Game Over
Quintin Jardine
Headline 2017
440 pages

Game Over, the 2017 Bob Skinner mystery novel by Quintin Jardine, will please the author’s long-time fans. It is however not the thriller to introduce a new reader to Jardine’s series. There are too many characters to keep track of. Familiarity with who the main characters are helps understand some of the dynamics. Kindle at Amazon: Game Over (Bob Skinner series, Book 27): A gritty Edinburgh mystery full of murder and intrigue

Quintin Jardine has an odd sense of humor with character names right out of the Clue board game: DCI Pye and DS “Sauce” Haddock, and secondary characters named Baker, Pyke, Flowers, and Mustard. However, the biggest herring to swallow is how interconnected all the characters are in this mystery: The DCI is living with the daughter of the owner of the football club whose manager is the main suspect in the murder of the star player’s wife; Bob Skinner is living with the medical examiner in the case while his daughter is the lawyer for the manager; and all these people see nothing wrong with discussing the case between themselves. Skinner is also the silent partner in the local news outlet so he can plant stories to move things along.

All this requires a great dose of willing suspension of disbelief this mystery novel reader could not readily provide.