Product Description

The nation's sharpest cop, DCC Bob Skinner, desperately wants to stop a serial killer...

When two young female artists are murdered in what looks like ritualistic killings, the pressure is on to find a highly professional murderer. What is the link with the art world? Is the killer a disgruntled art critic? A twice-jilted lover? The arrival of the father of one of the victims, millionaire businessman Davor Boras, brings in the big guns of the Home Office, MI5 and the CIA. It's not long before Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner gets called back to the frontline. With an estranged son, a dubious assistant and connections in very high places, what is more important to Boras: business or family? There’s too much at stake - there’s going to be bloodshed - and Skinner's men are at risk of getting caught in the crossfire...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #299028 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 408 pages

About the Author
Quintin Jardine took to crime writing both naturally and with relief. Both series of books by Quintin Jardine are available from Headline, the Bob Skinner novels, and the equally praised but very different, Oz Blackstone series. Quintin Jardine is married with an extended family of four adult kids, and two Tonkinese cats.

Customer Reviews

real return to form
Recent Skinner books have, in my opinion, neglected the policing and focussed too much on love, divorce and separation but this one is a real tour de force. Excellent plot, borrows slightly from true to life events and a real classic performance from Skinner once he makes an appearance. Well worth it

Great Read
This is one of the best bob skinner novels in a long time, it is truly gripping and with the loss of a major charachter the plot keeps you from putting the book down. However the reason it losses a star is the late arrival in the book of the main charachter. If your a fan of scottish crime novels then this is a must read.

I'm not sure that this is the best place to start with Jardine
Quintin Jardine writes a number of serial style books about recurring characters. One of his recurring characters is Bob Skinner, the Deputy Chief Constable for the Edinburgh area of Scotland. By all accounts he's typical of most detectives these days. He bends rules when he needs to, and breaks them when he has no other alternative, but unlike most rule breaking cops, is liked by those he works with (and so has few of the flaws that are typically associated with the flawed detective).

The problem with this book is that Skinner doesn't appear in much of the book. Imagine having a Rankin book with a marginalised Rebus or a Christie crime novel with a marginalised Poirot or Marple and you've got an idea of what to expect here.

In this book, a police procedural if you hadn't guessed, Skinner's subordinates investigate the shooting deaths of two Edinburgh artists, the murder of one of their boyfriends, and the killing of a mutual friend of theirs.

While they do this, they have to contend with the multi-millionaire father of one of the victims, who has effectively put a bounty on the head of the murderer at a press-conference organised by the police.

The book isn't bad, but it has three major problems as I see it. Firstly, it feels like a story that you've walked into, part way through. It's interesting, but you get the sense that there's this whole back story you're missing.

Secondly, it's almost too procedural. Anyone who has read more than a couple of detective novels in the past 10yrs (or watched a Law and Order episode for that matter) will knows that there are certain things that the police have to do (and that they face several problems during an investigation). This book covers every one of those problems (or feels like it does), and that slows the book down somewhat, which might be a problem for some people.

Finally it's missing its' central character, which to my mind is never a good sign, and one of his more significant replacements dies 75% of the way through, which doesn't help things I don't think.

In short, this isn't a bad book, but I'm inclined to suspect that Skinner's absence is the 1000lb gorilla in the room that no one mentions. So if you want to "get into" the Bob Skinner series, I wouldn't start here (as the Irish say about travel directions).