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Created page with "{{infobox |title=A Rush of Blood (Bob Skinner Mysteries) |sort=Rush of Blood (Bob Skinner Mysteries) |author=Quintin Jardine |reviewer=Sue Magee |genre=Crime |summary=It's the..."
{{infobox
|title=A Rush of Blood (Bob Skinner Mysteries)
|sort=Rush of Blood (Bob Skinner Mysteries)
|author=Quintin Jardine
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=It's the twentieth book in this long-running series and Qunitin Jardine is doing well to keep the stories fresh and current. A very readable story with some unexpected twists.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=512/13h35m
|publisher=Headline
|date=February 2011
|isbn=978-0755357666
|website=http://www.quintinjardine.com/
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755357663</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0755357663</amazonus>
}}

Suicides are no surprise to the police in Edinburgh, but when the death is of a successful Lithuanian entrepreneur with everything to live for they're naturally suspicious, particularly when the autopsy fails to come up with any reason why the man was ready to take his own life. Bob Skinner, the newly appointed Chief Constable, and his team have had dealings with the businessman before and it would be easy, possibly even sensible, to accept that this was a suicide, but Skinner demands more and more investigations even when CID can't ''quite'' see where he's going with this one.

There is a distraction: a young girl, probably in her mid teens but drugged and insensible is dumped at a doctors' surgery by a young man who promptly disappears. Who is he, and where had he gone? But more importantly, who is the girl and where has she come from? Strangest of all, is it a coincidence that just about all the massage parlours in the city have closed, virtually overnight?

It's a complex story with plenty of twists and turns and an unexpected denouement. Skinner is settling into the Chief's job, but it's already evident that he's going to be a very different beast to his predecessor, Sir James Proud. He's decidedly more hands on than you would expect from most Chief Constables and I did find that it was necessary to suspend disbelief on this point, but it does work up to a thrilling finish. It's bang up to the minute in terms of themes, such as people trafficking, which it covers and gives an insight into the horrors which must lurk beneath the surfaces of many a major city. It was a good, gripping story.

Because of a vision problem I've been restricting the amount of reading that I do and I've listened to the Skinner books as audio downloads, all of which I've bought myself. They're narrated by James Bryce who's nobly taken on the task of telling a story which is heavily populated by middle-aged, middle class Scotsmen and somehow giving them all individual voices - and that is no mean feat. As soon as I finish one, I buy the next download!

[[Quintin Jardine's Bob Skinner Novels in Chronological Order]]

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{{amazontext|amazon=0755357663}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=0755357663}}

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