A Song for the Dark Times

A Song for the Dark Times
First edition
AuthorIan Rankin
LanguageEnglish
SeriesInspector Rebus
Release number
23
GenreDetective fiction
Set inScotland
PublisherOrion Books
Publication placeScotland
Published in English
1 October 2020
Media typePaperback
Pages327
ISBN9781409176886
Preceded byIn a House of Lies 
Followed byA Heart Full of Headstones 
WebsiteAuthor's webpage

A Song for the Dark Times is the 23rd installment in the Inspector Rebus series written by Ian Rankin. The phrase "dark times" was meant to refer to the era of Brexit, autocratic leaders, and so on, as of 2019, but the book was published in 2020, in a period of COVID-19 lockdowns. The title is from one of the book’s epigraphs, Bertolt Brecht on “singing in/about the dark times”; also, “Songs for the Dark Times” is the title Siobhan Clarke gives to a CD compilation she has burned for John Rebus, which he plays while driving north in his car.