The Heights
On sale
8th October 2026
Price: £25
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
‘Ian Rankin is an all-time, solid-gold UK crime fiction great – read The Heights and find out why’
LEE CHILD
*****
MURDER COMES TO LONDON’S MOST LUXURIOUS HIGH-RISE: AND EVERY RESIDENT IS A SUSPECT.
The Heights: a gleaming, high-end high-rise looming over Hyde Park. Newly built from steel and smoked glass, a billionaire’s playground offering sumptuous suites for the global elite.
But when a night concierge is found murdered in the lobby, the building’s rarefied atmosphere is shattered, and the gilded lives within come under intense police scrutiny.
In a world designed to keep prying eyes out, where the residents are not used to being held to account, born-and-bred Londoner Detective Gillian Gish must find a way past their power, wealth and unimaginable influence.
The rules may be different at the top – but is anyone truly above the law? Or could it be that the higher you rise, the further you fall…?
THE FIRST STANDALONE THRILLER IN TWO DECADES FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IAN RANKIN
A brand-new full-length novel, expanded from the previously published short story The Rise.
*****
PRAISE FOR THE HEIGHTS:
‘Terrific’
MICK HERRON, bestselling author of Slow Horses & The Slough House series
‘Elegantly constructed and stylishly executed … A deft, richly layered and tautly woven thriller with echoes of Dickens and Christie which kept me guessing right to the end. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’
CHRIS CHIBNALL, creator of Broadchurch and author of Death At The White Hart
‘A brilliantly constructed mystery … Taut, atmospheric and populated by wonderfully drawn characters, it’s a page-turner that never sacrifices intelligence for pace. Simply superb. The king is still very much at the very top of his game’
ABIR MUKHERJEE, bestselling author of Hunted
‘A high concept whodunnit from one of the legends of crime fiction’
STEVE CAVANAGH, bestselling author of the Eddie Flynn thrillers
*****
PRAISE FOR THE ICONIC NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IAN RANKIN:
‘Ian Rankin is a genius’
LEE CHILD
‘Great fiction, full stop’
THE TIMES
‘Whatever he writes, it will be worth reading … Rankin has redefined the genre’
GUARDIAN
‘Rankin is a phenomenon’
SPECTATOR
‘Worthy of Agatha Christie at her best’
SCOTSMAN
‘The king of crime fiction’
SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘The arrival of a Rankin novel remains one of life’s pleasures’
EXPRESS
*****
‘Ian Rankin is an all-time, solid-gold UK crime fiction great – read The Heights and find out why’
LEE CHILD
*****
MURDER COMES TO LONDON’S MOST LUXURIOUS HIGH-RISE: AND EVERY RESIDENT IS A SUSPECT.
The Heights: a gleaming, high-end high-rise looming over Hyde Park. Newly built from steel and smoked glass, a billionaire’s playground offering sumptuous suites for the global elite.
But when a night concierge is found murdered in the lobby, the building’s rarefied atmosphere is shattered, and the gilded lives within come under intense police scrutiny.
In a world designed to keep prying eyes out, where the residents are not used to being held to account, born-and-bred Londoner Detective Gillian Gish must find a way past their power, wealth and unimaginable influence.
The rules may be different at the top – but is anyone truly above the law? Or could it be that the higher you rise, the further you fall…?
THE FIRST STANDALONE THRILLER IN TWO DECADES FROM THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IAN RANKIN
A brand-new full-length novel, expanded from the previously published short story The Rise.
*****
PRAISE FOR THE HEIGHTS:
‘Terrific’
MICK HERRON, bestselling author of Slow Horses & The Slough House series
‘Elegantly constructed and stylishly executed … A deft, richly layered and tautly woven thriller with echoes of Dickens and Christie which kept me guessing right to the end. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough’
CHRIS CHIBNALL, creator of Broadchurch and author of Death At The White Hart
‘A brilliantly constructed mystery … Taut, atmospheric and populated by wonderfully drawn characters, it’s a page-turner that never sacrifices intelligence for pace. Simply superb. The king is still very much at the very top of his game’
ABIR MUKHERJEE, bestselling author of Hunted
‘A high concept whodunnit from one of the legends of crime fiction’
STEVE CAVANAGH, bestselling author of the Eddie Flynn thrillers
*****
PRAISE FOR THE ICONIC NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER IAN RANKIN:
‘Ian Rankin is a genius’
LEE CHILD
‘Great fiction, full stop’
THE TIMES
‘Whatever he writes, it will be worth reading … Rankin has redefined the genre’
GUARDIAN
‘Rankin is a phenomenon’
SPECTATOR
‘Worthy of Agatha Christie at her best’
SCOTSMAN
‘The king of crime fiction’
SUNDAY EXPRESS
‘The arrival of a Rankin novel remains one of life’s pleasures’
EXPRESS
*****
Reviews
This sleek and fast-moving mystery ends with a perfectly planted double whammy. And the moral? "There were more good people than bad in the world - Gish had to keep reminding herself of that. They just made less noise." Come back soon, Ma'am
... multi-stranded, exuberant...Rankin is an unlikely admirer of the upper-crust British novelist Anthony Powell, and the same attraction/repulsion towards the egregiously advantaged can be found here. But the core of the novel is the cynical, bolshie copper Gish - clearly a Rankin surrogate. She is the conduit through which the author channels his vision of the divided nature of British society.
The end, I must admit, is ingenious, and the many narrative cogs turn neatly to unlock the sudden denouement. The writing is as confident, propulsive and informed as one would expect from Rankin.
Rankin is a superb storyteller, and this is well up to his usual high standard, while DS Gish - less complex, but considerably more relatable than John Rebus - is worthy of her own series
Author lan Rankin is a genius, and despite the large assortment of characters, at no time do any of them seem two-dimensional or perfunctory. While the story mainly revolves around Dwayne's death, a couple of subplots emerge during the investigation. In lesser hands, this could all get very messy, but Rankin knows how to weave a good yarn. I love Rebus, but The Heights is so good that I forgot all about him. An
excellent read.
[Rankin] has produced yet another readable, complex, twisty book which will keep readers guessing.
Full of Rankin's trademark gritty style