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FUNERAL NOTE
by Quintin Jardine
Headline, May 2012
400 pages
19.99 GBP
ISBN: 0755356950


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The series featuring Edinburgh policeman Bob Skinner has now been running for twenty years. During that time, Skinner has risen from being a detective chief superintendent to the heady heights of Chief Constable. Despite that success, Skinner is very much a flawed hero. He's arrogant, cruel at times, and has a dark side that is still capable of rising to the surface, but he's also a good father, a good friend and a damn good policeman.

Jardine has chosen to tell this particular tale in a very different way from previous books. It is told wholly in the first person, from the point of view of numerous different people, from Skinner himself, to his close friend and confidante, Andy Martin; trusted colleague, Mario Maguire; Skinner's wife, former first minister, Aileen de Marco and numerous others. At first, I was dubious about this method of storytelling, but as the story progressed, the changes of narrator started to flow seamlessly from one to the next and I became increasingly engrossed in the insights into the hearts and minds of both Bob Skinner himself and those around him.

The two main elements of the story, the hunt for the identity of a corpse and the investigation into the activities of a corrupt policeman, are relatively thin in comparison to some of Jardine's stories, but much of the interest in this book comes from seeing Skinner through the eyes of so many people. Let's face it, I doubt anybody who isn't already a fan of Bob Skinner would be reading this, even though the author talks directly to readers new and old in the Forward. But I presume new readers do come along, even this late, and maybe there is enough interest here to hook them. For all his faults, and Big Bob has plenty of those, he's never boring, especially not when his private life is starting to get tangled again. His ex-wife, Sarah Grace, has returned to her old job in Edinburgh, working on corpses, and this very quickly brings her back into contact with Skinner.

By now, the series has turned into something of a soap opera, but I am as caught up in the characters as ever I was, and so the thin plot is not a problem. I'm probably reading more for the characters now than I am for the plot. As ever, the action hots up in the closing stages, but whilst I can understand why Jardine stopped where he did, presumably for maximum impact, I still felt short-changed by the ending, although I can't help thinking that was exactly what he intended.

Even after twenty years, there's life in the old dog yet. I want to know what happens next in Skinner's life and career and I hope the wait for the next book in the series isn't too long.

§ Linda Wilson is a writer, and retired solicitor, with an interest in archaeology and cave art, who now divides her time between England and France.

Reviewed by Linda Wilson, July 2012

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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