As the noise around Netflix’s Edinburgh-set crime hit Department Q fades into the background, there’s more news on the TV detective front for fans of Tartan Noir.

First up, BBC Scotland’s award-winning re-boot of Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels will return for a second series. Louise Thornton, the broadcaster’s head of commissioning, describes herself as being “blown away” by the audience response to season one and is promising to ensure the new series is “must-see television”. Beyond that, the author himself is playing coy about what the new six-parter will bring us. “Only screenwriter Gregory Burke knows what happens next,” says Sir Ian. Aye, right. Either way, it’s good news.

Before we see Rebus 2.0, however, we can enjoy the return of Karen Pirie, creation of Sir Ian’s fellow Fifer, Val McDermid. It has just returned to STV and sees the plucky Detective Inspector handed a cold case – the kidnapping in 1984 of oil heiress Catriona Grant and her two-year-old son, Adam, from outside a Fife chippie. Again, good news. As played by Lauren Lyle, Pirie is one of the most watchable TV detectives so hers is a welcome return. So too the Fife setting.

Finally to Shetland. Filming on season 10 of the series began in April and the smart money says an autumn transmission is most likely, given the previous release dates. Ashley Jensen returns as DI Ruth Calder while among those joining the cast are two well-known Scottish actors – Clive Russell and Ellie Haddington, best known for her roles in Motherland and Guilt – and Samuel Anderson, who plays Mal in Motherland spin-off Amandaland.

No Jimmy Perez, of course, Douglas Henshall having bailed after season seven. But fans of Ann Cleeves’s original novels might like to know he is returning in literary form – though just not to [[Shetland]] itself.........

© Herald Scotland