VIOLENT IMPULSES

TOP-selling mystery writers Ian Rankin and Val McDermid are at each other’s throats. Rankin, who pens the Inspector Rebus series, started it by suggesting women authors are more bloodthirsty in their writing than men and are “mostly lesbians as well, which I find interesting.” The Times of London reports McDermid, lesbian author of “Wire in the Blood,” is livid about the crack. She responded: “[That’s] arrant rubbish. I find that statement so offensive I can’t even begin to start . . . There are certain kinds of books in which the only way in which you can be honest is to write about violence in a very direct way.”