Product Description

Still reeling from the tragic death of their much-loved colleague, Skinner's men are about to discover that a disturbed serial killer is still at large and very close to home.

It’s the second week of July Trades Holiday in Edinburgh when Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner and his men get a call informing them that the body of a young woman has been found on a golf course. It’s been there for ten days so she’s not a pretty sight. But the way she has been laid out is uncannily familiar. The body has been ‘composed’, just like the bodies of three other young women in a previous case. Could it be the work of a copycat killer? The murder victim is an art teacher who was having a relationship with the son of a Tory MP. Her ex-boyfriend is a policeman with a reputation as a serious womaniser. It seems the murder trail is getting much too close for comfort...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34523 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Quintin Jardine gave up the life of a political spin doctor for the more morally acceptable world of murder and mayhem. Happily married, he hides from critics and creditors in secret locations in Scotland and Spain, but can be tracked down through his website: www.quintinjardine.com.

Customer Reviews

For old times sake
The Skinner series has gone through many ups and downs, and seemed to be recovering quite nicely until this shocker. Carrying on almost immediately after Death's Door finished, it revolves around the discovery of another body laid out in the same way as the murders solved in the last book - is there a copycat out there?

We're back with the Edinburgh police, all of whom are promoted to high rank, yet still pound the beat, all with morals to die for, all related to each other. The dialogue is clunky, there's a huge amount of explanation in the narrative and the plot developments purely fanciful on occasion. The ending seems to have been bolted on as an afterthought.

However, the characters that I've followed through the series and the fact that the plot cracks along at pace meant it was worth the read. Don't bother if you haven't read any others in the series.

Will I read any more - unlikely after the jumping-the-shark line about Aileen being asked to raise the championship winning flag for Hibernian FC!!

All the best Skinner.

too many chiefs spoil the broth!
I have read several books in this series and have often had a problem keeping up with who is who in the Police structure but the plot usually keeps me interested. Not in this case. There are too many police characters, virtually all at a level above Inspector, many of whom are either related to each other or married to each other and/or used to be married to each other. I just could not work out who was in charge, who they were married to and what their history or personality was. And surely all these high level people (there must be at least 10) wouldn't ALL be involved in the day to day running of a case?) The soppy relationship and dialogue between Skinner and his partner the The First Minister, Aileen was irritating in the extreme. The dialogue is clunky and the plot crawls along at snail place. not only this, the book is actually a continuation of a previous book - I had read this but in view of the stand alone nature of this book, there is a lot of exposition for new readers, so we constantly go over it all again. I had even guessed the whodunnit, though not whydunnit, which in any event, was totally preposperous. bring back the two handed dectective team of a DI and DS with possibly a pathologist thrown in the mix and decent plot and narrative! or the pithy, amusing comments of a DI Steele/ DS Logan in Stuart McBride's books....much more engaging.

Another gripping Skinner book
Picked this up at the weekend from my local bookshop and pretty much read the entire thing sitting in the scorching sunshine.
That, of course, is a million miles away from the world that Quintin Jardines characters inhabit and all the better for it. Top notch stuff and well worth seeking out if you love a gripping thriller with plenty of twists and turns.