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Edinburgh detective Bob Skinner returns once again, supported by the usual cast of thousands who give Rabbit's friends and relations a run for their money for sheer quantity. Unless I've miscounted, this is the 19th book in the series featuring Edinburgh policeman Bob Skinner. Long-standing readers of this Scottish crime saga finally get to see Skinner take over from retiring Chief Constable Sir James Proud, so, no surprises there, then. I don't think anyone ever seriously expected Skinner not to reach the pinnacle of his career at some point in the books; it was just a question of when. The Edinburgh International Book Festival provides the backdrop for the first part of the story, with one of Scotland's trio of most successful crime writers being found dead in the author's tent. To complicate matters further, and to provide a reason for Skinner's direct involvement, the man also happens to be a Member of the Scottish Parliament. And, for added spice, Bob Skinner's partner is Scottish First Minister Aileen de Marco. No, no one ever said Skinner's life was simple. And this isn't the first death. A group of travelers ends up on Skinner's own doorstep, and although he manages to broker a deal in which they move to a somewhat less controversial spot in the village, someone still ends up getting his head bashed in: one of the very travelers who Skinner has just had a drink with in the local pub. Skinner's life is intimately bound up with those of his friends and colleagues in the police force and while I have always thoroughly enjoyed the soap opera aspects of this huge, sprawling series, I do wonder how well new readers cope with the sheer amount of baggage that many of these people are hauling with them through the books. Will new readers care that Skinner's friendship with Andy Martin looks like it's finally hit an insurmountable object in the person of Skinner's own daughter? Does the book actually give them enough information to work out why it even matters at all? For someone who has read the books from the beginning, it's a difficult question to answer and I'm not entirely sure that a new reader gets sufficient information to become emotionally invested in some of the supporting characters. But that said, I don't think it will necessarily detract from anyone's enjoyment of the book as the minor characters are all well-drawn and do manage, for the most part, to retain their individuality. What concerns me more is that Jardine has returned yet again to a subplot involving the events of the war-torn former-Yugoslavia. This has been a theme now in several of the recent books and it doesn't seem to have run its course yet. I rather suspect that Jardine is setting Skinner up for some sort of future confrontation with the man who is fast becoming a Moriarty-figure in the series and I just hope he can pull it off. The climax of this story, when it finally comes, inevitably involves an awful lot of tell not show, and I do wish there was another means of explaining the plot other than a final confrontation hinging on large amounts of exposition from the protagonists. But Jardine certainly isn't alone in grappling with this as a problem and his solutions are serviceable, as this one is. But I still have no idea what purpose the final short chapter is intended to serve. I've definitely been left with the feeling that either I've lost the plot or the author has. § Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.
Reviewed by Linda Wilson, June 2010
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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