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‘he should have seen it coming. his life had been one mishap after another. so he should have been prepared for this one…’ julian treslove, a professionally unspectacular former bbc radio producer, and sam finkler, a popular jewish philosopher, writer and television personality, are old school friends. despite a prickly relationship and very different lives, they’ve never quite lost touch with each other – or with their former teacher, libor sevcik, a czech always more concerned with the wider world than with exam results. now, both libor and finkler are recently widowed, and with treslove, his chequered and unsuccessful record with women rendering him an honorary third widower, they dine at libor’s grand, central london apartment. it’s a sweetly painful evening of reminiscence in which all three remove themselves to a time before they had loved and lost; a time before they had fathered children, before the devastation of separations, before they had prized anything greatly enough to fear the loss of it. better, perhaps, to go through life without knowing happiness at all because that way you have less to mourn? treslove finds he has tears enough for the unbearable sadness of both his friends’ losses. and it’s that very evening, at exactly 11:30 pm, as treslove, walking home, hesitates a moment outside the window of the oldest violin dealer in the country, that he is attacked. and after this, his whole sense of who and what he is will slowly and ineluctably change. the finkler question is a scorching story of friendship and loss, exclusion and belonging, and of the wisdom and humanity of maturity. funny, furious, unflinching, this extraordinary novel shows one of our finest writers at his brilliant best.

From the iconic number one bestseller ian rankin, comes one of the must-read books of the year: a song for the dark times ‘genius … only great novels capture the spirit of the age. this is one of them.’ the times * * * * * ‘he’s gone…’ when his daughter samantha calls in the dead of night, john rebus knows it’s not good news. her husband has been missing for two days. rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect. he wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs him more than ever. but is he going as a father or a detective? as he leaves at dawn to drive to the windswept coast – and a small town with big secrets – he wonders whether this might be the first time in his life where the truth is the one thing he doesn’t want to find… praise for a song for the dark times: ‘magnificent … utterly unputdownable and an immersive pleasure’ marian keyes ‘this is rankin at his best, rebus at his best, storytelling that meets the moment and transcends all genres and expectations’ michael connelly ‘an outstanding addition to one of the finest bodies of work in crime fiction’ mick herron ‘rankin remains the king of the castle’ the times ‘typically compelling’ daily telegraph ‘masterly storytelling’ sunday express ‘excellent’ liz nugent ‘the best that the crime genre can offer’ ft ‘rankin grows better with time . . . rebus grows ever more compelling’ daily mail * * * * * praise for the iconic number one bestseller: ‘ian rankin is a genius’ lee child ‘a master storyteller’ guardian ‘rebus is one of british crime writing’s greatest characters: alongside holmes, poirot and morse’ daily mail ‘great fiction, full stop’ the times ‘one of britain’s leading novelists in any genre’ new statesman ‘rankin is a phenomenon’ spectator ‘worthy of agatha christie at her best’ scotsman ‘the king of crime fiction’ sunday express **** ian rankin’s song for the dark times was a sunday times bestseller w/c 5th october 2020