Publisher's Weekly Review
Soap opera threatens to trump police procedure in Jardine's 20th mystery featuring Bob Skinner, now Scotland's chief constable (after 2009's superior Fatal Last Words). When entrepreneur and thug Tomas Zaliukas turns up on a frozen hill outside Edinburgh, the top of his head blown off and a sawn-off shotgun in his right hand, Skinner and his team investigate to rule out foul play. In the first of many coincidences, Zaliukas's widow, Regine, whose decampment to France might have led the dead man to kill himself, places Skinner's daughter, Alexis, a newly made partner in her law firm, in charge of Zaliukas's companies, which include a string of massage parlors. Meanwhile, professional thieves are targeting golf courses. The merger of the disparate plot lines may strike some readers as forced, and newcomers will find the byzantine backstories of Skinner's underlings and their personal relationships heavy slogging. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
In Bob Skinner's 20th (Fatal Last Words,2009, etc.), Scotland's top cop takes on Scotland's top crook.Retired at last, Jimmy Proud has gone a'golfing. (Hey, it's Scotland.) At the top of the ladder now, Skinner, Edinburgh's newest Chief Constable, is also at the top of his game, though there are days when his 50-year-old body begs to differ. Or so he says. The truth is that the man is pure intimidation whenever he wants to be, whether he's dealing with one of the bent or one of his own. The exception, of course, remains his beautiful, brainy, willful daughter Alexis, who's much more likely to scare Skinner than the other way around. Now that Alex has made partner in a big-time Edinburgh law firm, father and daughter suddenly find themselves in intersecting orbits. Tommy Zale, a client of Alex's firm, is discovered dead, an apparent suicide. Skinner is skeptical. To begin with, tough Tommy just isn't the type. Besides, that trusty cop's nose has picked up a whiff of something messy, something Skinner wants Alex to have no part of. Reluctantly, she backs off, leaving him free to cope with a villain so devious, resourceful and ruthless that he's unsettlingly recognizableas the mirror image of a Skinner gone bad.Skinner, terrific fun as always, can't quite redeem a procedural nearly 400 pages long with a tendency to plod.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
When Thomas Zale, a former organized crime leader and now a successful businessman, commits suicide, newly appointed Edinburgh Chief Constable Skinner, who knew the man, wants a through investigation. Skinner's niggling doubt leads to a number of separate lines of inquiry, which in turn result in several murders. VERDICT In his 20th series entry (after Fatal Last Words), Jardine displays his mastery at following the various police detectives during their questioning of people while adding details of their private lives. The result is a perfect read for those who love the police procedural genre. Ed McBain and Dell Shannon give similar attention to the lives of the officers. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.