HOW'S HE DOIN'?:

US tells Rankin: We love ya baby! (ANNA MILLAR, 4/04/07, scotlandonsunday.com)

NEW YORKERS know a lot about crime but that hasn't stopped Auld Reekie teaching the Big Apple a thing or two about the darker side of life.

Ian Rankin, the celebrated author behind the Rebus detective novels, has been asked by the New York Times to write an Edinburgh-based crime novel for serialisation.

It is believed to be only the third time the highly respected paper has commissioned an entire novel and the first time the lucrative job has been handed to a non-US writer.

Rankin's books already sell well in the United States, but the New York Times commission could propel the author into the American book sales super league.