Janet Christie talks to Ian Rankin about his new short thriller.
Murder comes to London's most exclusive high-rise—and every resident is a suspect. The Rise is a gleaming residential tower, newly constructed from steel and blackened glass, that stands on some of London's most prestigious real estate
Murder comes to London's most exclusive high-rise—and every resident is a suspect. The Rise is a gleaming residential tower, newly constructed from steel and blackened glass, that stands on some of London's most prestigious real estate
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00:07 They wanted something that could be read very quickly,
00:09 it didn't need to be at Rebus, it didn't need to be set in Edinburgh.
00:12 And I've had this idea for quite a few years of this little stand-alone story
00:17 that would be set in London amongst the super wealthy.
00:20 So this gave me a chance to write that story
00:23 and to try and work at a length that is interesting
00:28 because there's a lot of characterisation in there but there's no fat,
00:33 there's no room for any fat on it at all.
00:36 And it has to be read in one sitting or listened to in one sitting,
00:39 was the kind of stipulation.
00:41 So that was quite, it was hard but it was good.
00:44 The deal that I did with Amazon was that it would be, in the first instance,
00:50 audio and online, an e-book only.
00:56 But at some point in the future there is a possibility to bring it out
01:01 as a print version.
01:05 But I mean it's an odd length so how are you going to sell it to people?
01:08 It's like 50, 60 pages, it's quite a skinny book,
01:11 unless it was part of a longer book of short stories that I've collected
01:14 or bundled up from elsewhere.
01:16 I would, I'd probably prefer it to come out as a movie.
01:19 I think it feels to me like a film, it feels to me like it's,
01:22 you're showing that kind of night time London of these huge skyscrapers
01:27 where nobody lives.
01:29 I think it would be a really interesting, really visual thing.
01:32 And a couple of strong performances at the middle of it that might tempt
01:36 big name actors.
01:38 Who would you think would be good to play Gish?
01:40 I've not got that far yet, I've not got that far.
01:42 I don't know who I would think.
01:44 I mean it's going to be young cop, older cop, older cop about to retire,
01:46 younger cop, still living at home with her mum who's got dementia
01:51 or she's failing.
01:54 So there's carers involved.
01:56 So there's all that, it's a really meaty role, two meaty roles actually.
02:01 And then of course you've got the supporting cast of billionaires
02:05 and Arabian princesses and Chinese businessmen
02:11 and one time well-known actresses.
02:16 The building itself is full of some really interesting people
02:19 whose stories we can only touch on in the short story
02:23 because there isn't enough time for me to flesh them out.
02:26 So in a film we could maybe do that I think.
02:28 And would you have a cameo in it?
02:30 I don't think there'd be a cameo for a Scottish,
02:35 slightly rough sounding novelist.
02:38 So probably not, not without subtitles.
02:41 Again in some ways living a quarter mile in Edinburgh
02:43 which used to be the old infirmary,
02:45 there's a touch of that being above the people looking down
02:51 from a height on everybody which is kind of what they do
02:53 from this place in London.
02:56 There's not many similarities.
02:58 I mean when you see these, I did a lot of reading on the subject
03:02 of oligarchs, dirty money, dodgy money,
03:06 money being hidden away in London property,
03:08 people buying vast properties, I'm not talking seven figures,
03:11 I'm talking eight figures that they're never going to live in.
03:14 They're just there as a way of keeping their money safe,
03:17 away from some regime somewhere,
03:19 away from people taking it off them.
03:22 And we don't have that in Edinburgh to nearly the same extent,
03:24 we don't really have it at all.
03:27 And it was that notion of these big empty glass high rises
03:31 that are patrolled by security guards 24/7
03:33 but there's almost nobody living there.
03:35 I just thought that's such an interesting location
03:37 for a murder mystery.
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