Quintin Jardine

Quintin Jardine is Scotland's primo Crime Writer. Ian Rankin and he seem to rank at the top of that genre as far as can be told from across the pond. They're both a bit more old world than American crime writers. Their characters have more depth and the plots seem just a bit more twisted in more ways than one. W.E.B. Griffith's Badge of Honor series is an interesting constrast in police procedure to Quintin Jardine's Edinborough police chief Bob Skinner series Reading both one gets a feel for the hierarchies and obligations of duty and relationships on different forces. Jardine's characters are endearingly warm and neighbourly and more reminiscient of the real life Canadian police I've known than the slick or tough or para military police often portrayed in American TV crime fiction.
In Skinner's Round, Bob Skinner is almost grandfatherly, married to Sarah, the coroner doctor with their new baby, Jazz and a difficult talented young woman daughter from his former marriage. Skinner's Round starts with the murder of golf course owner Michael White, found with his throat slit in a jacuzzi at the opening of the Witch's Hill golf course. An ancient curse appearing in the newspaper sends Detective Rose off on a fascinating historical investigation that shadows the grizzly plot that unfolds during the Golf pro series. I couldn't help but think this would be the best gift for any golfer who likes crime fiction as the suspense built up in the golf game parallels the murder investigation. I found it an intriguing read and very much enjoyed that I never saw the ending coming. Truly a grand who dunnit as well as everything else!

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order. P.D. James 1920 -