 The United States crime writer James Ellroy coined the name when he described Ian Rankin as "the king of tartan noir" for a book cover.Ian Rankin actually gave himself the name when he asked Ellroy to sign a book for him and said "I'm a big fan and I write tartan noir".Tartan noir draws on the traditions of Scottish literature, being strongly influenced by James Hogg's "Confessions of a Justified Sinner" and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".