A Rush of Blood

Bob Skinner #20

by Quintin Jardine

A complex tale of deception and revenge leads Skinner and his people to a bloody encounter and a dramatic confrontation...

The horrific suicide of a successful Lithuanian entrepreneur rouses suspicion amongst the newly appointed Chief Constable Bob Skinner and his colleagues. They've crossed swords with the businessman before; why would a man with everything to live for take his own life? As enquiries begin, a mystery girl, drugged and incoherent, is dumped in a health centre by a mysterious Galahad, who promptly disappears. Who is she, who is he, and where has he gone? Is it coincidence that most of the massage parlours in the city have suddenly closed overnight?

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Scotland, Detective

448 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2010

About the author

Quintin Jardine (born 1945) is a Scottish author of three series of crime novels, featuring the fictional characters Bob Skinner, Oz Blackstone, and Primavera Blackstone. He was educated in Motherwell and in Glasgow where he studied at what was then the city’s only University. After career as a journalist, government information officer and media relations consultant, he took to the creation of crime fiction.

His first wife, Irene, with whom he shared over 30 years, from their teens, died in 1997. He is married, to his second wife, Eileen. They live in both Scotland and in Spain

Reviews

[Laraine]

4 1/2 stars. Book #20 in Jardine's excellent Bob Skinner thrillers was another great read. Bob is called in for a suicide of a well known man, a Lithuanian businessman. He thinks there may be more to this terrible act and gets his team looking into the man and his interests. Also, a young girl is found, drugged and out of it in hospital, and the belief is that she was sexually assaulted. And then the city's massage parlours close down quickly. Are all these incidents connected and if so, how? Bob and his team continue investigating and soon the bodies start to mount up. Many Lithuanians die and the question is, who did this and what do they have to gain? This was quite a thrilling read and had enough interesting stories to keep me guessing and turning the pages. Another great mystery from Jardine.

[Fredrick Danysh]

Bob Skinner is now the Chief Constable. A Lithuanian businessman commits suicide in a very public place and his family disappears. A human sex trafficing ring is uncovered, isolated golf courses are being robbed, and Lithuanians with criminal ties are being murdered. Skinner and his department have their hands full in this fast paced story.

[Sheila]

A Lithuanian business man is found dead on Salisbury crags in Edinburgh. The post mortem showed it was suicide but Bib Skinner isn’t convinced.
A series of robberies occurs at golf pro shops.
A young Estonian girl is found dazed, raped and drugged.
Another convoluted series of events with several gruesome murders leads Skinner to meet a criminal mastermind Cameron McCullough.

[Margaret Fast]

Who are all these people?? One character bled into another and most clearly had a backstory I was not familiar with.
Also, serious editing needed. Repetition and extraneous info/events.
Plot ok especially if one likes convoluted.

[Fruitbat]

Dnf

[Adam]

Very good

[Martin Sutherland]

This is the first book I've read in the Skinner series, and it's a bad place to start. The cast of characters spans practically the whole of Edinburgh's CID, and all they seem to do for the first 100 pages or so is talk to each other in unnatural "as you know, Bob" info-dump style. If I had been following these characters for 20 books already, I'm sure I would enjoy seeing them all again; as it was, by the end of the book I still couldn't tell half of the characters apart.

Fortunately, about a third of the way through the plot starts to become interesting, and I wanted to find out what was happening. The last third is fast-paced and introduces the most interesting characters in the whole book, which seems somewhat backward.

I do love thrillers set in Edinburgh, so maybe I'll go back to the start of the series, and see if I do any better tackling these characters right from the beginning.

[Jim]

Well, the Observer described it as "Well Constructed, fast paced", but it was about the dullest, most turgid start to a detective fiction that I've come across. Page after weary page of senior police officers talking to each other, running over other characters' histories, absolutely nothing actually happening.

Abandoned at page 60 - fortunately it came from the library.

Absolutely dismal.

[Graeme Eyre]

I enjoyed this book as I have done with all the Skinner Series. However it is the first of the series that I have read in over a year so it took a while to get back into the series. I would not recommend this book unless you have read the others in the series. The plot really grabbed me though I and I read the entire book in a 24 hour period.

[David Gill]

My first book by this author, which I enjoyed. Typical police whodunit with loads of characters from previous books, which of course I had not read. Had trouble keeping track of them all. But apart from that (and next time I will know who they all are) a good read.

[Cathy]

I listened to this book and it was tough. I could not track who was who except for the guy who died at the beginning and I was curious to see who didi it and why. I found out in the 13th disc. All the sub plots and characters were way too many. Probably won't read another of this author.

[Jem Sparkle]

It was enjoyable. The narrative took some getting used to on account of there being a lot of detectives interconnected with the main plot on top of their personal connections but it was fun. It was gripping.

[Ryan Scott]

Finally tapped out at the 150 page mark. Just wasn't working for me. Might try another volume from earlier in the series at a later date.

[David]

A good read but detect a bit of Rebus in this one with Skinner having a relationship with a jailed Godfather figure.

[Alison]

I liked coming back to all the familiar characters plus some new additions. Though the story line didn't much appeal to me.

[Marie]

Not one of the better entries in the series.

[Mary Kay]

Police procedural from Scotland with an interesting twist: the main character is the Chief Constable. There are WAY too many characters in this book!

[stan]

Once again Skinner And Co. score Riveting story and once again the end is so unusual

[Lizzy]

an exciting fast moving book that made you want to keep reading and Bob Skinner won in the end. A good book.

[Sandra]

Recommend

[Walter]

Enjoyed this as usual. Skinners exploits are always a good read.

[Alison Stewart]

As I have read others in this series I found it enjoyable. Not the best place to start the skinner books.

[Craig Gillan]

Good book with all the usual characters

[Ljohnston]

More twists and plots revealed for future books I am sure