![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
quintin jardine - a rush of blood
Quintin Jardine – A Rush of Blood
Series or stand alone: book 20(!) in the Bob Skinner mysteries.
Genre: crime, thriller, mystery, police procedural
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 436
Reason for reading: I have an addiction to Scottish crime novels. This series is set in Edinburgh and second only, in my opinion, to Lin Anderson’s books. Anderson wins over Jardine as she bases her books in and around Glasgow, which I know the geography of way better than Edinburgh. And she writes a bit better than Jardine, too, but more on that later.
Cover: I have no idea what this cover represents. I don’t remember any tenement-esque staircases being in the book.
Blurb from back of book: The horrific suicide of a successful Lithuanian entrepreneur shocks newly appointed Chief Constable Bob Skinner and his colleagues. 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?
A terrifying trail of deception and revenge leads Skinner and his people to a bloody encounter and a dramatic confrontation...
First line: The man knelt on the crest of the hilltop, facing the full moon as it bathed the city below in a light that would have been purest silver, but for the distortion of the sodium street lighting.
Verdict: good
A definite improvement from the previous two or three Skinner novels, this one puts Jardine almost back at the top of his game.
Thoughts: I’ve yet to find another author with a writing style like Jardine’s. His chapters are often barely two pages long, his writing can be a bit clunky on occasion thanks to the fact there are nineteen books worth of previous back-story which has to be sifted through and I get the impression that he uses the character if Skinner to shoe-horn in his own political and world views. But you know what? I don’t care. Not one bit. This was a great mystery, one which I never figured out.
Jardine flicks between the perspectives of all of the characters, and there are a lot of characters, as each chapter changes, which really keep the pace going. And I’m always amazed that they do all eventually merge into a single coherent story. I do think that Jardine has started to sleep walk (sleep write?) through his novels. At no point was there a sense of peril or a sense that any of the characters were in danger. Jardine is not shy about killing off characters, a few books ago one of the best loved coppers became a cropper and in his other series of books, he killed the main character putting a rather abrupt end to that. Maybe he took a step back from that aspect here, I don’t know. I just feel like something is lacking in the writing, especially when compared to others in the Scottish crime genre.
Don’t get me wrong, though, I love the books, mainly for the characters. Skinner does seem a bit superhuman at times and I wonder how realistic it is for the Chief Constable himself to be swanning off to crime scenes and such but then where’s the fun if he, and therefore the reader, is stuck behind a desk doing paperwork? It’s nothing if not entertaining. I’ve enjoyed the growth of the characters through these twenty books, which in timeline terms is approximately a ten year passing, not just in the police force but in their private lives. Jardine really does have a knack for giving us just enough background information without drowning us in scenes of domesticity.
A fun and entertaining read which is maybe a bit on the implausible side. I can’t wait for the next one.
Interesting aside: it occurred to me when reading this, that I’ve been a fan of QJ for a decade. I started reading this series when I was thirteen and here I am, still eagerly awaiting the next instalment. It also means that I’ve had a literary crush on Skinner for the same amount of time. It must be the silver fox vibe he gives off. Some of the other characters are definitely swoon-worthy too. They’re all charmers with attitude and wit. Gets me every time.
Currently reading: Lin Anderson’s The Reborn, which has creepy clowns and creepy dolls. I’m currently mildly freaked out.
Series or stand alone: book 20(!) in the Bob Skinner mysteries.
Genre: crime, thriller, mystery, police procedural
Copyright: 2010
Pages: 436
Reason for reading: I have an addiction to Scottish crime novels. This series is set in Edinburgh and second only, in my opinion, to Lin Anderson’s books. Anderson wins over Jardine as she bases her books in and around Glasgow, which I know the geography of way better than Edinburgh. And she writes a bit better than Jardine, too, but more on that later.
Cover: I have no idea what this cover represents. I don’t remember any tenement-esque staircases being in the book.
Blurb from back of book: The horrific suicide of a successful Lithuanian entrepreneur shocks newly appointed Chief Constable Bob Skinner and his colleagues. 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?
A terrifying trail of deception and revenge leads Skinner and his people to a bloody encounter and a dramatic confrontation...
First line: The man knelt on the crest of the hilltop, facing the full moon as it bathed the city below in a light that would have been purest silver, but for the distortion of the sodium street lighting.
Verdict: good
A definite improvement from the previous two or three Skinner novels, this one puts Jardine almost back at the top of his game.
Thoughts: I’ve yet to find another author with a writing style like Jardine’s. His chapters are often barely two pages long, his writing can be a bit clunky on occasion thanks to the fact there are nineteen books worth of previous back-story which has to be sifted through and I get the impression that he uses the character if Skinner to shoe-horn in his own political and world views. But you know what? I don’t care. Not one bit. This was a great mystery, one which I never figured out.
Jardine flicks between the perspectives of all of the characters, and there are a lot of characters, as each chapter changes, which really keep the pace going. And I’m always amazed that they do all eventually merge into a single coherent story. I do think that Jardine has started to sleep walk (sleep write?) through his novels. At no point was there a sense of peril or a sense that any of the characters were in danger. Jardine is not shy about killing off characters, a few books ago one of the best loved coppers became a cropper and in his other series of books, he killed the main character putting a rather abrupt end to that. Maybe he took a step back from that aspect here, I don’t know. I just feel like something is lacking in the writing, especially when compared to others in the Scottish crime genre.
Don’t get me wrong, though, I love the books, mainly for the characters. Skinner does seem a bit superhuman at times and I wonder how realistic it is for the Chief Constable himself to be swanning off to crime scenes and such but then where’s the fun if he, and therefore the reader, is stuck behind a desk doing paperwork? It’s nothing if not entertaining. I’ve enjoyed the growth of the characters through these twenty books, which in timeline terms is approximately a ten year passing, not just in the police force but in their private lives. Jardine really does have a knack for giving us just enough background information without drowning us in scenes of domesticity.
A fun and entertaining read which is maybe a bit on the implausible side. I can’t wait for the next one.
Interesting aside: it occurred to me when reading this, that I’ve been a fan of QJ for a decade. I started reading this series when I was thirteen and here I am, still eagerly awaiting the next instalment. It also means that I’ve had a literary crush on Skinner for the same amount of time. It must be the silver fox vibe he gives off. Some of the other characters are definitely swoon-worthy too. They’re all charmers with attitude and wit. Gets me every time.
Currently reading: Lin Anderson’s The Reborn, which has creepy clowns and creepy dolls. I’m currently mildly freaked out.