Skinner's Festival Book

Set in Edinburgh during the annual festival. Assistant chief constable Bob Skinner is the head of CID and also a security advisor to the Secretary of State for Scotland. A bomb explodes in a marque killing one person. Written threats are received from the Freedom Fighters for an Independent Scotland. The situation quickly escalates and the death toll rises. Bob Skinner is a strong character and is rather too hands-on for a senior police officer and rather takes over the whole story.

The story has a downward spiral as it becomes more an Army shoot out that policing of a festival. Bob spends a lot of his time having sex with his wife out of context with the story. The violence is too great to complement the story and rather graphic in places. The book becomes more like American cops and robbers as the death toll rises.

A good angle to have the story set among the festival and all its many mainstream and fringe events. I thought the author became caught up in shoot outs with little thought for public safety. The politicians were much as you might expect, inept and self-centred.

An easy read and worth 3 stars.