The Roots of Evil - Bob Skinner, Bk 32 Author:Quintin Jardine The Roots of Evil is the thirty-second instalment in the retired Chief Constable Bob Skinner series, set in Edinburgh. — It's New Year's Eve 2020 and Sir Robert Morgan Skinner and his wife Professor Sarah Grace, along with daughter Alex and her live-in boyfriend, Dominic Jackson, are celebrating at Harcourt Golf Club in West Lothian... more ». The party return home not long after midnight having indulged in all the "eat, drink and be merry" attitude they can muster. Even still, Skinner's heart sinks when his phone rings and it's Deputy Chief Constable Mario Maguire on the other end requesting his presence at a fresh crime scene in the heart of Edinburgh.
Although technically retired from the police force, he is still very much respected and his knowledge, experience and mentoring hugely valued. When the car sent to collect him pulls up at the scene he's flabbergasted; a car has been abandoned outside Torpichen Police Station with two men, who appear to have been shot dead, inside. But he is rocked to his core when the victims are identified as Terry Coates, a former Strathclyde Detective and Inspector Griffin Montell, known to Skinner primarily as daughter Alex's on/off lover. Can Skinner help get to the bottom of the double murder of two of their own?« less