Skinner's Festival [Hardcover]

Quintin Jardine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1995

Assistant Chief Constable Robert Skinner of the Edinburgh Police races against time to find the team of terrorists out to disrupt the city's International Festival of the Arts before their deadly bombs can claim any more victims.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As followers of the arts gather in Scotland's capital city at the end of the summer, so too does a well-organized gang of militant zealots intent on home rule. A bomb explodes in a tent near a shopping center; then an opera singer is murdered. In charge of the case is ranking copper, Robert Skinner, who was introduced in Skinner's Rules and remains a tough and resourceful Scot. While steadily ratcheting up the tension, Jardine provides a lot of annual Edinburgh Festival detail-the sites and the sounds, plays and performances, all of which have to be guarded more closely as the body count grows. Skinner's daughter falls for a mystery man, and his deputy falls for a mystery woman, even as the first clue to the terrorists' identity points to an American woman roaming the country, a killer in more ways than one. Although the identity of one murderer is ludicrously easy to spot, and the too-frequent sex scenes tend to feature such lines as "he drank deeply from the well of her passion," Jardine offers spectacularly effective action scenes, and Skinner, while sometimes too hard-boiled to swallow, is an admirable hero.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Edinburgh's Assistant Chief Constable Robert Skinner investigates an explosion that kills a man during the city's annual Festival of the Arts. A second murder points him in the direction of a team of terrorists whose agenda threatens Scotland's reputation. A solid follow-up to the promising Skinner's Rules (LJ
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st U.S. ed edition (April 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312118929
• ISBN-13: 978-0312118921
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,091,460 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 stars - Better than good., April 6, 2005

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Skinner's Festival (Bob Skinner Mysteries) (Paperback)

The plot is good, the dialogue excellent, the chapters' advance the action, and sense of place is very well done. The only slight problem is that the character of Skinner, the antithesis of Ian Rankin's Rebus, is so perfect it's almost irritating. Even so, the series is well done and exciting, and one I recommend.