himself) in the Scottish crime classic Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824) by James Hogg. Place and Time Except for Tooth and Nail, all the Rebus novels are set in Scotland, and most of them in Edinburgh. Interviewers such as Gavin Esler or reviewers may remark that the city of Edinburgh is a character in the novels. Early on, in 1992, Rankin published A Good Hanging, a series of twelve stories set at different times of the year in different Edinburgh neighborhoods. In 1993, in The Black Book, he also associated Rebus for the first time with a real Edinburgh police station, St Leonard's, and thereafter began to place Rebus in real locations in the city, such as the Oxford Bar and an apartment in Arden Street. In 2005 Rankin published Rebus's Scotland: A Personal Journey, and Rebus-themed walking tours of Edinburgh have been available. Christopher Ward explores in depth the relationship of Rebus to Edinburgh in his 2010 M.Phil thesis at the University of Glasgow, "It's hard to be a saint in the city: Notions of city in the Rebus novels of Ian Rankin." Most of the novels include both scenes set in neglected or criminal neighborhoods and others set in casinos, deluxe hotels, or other haunts of the rich. Rebus (in his thoughts) and Rankin (in interviews) refer to this contrast as the "underworld and overworld" of the city. Rankin has noted that he enjoys writing about Rebus precisely because, as a policeman, he has a right to entry in both worlds. Rankin stresses that the city of Edinburgh itself has this Jekyll/Hyde quality, contrasting the twisting, multilayered Old Town clustered around Edinburgh Castle with the beautiful, rationally laid-out New Town. Rankin decided early on that the Rebus novels would be set "in real time," that is, in about the year they were written, reflecting current events. Eleanor Bell notes that "Throughout his detective series Rankin has therefore aspired to present authentic visions of Scotland, to reflect subtle changes of detail in Edinburgh life and provide persuasive representations of the nation" as political and economic changes occur. Thus, for example, the Rebus novels reflect the long process of road blockages and drivers' frustrations during the construction of the Edinburgh Trams. The novels have also tracked the even longer struggles for Scottish Independence, including delving into the past in the Malcolm Fox novel The Impossible Dead. As a result,