FANS of Ian Rankin’s great creation, John Rebus, can meet the latest iteration of the complex, flawed by charismatic Edinburgh detective in Rebus: A Game Called Malice, a new story by Rankin and Simon Reade, which comes to Bath Theatre Royal from Monday 30th September to Saturday 5th October, starring Gray O’Brien in the title role

And there’s a special bonus for the audience on Wednesday 2nd October, with a post-show discussion with Sir Ian Rankin, who was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to literature and charity.

The play, with a cast that includes Abigail Thaw and Billy Hartman, centres around a murder mystery game and is directed by Loveday Ingram.

A splendid dinner party in an Edinburgh mansion concludes with a murder mystery game created by the hostess. A murder needs to be solved. But the guests have secrets of their own, threatened by the very game they are playing. And among them is Inspector John Rebus. True crime is his calling. Is he playing an alternative game, one to which only he knows the rules? There are suspects, clues and danger with every twist and turn – and a shocking discovery will send this game called ‘Malice’ hurtling towards a gasp-inducing conclusion.

Ian Rankin, a star of the so-called tartan noir crime genre, is the multimillion-selling award-winning author of more than 30 novels. His books have been translated into 36 languages and have been adapted for radio, the stage and the screen. His Rebus novels have dominated the detective fiction market.

Portrait of Sir Ian Rankin; cast photographs by Nobby Clark