Skinner's Ordeal

Book 5: BOB SKINNER

by Quintin Jardine

Genres: General Fiction; City Life; Mystery; Hard-Boiled; Police Procedurals; Crime Fiction

Synopsis

A plane explodes mid-flight and plunges to disaster from the Scottish skies, the British and American Defence Secretaries among the victims. Now Edinburgh’s Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner must lead the most high-profile investigation of his career. The means of destruction is apparent from the start, but the investigation quickly grows more puzzling. When Skinner himself is wrenched from the case, his colleagues struggle with the mass of clues while he fights for his life, trapped with the secrets horrors of his past. As Skinner’s ordeal reaches its crescendo, the police pursue their suspects in a dramatic race to hunt down those responsible. But will their much respected DCC be able to pull himself back from the brink in time?

Release date: November 13, 2008

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 452

Sample

‘Where the hell is the wee toerag?’ Detective Inspector Charlotte Mann muttered grimly, as the wide doors slid together behind a portly middle-aged man in a colourful shirt and shorts, pushing a laden trolley. ‘How big is that bloody plane? There must have been three hundred people through by now. It can’t be bigger than that, surely.’

‘Excuse me, please.’

The passenger had manoeuvred his unstable vehicle around the retaining barrier. Lottie looked at him, and realised that she was blocking his progress.

‘Sorry,’ she said, stepping aside. ‘Are you off the Dubai flight?’ she asked as he made his way past her.

The traveller nodded.

‘Are there many left in the baggage hall?’ she asked.

‘I’m the last one,’ he replied mournfully. ‘They’ve lost one of my wife’s cases,’ he added. ‘It just had to be the one with all the famil. . .