Bob Skinner series by Quintin Jardine

The Author

Quintin Jardine is the author of two much-acclaimed and best-selling series of detective novels, as Eddie Bell and Pat Lomax, his agents, can be heard proclaiming to anyone who is listening, at book festivals around the world.

QJ is a crusty but urbane Scot, in his prime, and done with disclosing his age. (What’s that got to do with it anyway?) He was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, and educated there and in Glasgow, where he studied snooker and, in his leisure moments, law, at what was then the city’s only University. After deciding that he would never reach professional status in either discipline, he looked towards a broader horizon. He enjoyed, most of the time, a wholly unplanned, but eventful career as a journalist, government information officer, political spin-doctor and media relations consultant, before deciding to find a job that was more in touch with reality. Thus he took to the creation of crime fiction like a Trident-loaded nuclear submarine to water.

He began work on an escape tunnel out of Motherwell in 1968; he surfaced briefly in Hamilton, but, realising very quickly that he had been heading in the wrong direction, resumed digging and three years later arrived in Gullane, East Lothian, where he has lived ever since. In recent years he has put down a second set of roots … a physically nonsensical metaphor, but you know what he means … in L’Escala, the only north-facing town on the Catalan Costa Brava, which is famed for its main products, anchovies and more Catalans, and notorious for a north wind, the Tramuntana, which can drive its men mad, but more usually, to drink. (Its women, ever practical, simply shrug and hang out the washing.)

He is married, to his second wife, Eileen, a beautiful Geordie, who tolerates, with a wistful smile, most of his eccentricities, including insatiable appetites for televised sport and for playing music very loud. His first wife, the glorious Irene, with whom he shared over 30 years, from their teens, died in 1997. Today, the Jardines enjoy an extended family of four adult kids, two Tonkinese cats, and three grand-dogs. They live, not as quietly as they should, in both Scotland and in Spain, although never in both places at once.

The Bob Skinner novels are set in Edinburgh, and are built around the adventures of the city’s wholly fictional deputy chief constable, labelled early on by the Headline marketing department as ‘Britain’s toughest cop’. (Actually he was originally labelled ‘Scotland’s toughest cop’, until QJ pointed out that he hoped to sell south, as well as north, of the border.) There are seventeen books in publication, from the fledgling ‘Skinner’s Rules’, nominated in 1993 for the John Creasey Award for best first crime novel of the year, to the latest, ‘Death’s Door’, which has not been nominated as yet for anything, but which damn well should be, in the opinion of the author’s wife.

The Oz Blackstone mystery series is written in the first person and follows the narrator’s hapless career as an unwilling detective, with an uncanny resemblance to Keanu Reeves, as he rises to international celebrity status by a quite unexpected and unplanned route, until Keanu Reeves is seen as having an uncanny resemblance to him. His exploits began with ‘Blackstone’s Pursuits’ and continue through eight more novels to the much-praised ‘For the Death of Me’. The Oz series began as something QJ did on his holidays, and continues whenever he feels at his most irresponsible.

All twenty-six books are published by Headline in mass markets throughout the English speaking world, including the USA. They are also available, if you know where to look, in large print, for the visually handicapped, and unabridged audio format, for the hard of hearing. There are hopes that the Skinner books will one day form the basis of a television series. These hopes beat strongest in the breasts of the authors publisher and agents, the man himself.

The Books

Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Police Procedural

Robert Skinner, a high-ranking cop in Edinburgh, Scotland:

Jardine’s first novel, a police procedural, relies heavily on realistic detail in character and plot for much of its chilling credibility. DCI Robert Skinner, lean and intent at 42, seeks the serial murderer of four people-all killed with grisly efficiency-in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. With equal aptitude, Skinner focuses on two of the victims-both lawyers-and catches the supposed killer. Something continues to nag at him, though; he reopens the case, discovering political conspiracy, Intelligence manipulations, and cold-blooded “eliminations.” Spine-tingling suspense arises from a dramatic, tightly wrought plot. Highly recommended.

The books in suggested reading order

Skinner’s Rules
Skinner’s Festival
Skinner’s Trail
Skinner’s Round
Skinner’s Ordeal
Skinner’s Mission
Skinner’s Ghosts
Murmuring the Judges
Gallery Whispers
Thursday Legends
Autographs in the Rain
Head Shot
Fallen Gods
Stay of Execution
Lethal Intent
Dead And Buried
Death’s Door
Aftershock
Fatal Last Words
A Rush of Blood
Grievous Angel
Funeral Note
Pray for the Dying
Hour of Darkness
A Hint of Death
Last Resort
Private Investigations
State Secrets