Is The Heights by Ian Rankin Worth Reading? A London Murder in a Billionaire’s Tower

Short answer first, since that’s the question: is The Heights by Ian Rankin worth reading? Yes — especially if you like your murder mysteries locked-room tight and your social commentary served cold. The Heights (Orion, £25), published in October 2026, is Rankin’s first standalone thriller in almost two decades (OurDailyRead / The Guardian roundup). No Rebus. No Edinburgh. Instead there’s a glass tower over Hyde Park, a dead night concierge in the lobby, and a building full of very rich people who are not used to answering questions.

The novel grew out of Rankin’s limited-release 2023 short story The Rise, now expanded into a full-length book (Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs). Readers in the United States get the hardback in early November 2026; it is already out in most other markets (Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs).

The setup: one tower, eighteen floors of suspects

The Heights itself is 18 storeys of steel and smoked glass facing Hyde Park, built for the global elite. DS Gillian Gish is called in when night-shift security guard Dwayne Hogarth is found dead — described in one review as the murdered night concierge in the lobby (OurDailyRead / The Guardian roundup; Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs). The residents include a young singer, a gangster’s wife, a man who made his money in post-glasnost Russia, and the daughter of a well-connected Zimbabwean family. Most are uncontactable or tight-lipped. The developer, for all his bravado, is in financial trouble. Then a second corpse turns up (OurDailyRead / The Guardian roundup).

Crime Fiction Lover felt the single-location pressure straight away: most of the early action stays inside the building, which gives the book a claustrophobic, oppressive feel, as if the tower itself were swallowing the light (Crime Fiction Lover). That confinement is the engine. Gish can’t chase the case across a city. She has to work a corridor at a time, against money, lawyers and habit.

The Heights Ian Rankin review consensus: Gish carries it

Every review I read landed in the same place on the detective. The Guardian roundup called Gish less complex than John Rebus but considerably more relatable, and judged her worthy of her own series (OurDailyRead / The Guardian roundup). Crime Fiction Lover rooted her in Tottenham, in touch and vibrant where Rebus feels stuck in the past, and paired her with DI Jack Milton — nearer retirement, and closer to Rebus in his willingness to stray from the straight and narrow (Crime Fiction Lover).

The pairing gets praised for its dynamic and its banter. Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs noted that readers learn Gish gradually — her demanding home life, her background, her darker sides — without the character work ever slowing the pace (Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs). The iNews October crime roundup kept its summary shorter: a murdered night concierge in an opulent block, and Gish left to work out which residents are lying (iNews).

On craft, the notices agree again. Twists land late, clues are placed carefully, and one early surprise struck one reviewer as clumsily foreshadowed — a small reservation inside an otherwise admiring review that praised the plotting’s carefulness (Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs). Crime Fiction Lover rated the book four stars and called it a tense, timely thriller that never feels repetitive despite its corridors (Crime Fiction Lover).

An Ian Rankin new book 2026 about two Londons

Rankin has always written cities as arguments. Here the argument is vertical. The Guardian roundup read the tower as a ready-made symbol of hyper-gentrification, the wealth gap and displaced communities, and the book as a portrait of two Londons — one for ordinary people, one for the super-rich (OurDailyRead / The Guardian roundup). Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs picked out the same strengths Rankin is known for: sharp social commentary, vivid place-writing, gritty characters and a dry wit running underneath (Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs).

Does the move south dilute him? Crime Fiction Lover argued the opposite: the London setting shows his versatility, the contemporary detail holds up, and the book captures what makes the Rebus novels work while standing alone for newcomers (Crime Fiction Lover).

Verdict: is The Heights by Ian Rankin worth reading?

Review judgement: buy it if you want a self-contained mystery you can finish without homework — no 30-book series order to respect, no Edinburgh map to learn. Gish and Milton are good company, the tower is a neat pressure cooker, and the ending, by the reviewers’ accounts, holds its surprises to the closing stages (Murder Mayhem and Long Dogs).

Among the best crime thriller books October 2026 offered, this is the safest recommendation for a general reader: a master of the form, a new detective worth meeting again, and a murder that doubles as a guided tour of how the other half locks its doors. Rebus loyalists get Rankin’s voice intact. Newcomers get the cleanest possible way in.

Photo: Rob Deutscher, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sources

1. http://www.ourdailyread.com/2026/10/the-best-recent-crime-and-thrillers-review-roundup-85/
2. https://crimefictionlover.com/2026/10/the-heights-by-ian-rankin/
3. https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/the-heights-by-ian-rankin/
4. https://inews-test2.go-vip.net/culture/books/best-crime-thriller-books-read-october-2026-4799699