IF POSSIBLE,WILL COMBINE BOOKS TO SAVE ON POSTAGE-SOFT COVER SMALL SIZE EDITION-SOME FOXING AND CREASES DUE TO AGE-Knots and Crosses is a 1987 crime novel by Ian Rankin. It is the first of the Inspector Rebus novels. It was written while Rankin was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh. In the introduction to this novel, Rankin states that Rebus lives directly opposite the window in Marchmont that he looked out of while writing the book.