Dead and Buried (Bob Skinner Mystery) by Quintin Jardine
| Dead and Buried (Bob Skinner Mystery) by Quintin Jardine | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A good combination of professional and personal problems for Edinburgh's Deputy Chief Constable make for a satisfying police procedural/political thriller | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: Headline | Date: July 2006 |
| Publisher: 480/13h8m | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0755304097 | |
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Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner's life is proving problematic again. His marriage to Dr Sarah Grace has failed and he's still suffering mentally from the death of a friend, a friend whom he killed. The situation which caused this death is the subject of a top-level enquiry: in the normal course of events he should be a witness before the enquiry, but instead he finds himself heading it up - and not everybody in the Westminster establishment is on his side. His relationship with a top politician gives him some solace, but brings its own problems: it's difficult for anything between them to be kept private.
Back in Edinburgh his daughter is being harassed by a stalker: it's difficult to protect her, particularly when she doesn't particularly want to be helped. Alex suspects that she might know who the stalker is and feels a little guilty: she feels that she used him and doesn't want him to get into any more trouble. Edinburgh CID are faced with the murder of a bookmaker and the Chief Constable involves himself in an investigation which suggests that there's been a bigamist at work.
It's a good story, with the happenings at the Edinburgh end feeling rather more authentic than what happens in London, which stretches credulity just a little. Quintin Jardine's been very clever though carries all the plot threads most competently to unexpected but satisfying conclusions. If you enjoy a mix of police procedural and political thriller then you'll get a lot out of this book. Skinner normally has an ego and confidence as big as all outdoors and it's refreshing to see him being a little bit vulnerable for a change.
This is the sixteenth book in the Bob Skinner series and whilst there was a slight dip in quality in a couple of recent books, we now seem to be back on course, and this books's a good read - or, as I did, listen. Because of a vision problem I've been restricting the amount of reading that I do and I've listened to the Skinner books as audio downloads, all of which I've bought myself. They're narrated by James Bryce who's nobly taken on the task of telling a story which is heavily populated by middle-aged, middle class Scotsmen and somehow giving them all individual voices - and that is no mean feat. As soon as I finish one, I buy the next download!
Quintin Jardine's Bob Skinner Novels in Chronological Order
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