Showing results by author "Quintin Jardine" in Modern Detectives

A small time crook stumbles upon a body hanging from a tree; a veteran from a Belgian marching band is killed in a hit and run incident and another dies of an apparent heart attack.

When Private Enquiry Agent Oz Blackstone opens the door of the flat in Ebeneezer Street, the sight that greets him isn't quite what he's looking for. Diminutive stockbroker Willie Kane - reclining on the bed with a large knife still embedded in him - is clearly no longer in a position to assist Oz in recovering the 900 grand he's stolen and secreted in a numbered Swiss bank account.

Four Albanian gangsters have infiltrated Edinburgh. They are smart guys, ruthless operators and deep undercover. MI5 are on their case and, unknown to DCC Bob Skinner and his men, they have set up a drug-dealing sting to flush the gangsters out.

It's August and the Edinburgh International Book Festival is in full swing. The world of books is focused on Charlotte Square Gardens, so it's a considerable embarrassment when a successful crime writer, and key member of the Scottish Parliament, is found dead in the author tent. But is it natural causes? DCC Bob Skinner, on the edge of a career-defining moment, doesn't need this in his life.

Oz Blackstone, enormously wealthy screen hero and sleuth, dies of a ruptured aorta. Her mind still filled with thoughts of her dead ex-husband, Primavera Blackstone is in Spain with their son Tom when their peace is breached again with the arrival of her formidable aunt, Adrienne McGowan, whose son, Frank, has disappeared.

Bob Skinner may be Chief Constable no more but he's indispensable to Scotland's police force when it comes to cracking the toughest cases. It's not just the brilliant detective work - it's the absolute determination to unearth the truth and see justice done. And Bob Skinner doesn't care whose toes he treads on as he pursues the guilty.

For Oz Blackstone, his days as a Private Enquiry Agent could soon be over. An undercover stint as a TV wrestling master of ceremonies has convinced him that he may have hidden theatrical talent - and now he's got a taste for the spotlight. So, the chance of a bit part in a movie seems like an offer he can't refuse - even though his own life is fast developing a dramatic storyline of its own.

It's summertime in Monaco and Oz Blackstone, now an international film star, is sitting on the verandah of his opulent mansion gazing idly at luxury yachts in the harbour. Life doesn't get much better than this. But somebody knows where he lives, and the demons of the past begin to creep up on Oz's sunny life.

Oz Blackstone didn't go looking for fame - it jumped out of an alleyway and mugged him with a fistful of high-denomination notes. When he recovered, he found that he was a movie star, married to a successful businesswoman and about to leap into the Big Time. But life could never be that sweet.

For Oz Blackstone and Primavera Philips, the idea to forget their troubled past by returning to L'Escala, the idyllic Spanish village where they were once so happy, is not working out. A body turns up in the swimming pool of their new villa, and they are suddenly very much back in harness again.

Oz Blackstone is enjoying the success of his latest smash-hit movie. He's moving into a big country house near Loch Lomond with his gorgeous wife Suzie Gantry, who has twice been named Scottish Businesswoman of the Year. They have the lifestyle of everyone's dreams. But when blackmailers threaten Oz's father with a particularly sleazy scam, the dream begins to turn into a nightmare. Oz gets paint thrown at him during the premiere of his movie and then an incendiary bomb is sent to his wife's offices.

When Oz Blackstone is offered a major role in a cop movie shooting in Edinburgh, he cannot resist. The self-professed "luckiest man on the planet" sees himself heading for stardom and wealth, but his marriage to Primavera is on the rocks. On the other hand, a brief encounter with the beautiful, self-possessed Susie Gantry is turning into something more long term. Life looks like a bowl of cherries until ex-lover Alison Goodchild turns up asking for a favor.

Newly married to his childhood sweetheart and happily settled in Glasgow, private enquiry agent Oz Blackstone is looking for some excitement. And when he’s introduced to the seven-foot, granite muscled figure of Everett Davis, champion wrestler and head for the Global Wrestling Alliance, he knows he’s found it.The GWA’s televised tour of Europe has been dogged by inexplicable technical hitches and terrifying accidents in the ring.