Fatal Last Words Book

August in Edinburgh: as Skinner stands on the edge of a career-defining moment and his fiancée—Scotland's First Minister Aileen de Marco—faces a political crisis, one of Scotland's most successful crime writers is found dead at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. As the mystery deepens, Skinner finds himself crossing swords with an old enemy from the past, while his investigating detectives are faced with the unwelcome complication of a duke’s junkie daughter. Meanwhile a second Scottish celebrity dies violently in Australia. It seems impossible, but could the two be connected? As DCS Mario McGuire heads to Melbourne to investigate, back in Scotland his boss’s big moment is compromised in the most dramatic and unexpected manner, as a famous friendship is shattered forever.

Publishers Weekly

At the outset of Jardine's 19th Bob Skinner mystery, one of the stronger entries in this hard-hitting police series (Aftershock, etc.), Skinner is about to be appointed chief constable, a promotion that will coincide with his wedding to Scotland's leader, First Minister Aileen de Marco. When a leading mystery author, Ainsley Glover, turns up dead at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the cause is initially believed to be an accidental, or self-inflicted, overdose of glucose. The case becomes one of murder after the medical examiner discovers Glover was injected with a paralyzing drug—and it rapidly becomes politically sensitive after the police learn Skinner's former boss, ex-politician Bruce Anderson, not only argued with the victim shortly before Glover's demise but lied about his whereabouts at the critical time. Keeping track of all the supporting characters and their personal relationships isn't always easy, but Jardine more than makes up for that with a nice surprise ending. (Dec.)