's literary reputation. "The website,
since we set it up, has been very popular - we get people from all
over the world writing on it," he said. "Now we hope people
will come in and add to the story, and we'll just have to see where it
leads."
Gates said he was unsure how the novel will end, or
whether he will print a few copies as a marketing tool.
The Falls will be Rankin's 13th Rebus novel. It is
backed by his publisher's biggest advertising campaign so far.
The first of a series of television adaptations
starring John Hannah as Inspector Rebus was screened last year, and
Rankin's literary status has
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led to ITV filming a South Bank Show
about the writer. Rankin is now working on the
next Rebus novel, to be published in 2002, but has used the Oxford Bar
book as a welcome respite from the world of Rebus.
A cursory look at the website's message boards
reveals favourite jokes and anecdotes left by the bestselling author.
"It's pure prevarication, it's something to keep me away from the
computer and the May deadline I have to meet for the next Rebus
novel," Rankin said.
"There are plenty of people in the bar who
could carry it on. The website is very popular - it's said that it
gets more hits than the banks do in Edinburgh."
Now that the author has written the first chapter of
the Oxford Bar story, he is unlikely to add any more.
He said: "I think I'm going to leave the
judging of the entries to other people and some kind of anonymous
committee. I just hope the story keeps going."
And what about Harry the grumpy barman's judgment of
the story?
"He hates it," Rankin said.
The author's fondness for the bar increased when he
recently took Hannah there for a drink and nobody recognised who he
was - or cared.
During the Scottish renaissance of writers, the
historic pub became a magnet for writing talent. The writer Sydney
Goodsir Smith immortalised the Oxford Bar in his comic novel Carotid
Cornucobius, which Hugh MacDiarmid described as "doing for
Edinburgh no less successfully what Joyce did for Dublin in
Ulysses"
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