Skinner's Ghosts

Bob Skinner #7

by Quintin Jardine

Skinner faces the greatest, most personal tests of his career in this gripping crime thriller.

Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner could be forgiven for thinking not only that someone up there doesn't like him, but that someone down here is out to get him. Suffering the strain of a marriage on the rocks, the last thing he needs is for his private life to be plastered across the front pages of a sleazy tabloid. To make matters worse, two brutal murders and new allegations about Skinner himself make simultaneous headlines. Unless he can clear his name and uncover the secret behind the series of brutal crimes, he stands to lose everything: his family, his career and even his life and liberty.

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Audiobook, Fiction, Detective

415 pages, Paperback

First published March 12, 1998

About the author

Quintin Jardine (born 1945) is a Scottish author of three series of crime novels, featuring the fictional characters Bob Skinner, Oz Blackstone, and Primavera Blackstone. He was educated in Motherwell and in Glasgow where he studied at what was then the city’s only University. After career as a journalist, government information officer and media relations consultant, he took to the creation of crime fiction.

His first wife, Irene, with whom he shared over 30 years, from their teens, died in 1997. He is married, to his second wife, Eileen. They live in both Scotland and in Spain

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

boring, all about big money

[Harold Walters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think I'll rush to find another Bob Skinner yarn but I might buy one if I happen upon it at a flea market.

[Laraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. The seventh book in Jardine's excellent Bob Skinner series was a very good read. After the 6th, when Skinner was going through marital problems and seemed to be embarking on a mid-life crisis, I was none too pleased with DC Bob Skinner. Bob.s wife is in the US with his baby son and Bob is still enamored with Pamela. When his private life makes the tabloids, Bob gets angry. But when a woman linked to Bob is killed in a particularly brutal way and her wee son kidnapped, Bob sees red. Another crime happens linked to Bob and soon there appears to be someone out to get him, to tarnish his professional reputation the way his personal reputation was tarnished. It could be an inside job, or someone with a vendetta against him, or could Bob perhaps be a dirty cop? Getting to the bottom of it and finding two missing children and the monster who took them keeps Bob busy. A very good read and interesting until the end.

[Siobhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skinner’s Ghosts is book seven in Quintin Jardine’s Bob Skinner series, and I am now calling it quits with the series. While there were small moments of enjoyment in the first five books, I never came to love the series. With book six, I found myself super annoyed with the way things played out on the personal level for the characters. With book seven, the annoyance grew and gave too much of the things I dislike.

For me, my biggest problem is that these books have not aged well in the way that women are written. It is not just the fact that they are all without personality. It is the fact that they are made to seem weak in the way they just accept the questionable behaviour of the men. I would have possibly been able to overlook my annoyance with the way the personal story developed had it not taken up so much of the book, but the aspects that I disliked were impossible to ignore. It took away from the interesting elements to the point where I felt like the crime elements were repeatedly forgotten about to allow us to focus on personal drama. If readers have been enjoying the personal elements throughout, then they are sure to find enjoyment in this seventh book. For me, this is one of those cases where I did not care about the overarching personal story - in fact, it was leaving me annoyed.

All in all, I think it is safe to say this series is not for me. I have tried, but my enjoyment has not been increasing. Despite what people at work keep telling me, I won’t be continuing to see if the way women are handled does improve. There are other Scottish crime series that I enjoy a lot more, and I’ll be sticking to those.

[ElaineY · Rating 5 out of 5]

[b]REVIEW OF AUDIOBOOK; MAY 6, 2019
Narrator: James Bryce[/b]

This series is uneven in pacing from book to book and within each book, too. I tend to listen for awhile, get bored, move to something else, before returning. Such was the case for the book before this one,Skinner's Mission, where the police investigation revolves around the fire at a car showroom belonging to Jackie Charles, and where we see Skinner's marriage on the rocks as he obsesses over the cause of his first wife's death.

I'm glad I persisted and finished Skinner's Mission #6 as it was needed to understand the events that unfold in Skinner's Ghosts #7 and #7 held my attention right to the very end, leaving me satisfied, if rather exhausted. A major portion of the story is on Skinner's private affairs but the author manages to intertwine it with the scheme to destroy to Skinner.

[Alenka Demar · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Not a review, just a few thoughts of mine] This was the first time I guessed the villain, or at least, one of them early in the book. Having skipped book no. 6 of the series and thoroughly suffering because of it, it just seemed so obvious or maybe it was something else that gave it away. I still need to get ahold of the one I didn't read as it carries a lot of vital information on the death of Skinner's first wife.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another page turner and my last in the Bob Skinner mysteries. I’ve read them all in the wrong order.
An MP is found murdered in a particularly cruel way and her 6 year old son is missing feared kidnapped. Skinner is on the receiving end of a bad tabloid story about him and his current girlfriend, police officer Pam Masters. Someone is setting him up for corruption.
The Scottish Secretary of State’s wife is murdered-shots dead at point blank range and her daughter abducted.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an OK read. I picked it off the shelf in a holiday cottage and wasn't overwhelmed. The crime/detective aspect of it was good and I'm happy to admit I didn't see the end coming. The romantic parts were difficult to read - I found it very OTT and a bit ridiculous. There was a lot of women rubbing their faces in their partner's chest (which was odd) and the speech in those scenes was strange.

It was an easy enough read despite being 400 pages but I wouldn't rush to pick another one up.

[Pat Duran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the story and characters. The one thing, and it's just a personal preference, is the constant use of 'Christ!' as an exclamation by various characters. It was overdone, as if for shock value. I like the way Skinner is depicted as not only a good cop, but one with a ruthless side to him.

[E.R. Yatscoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Procedural investigation yarn. No action. Plenty of politics with gov't and police dept. and back and forth. This is Scottish so I was out to lunch on dept, hierarchy and protocols. Protagonists is alright. Generally well written but kind a boring. A good twist near the end. A clearance pile book. My crime novels are better, so says my book club

[Christopher Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written, Jardine is definitely back on form!

You spend the whole book wondering. Then you think yes, that’s it, the he puts you off the scent and off you go for another few pages.

A real page turner!

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

[AC · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so slow. I picked it up on a sale table at a book store and it's been sitting on my shelf for quite a while since then because I was never drawn to it. I feel like this book is a product of its time. The women in this book are written exactly like what I imagine men THINK women are like. The build up was very slow for a lackluster payoff. Not my thing, was very hard to get through.

Also potential spoiler so stop reading here if you want - but there was a weird incest plot within the last like 10 pages that was just glossed over?? Like no one seemed as shocked as they should have been about incest???

In the end, this book was a lot more effort to finish than I would have liked to put into it, but I kept hoping for something to come of it and it never did.

[Afsana · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved the twists and turns in the book- surprised ending and loved the way the book ended

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.This series just keeps getting better and better.Great characters and good storyline.This series is well worth reading.

[Ian Petrie]

This series just gets better and better. I've read the first seven and can't wait to read the eighth. Pleased that the series stretches to thirty and who's counting. I love the way the characters featured in each book are so vividly developing and one of my favourites returning. 5 stars from me.