Quintin Jardine

Quintin Jardine was born once upon a time in the West  – of Scotland rather than America – but still he grew to manhood as a massive Sergio Leone fan. On the way there he was educated, against his will, in Glasgow, where he ditched a token attempt to study law for more interesting careers in journalism, government propaganda and political spin-doctoring.

After a close call with the Brighton bomb in 1984, Quintin moved into the even riskier world of media relations consultancy, before realising that all along he had been training to become a crime writer. Now, 40 novels later, he never looks back. His three series feature respectively top Scottish cop Bob Skinner, unwilling detective Oz Blackstone, and Oz’s feisty ex Primavera.

He began work on an escape tunnel out of Motherwell in 1968; he surfaced briefly in Hamilton, but, realising very quickly that he had been heading in the wrong direction, resumed digging and three years later arrived in Gullane, East Lothian, where he has lived ever since. In recent years he has put down a second set of roots – a physically nonsensical metaphor, but you know what he means – in L’Escala, the only north-facing town on the Catalan Costa Brava.

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Books by Quintin Jardine