Showing results by narrator "James Bryce" in All Categories

All six episodes of the gloriously gritty comedy crime drama. Taggart meets A Touch of Cloth in this parody police procedural featuring DI Bob Boxer and his sidekick DC Shona Doberman. They're an unlikely couple of cops - he's grizzled, old-school and wears a cardigan; she's young, instinctive and wields a Blackberry. But together they tackle cases so tough, they'd make Frost flinch and Rebus run away.... 

From acclaimed author Quintin Jardine comes the latest gripping mystery in his bestselling Bob Skinner series. Amidst a family celebration, a cataclysmic storm uncovers long-buried horrors - and a team of detectives struggle to solve a thirty-year-old double murder. The police are also searching...

Bob Skinner may be Chief Constable no more but he's indispensable to Scotland's police force when it comes to cracking the toughest cases. It's not just the brilliant detective work - it's the absolute determination to unearth the truth and see justice done. And Bob Skinner doesn't care whose toes he treads on as he pursues the guilty.

From acclaimed author Quintin Jardine comes the latest gripping mystery in his bestselling Bob Skinner series, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Peter May Praise for Quintin Jardine's Bob Skinner series: 'A highly charged, fast-moving crime thriller' HERALD 'Scottish crime-writing at its finest...

It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Pining for adventure, Newby sent his friend Hugh Carless the now-famous cable - CAN YOU TRAVEL NURISTAN JUNE? - setting in motion a legendary journey from Mayfair to Afghanistan, and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, northeast of Kabul. Inexperienced and ill prepared (their preparations involved nothing more than some tips from a Welsh waitress), the amateurish rogues embarked on a month of adventure and hardship in one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth. 

On his 44th birthday, Eric Newby sets out on an incredible journey: to travel the 1,200-mile length of India's holy river. In a misguided attempt to keep him out of trouble, Wanda, his lifelong travel companion and wife, is to be his fellow boatwoman. Their plan is to begin in the great plain of Hardwar and finish in the Bay of Bengal, but the journey almost immediately becomes markedly slower and more treacherous than either had imagined - running aground 63 times in the first six days.

When millionaire Leo Speight is found poisoned at his Ayrshire mansion, Police Scotland has a tough case on its hands. The charismatic young Speight was a champion boxer with national hero status. A long list of lovers and friends stand to benefit from his estate. Did one of them decide to speed things up? Or was jealousy or rivalry the motive? Suspecting links to organised crime, the Security Service wants to stay close to the investigation. They have just the man to send in: ex-Chief Constable Bob Skinner.

The killing was an expert hit. Three shots through the head, as the lights dimmed at a celebrity concert in Glasgow. A most public crime, and Edinburgh Chief Constable Bob Skinner is right in the centre of the storm. The crisis finds Skinner, his private life shattered by the shocking end of his marriage, taking a step that he had sworn he never would. Tasked by Scotland's First Minister with the investigation, he finds himself quickly uncovering some very murky deeds...

'The legendary Quintin Jardine . . . such a fine writer' DENZIL MEYRICK The gripping new mystery in the bestselling Bob Skinner series from the acclaimed Quintin Jardine. His native Scotland stands on the cusp of a new era of international expansion under its charismatic new leader, but former...

When struggling ex-copper Terry Coats was discovered in bed with an air hostess, his excuse that he was 'going undercover' cut no ice with the force - or his wife. But now he's been brutally killed on Hogmanay night, it seems there may have been more to his plea. Dragged from the New Year celebrations, Special Constable Sir Bob Skinner is shocked to find Coats' body alongside that of Griff Montell: his erstwhile protégé and former lover of Skinner's own daughter, Alex. Could there be some dark truth under Coats' cock-and-bull story, after all? 

As Deputy Chief Constable Bob Skinner takes an evening stroll with Louise Banks, an old flame and now a film star, it seems his biggest worry is that a new colleague is scheming to enlarge his territory at Skinner's expense. But when a frightening shot-gun attack sends them diving for cover, it seems danger has chosen to zero in on him once again.

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?

Every August thousands of tourists and performers flood into Edinburgh for its famous festival. But this year, on the very first day, an explosion rocks Princes Street, and a man is killed. A few hours later, a threatening letter is delivered to the Secretary of State – apparently from a freedom group – demanding political separation from England. Assistant Chief Constable Bob Skinner, head of CID, quickly assembles his team, with SAS backup.

Fifteen years in the past, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Bob Skinner is called to investigate a most brutal death. A man lies at the deep end of an empty swimming pool, his neck broken and almost every other bone in his body shattered. Soon, an organised-crime connection looms, and bloody retribution spreads to a second city. Then violence erupts on a new front, as a vicious knifeman seems to be targeting Edinburgh's gay population.

As head of Edinburgh’s CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Skinner has seen it all…but even he is shocked by the savagely mutilated corpse discovered in a dark alleyway. The victim is identified as a successful young lawyer, and the motive for the brutal death remains a mystery. Then further seemingly random killings in the city begin to suggest a vicious serial killer on the rampage. But when the lawyer’s fiancée is also murdered, Skinner realises that someone is in deadly earnest.

The gripping new mystery in Quintin Jardine's bestselling Bob Skinner series. Sir Robert Skinner's stock is rising - after retiring from the police service he's been promoted to head an international media organisation. Yet a series of unexplained deaths on his home turf in Scotland threaten to...

Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner is long out of the police force, but trouble has a habit of following him around. So it is that he finds himself in the Palace of Westminster as a shocking act befalls the nation. Hours before the Prime Minster is due to make a controversial statement, she is discovered in her office with a letter opener driven through her skull. Is the act political? Personal? Or even one of terror? Skinner is swiftly enlisted by the Security Service to lead the investigation.

It's August and the Edinburgh International Book Festival is in full swing. The world of books is focused on Charlotte Square Gardens, so it's a considerable embarrassment when a successful crime writer, and key member of the Scottish Parliament, is found dead in the author tent. But is it natural causes? DCC Bob Skinner, on the edge of a career-defining moment, doesn't need this in his life.

The 30th gritty mystery in Quintin Jardine's bestselling Bob Skinner series, not to be missed by readers of Ian Rankin and Peter May. Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner may have left the police service, but he's never far from a case. When his old mentor on the force, Jimmy Proud, finds himself in a desperate situation, Skinner gets pulled into a murder investigation that's been closed for 30 years.

Assistant Chief Constable Bob Skinner's legendary cool is shaken when he's faced with the bodies of his wife's parents, who have been brutally murdered. At the death scene in New York state, Skinner's out of his jurisdiction - but he's not going to let that stop him shaping the investigation.