The Oxford Bar of police officers drink there. In "Dirty Work: Ian Rankin and John Rebus Book-By-Book", Ray Dexter and Nadine Carr note that the Oxford Bar would be an improbable local for Rebus due to its geographical location. Other visitors to the bar have included actor Sean Connery and author Colin Dexter. Quintin Jardine's 2009 Bob Skinner novel, "Fatal Last Words", also mentions the Oxford Bar considerably, again due to the connection with the local police force drinking there. There are a few other nods to Rankin too. The Oxford Bar The Oxford Bar is a public house situated on Young Street,
Black & Blue (Rankin novel) TV journalists are meanwhile investigating Rebus over a miscarriage of justice. Rebus travels between Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen and then on to Shetland and the North Sea. Set in Scotland around the mid-1990s, "Black & Blue" focuses on Detective Inspector Rebus. Transferred to Craigmillar, Rebus is investigating the Johnny Bible case. (The spree of recent killings bears a striking similarity to the factual "Bible John" case of the late 1960s.) Rebus resolves an ambiguous incident with his colleague Brian Holmes, regarding the alleged assault on the criminal Mental Minto. He becomes involved in investigating the brutal death of Allan Mitchison.