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I like the Inspector Rebus series by Ian Rankin. I didn't set out to do it but I am slowly going through the series in chronological order. I am on #16 which is called Naming the Dead from 2006. Rebus is Scottish. He's your stereotypical 'doesnt-play-by-the-rules' cop. He has an archenemy mafia-type boss named Cafferty. He has a sidekick female cop. He makes a lot of Questionable Life choices. He slept with a cop who became his boss. He has an ex wife and a lot of ex-lovers (doctors, artists, hotel managers, all kind of women) and a grown daughter who is in wheelchair from a hit-and-run related to one of his cases. There are a lot of references to classic rock music, and Rebus likes the Rolling Stones. He drinks too much. He is always on probation or being sent to remote police stations as punishment for refusing to submit to the chain of command. I wrote a triple drabble using these two Stones songs. "Winter" is a melancholy tune but very much a Rebus kind of song, and "Cosmic Christmas" is a weird hidden track, and Rebus would probably know obscure things like that. I always think of him as comfort reading. Not enlightening or especially sensitive. Sort of high handed with the good vs evil and that kind of thing but like "Law & Order" reruns, comforting. There is/are TV versions of Rebus but I haven't seen them. I prefer to keep him as he is in my mind.

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Title: Christmas at the Ox
Fandom: Inspector Rebus series - Ian Rankin
Rating: Gen
Length: 300
Summary: Rebus is at the Oxford bar on Christmas Day. He gets his Christmas wish.

Detective Inspector Rebus sat on a barstool of the Oxford Bar, washing a mince pie down with a pint and feeling sorry for himself.

Alone on Christmas.

Rebus didn’t want to go home. Hell, the Ox was more of his home than the flat he’d occupied for almost three decades had ever been, but…

…but he had nothing to do. He’d asked the bartender, a new guy, a young guy, Rebus’ regular was off, good for him, for a Highland Park and shivered at the sudden draft brought in by another lonely soul tipping out into the snow and going…somewhere else.

Rebus had nowhere to go. He thought of the Stones’ “Winter.”

It's sure been a cold, cold winter
And a lotta love is all burned out

Sammy had called the night before, and they’d had a nice chat. She was doing well, and he was happy for her.
Not that Rebus’ wished anyone any misery on this of all days, but he wouldn’t mind a case right about now. What had Mick sung?

But I been burnin' my bell, book and candle
And the restoration plays have all gone 'round

But burning bell, book, and candle was the only way Rebus knew how to do it, how to live, how to stave off moments like this…

…then suddenly, there was the sound of a Jeep engine and a unholy noise was heard which sounded like aliens landing.

The bartender grunted and swore. “What’s that?”

A grin broke out on Rebus’ face. “Cosmic Christmas. Hidden track from the Stones’ 1967 album.”
Rebus turned his head toward the door just in time to see Detective Sargent Siobahn Clarke walk in.

“I thought I’d find you here. Get two black coffees to go. We’ve got a case. Murder.”

“Happy Christmas to me.”

The early books and the later ones are widely available but some of the ones in the middle were hard to find so I bought them used online and made a collage with some of the pages. This is Edinburgh.

So this will be #46 for Fannish 50.

This is a challenge to post about 50 things I'm fannish about in 2024. I did the challenge in 2023 so to make it more interesting, in 2024, it's Everything is Murder edition. More info & to sign up here:https://alexcat.dreamwidth.org/1357645.html

The List (to date)

Fannish 50: 2024: #1: Jeeves & Wooster
Fannish 50: 2024: #2: Libraries
Fannish 50: 2024: #3: Facial Sheet Masks
Fannish 50: 2024: #4: Venom
Fannish 50: 2024: #5: jhope of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #6: the art of Edward Gorey
Fannish 50: 2024: #7: The works of Edgar Allan Poe
Fannish 50: 2024: #8: SUGA of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #9: Miss Marple - Agatha Christie
Fannish 50: 2024: #10: Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Fannish 50: 2024: #11: Honkaku & shin honkaku detective fiction
Fannish 50: 2024: #12: Audiobooks
Fannish 50: 2024: #13: Holiday blend coffee
Fannish 50: 2024: #14: Jazz
Fannish 50: 2024: #15: Jigsaw puzzles
Fannish 50: 2024: #16: Sherlock Holmes
Fannish 50: 2024: #17: Poetry
Fannish 50: 2024: #18: Chocolate
Fannish 50: 2024: #19: Detective Matthew Venn series - Ann Cleeves
Fannish 50: 2024: #20: Tarot
Fannish 50: 2024: #21: Poirot - Agatha Christie
Fannish 50: 2024: #22: The ocean
Fannish 50: 2024: #23: Hardboiled detectives/noir
Fannish 50: 2024: #24: Tea
Fannish 50: 2024: #25: Bees & honey
Fannish 50: 2024: #26: Campion - Margery Allingham
Fannish 50: 2024: #27: The language of flowers
Fannish 50: 2024: #28: The moon
Fannish 50: 2024: #29: Gervase Fen detective series - Edmund Crispin
Fannish 50: 2024: #30: James Bond
Fannish 50: 2024: #31: Jungkook of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #32: Inspector Alleyn series - Ngaio Marsh
Fannish 50: 2024: #33: Collage materials
Fannish 50: 2024: #34: RM of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #35: Nanette Hayes mysteries - Charlotte Carter
Fannish 50: 2024: #36: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Fannish 50: 2024: #37: Inspector Littlejohn series - George Bellairs
Fannish 50: 2024: #38: Jimin of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #39: Autumn
Fannish 50: 2024: #40: Halloween
Fannish 50: 2024: #41: Ghost stories of MR James
Fannish 50: 2024: #42: Christmas
Fannish 50: 2024: #43: Jin of BTS
Fannish 50: 2024: #44: Advent calendars
Fannish 50: 2024: #45: Snoopy
Fannish 50: 2024: #46: Inspector Rebus detective series- Ian Rankin