Thursday Legends

Book 10: BOB SKINNER

by Quintin Jardine

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

Synopsis

For Deputy Chief Constable Skinner the Thursday night football game at a local gym has been an unbroken ritual for twenty-five years. Along the way players have come and gone, but a hard core remains, with each match a little older, a little slower, but as fiercely competitive as a gang of teenagers.
Until a former player is found murdered in a manner that shocks even a veteran like Skinner, and suddenly the Thursday Legends have more to worry about than aching backs and dodgy knees.
Former Head of Special Branch Alec Smith made plenty of enemies during a long career, and there is no shortage of suspects. But as Skinner’s investigation gathers pace, everything points to the Legends themselves. Is someone targeting this disparate group of colleagues and friends in some bizarre scheme of retribution? Or is the murderer one of them?

Release date: May 10, 2011

Publisher: Headline

Print pages: 300

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 family presents in it.’

‘There’s nobody else ther. . .