I have read many of Quintin Jardine’s books and much prefer his Bob Skinner character to his Oz Blackstone series.
In Funeral Notes, a man’s body is exhumed from a shallow grave in Edinburgh after a tip-off. It is a grim start to a police procedural crime novel. Even a poor story by Jardine commands attention.
The Blurb
After a tip-off, a man's body is exhumed from a shallow grave in Edinburgh. Murder surely, yet he died from natural causes, so, case closed? Indeed was there ever a case? But Chief Constable Skinner and his people keep on digging. Who was the man, why was he buried so reverentially, and by whom?
Meanwhile corruption is discovered within the force, and an investigation is launched. Immersed in crises, his marriage heading for the rocks, Skinner finds his very career hanging in the balance, its fate beyond his control. In a tale seen through the eyes of each of its leading players, mystery upon mystery is laid down until the greatest threat of all those facing the Chief is revealed, and a deadly race begins. Can he win out, or will his life implode?
The Review
Funeral Note is a tale told in the first person through the eyes of each of its leading players, Quintin Jardine, lays mystery upon mystery until the greatest threat of all those facing the Chief is revealed, and a deadly race begins.
Funeral Note is not the best Skinner by a long chalk. It is very cleverly written using lots of different first-person perspectives to tell the story, along with getting each characters views on the others. It is an interesting way of telling the story. Although, as a writer’s conceit I found it a bit trying by the end of the book. I certainly would not want to see it used on a regular basis. Nevertheless, I commend the book and hope you will enjoy it.
The Author
Jardine was born in Motherwell, Scotland, and educated there and in Glasgow, where he studied snooker and read law at Glasgow University. He followed a career as a journalist and then as a government information officer before becoming a political spin-doctor and media relations consultant. He then looked to crime fiction and now sells books all over the world. In his native Scotland he sells more books that John Grisham.
He now lives in Gullane, Scotland, where he has lived ever since. However, in recent years, he has put down a second set of roots in L’Escala, the only north-facing town on the Catalan Costa Brava in Spain,
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