My Coast: Ian Rankin

We’ve had a house in Cromarty, on the Black Isle, for a few years. My wife and I love that part of the world. It’s called the Black Isle, but it’s not an island (it’s connected to the mainland), and it isn’t black, so it’s a misnomer that maybe puts some people off. But it’s remote and the scenery is spectacular. It’s also got just enough good pubs and restaurants, both of which are important to me.

Cromarty basically has two beaches: one is pebbly and one is sandy. Depending on which side of the town you are on, you can either have a walk where you’re picking up interesting rocks and stones, or you can have a paddle in the water. Then you have got places like Chanonry Point (pictured), which is on the outskirts of Fortrose, where you can almost always see dolphins. This area featured in the last book, Standing in Another Man’s Grave.

I think what happened was, because I had started going to the Black Isle a lot, I was driving up and down the A9. I became interested in the road and what a road can tell us about ourselves. Also, I thought it would be interesting to take Rebus [the main character in my detective novels] out of his comfort zone, to show him there’s another Scotland beyond the Central Belt that has its own philosophy of life, its own psychology, and that maybe he would struggle to understand it.

The new book, Saints of the Shadow Bible, is set entirely in Edinburgh, although part of it was written in Cromarty. One reason for having the house is so that I can go and be remote and write without lots of phone calls. We purposely have no TV up there and you can’t get a mobile phone signal in the house. The only way people can reach me is to leave messages, which I can pick up when I do get a signal. So it’s another good reason for going to the pub.

Saints of the Shadow Bible is published by Orion in hardback, £18.99. Find out more about Ian Rankin at ianrankin.net.