Perplexing is indeed the word for this mystery. Jardine, in his 15th addition to the series, has, in my opinion, betrayed two of his main characters--Bob and Sarah. In this book, he has them both declaring that they never really loved one another; yet if you read the books in the beginning of the series, that makes a lie out of the statement. He further insults the reader by giving Bob a new love interest that makes you scratch your head in wonderment--the two of them have no chemistry together. Jardine then states that Bob has never gotten over his dead wife inspite of the fact that she was chronically unfaithful and disloyal--and Bob is a person that values the truth and loyalty. I discovered Jardine's Skinner series many years ago on a trip to Scotland. I've eagerly ordered them from Amazon.UK and pushed our local library to buy them, however, I think now, unless Jardine does something spectacular with the series and puts some depth into his characterizations, this may be the last book I buy or read of his. His characters are not all likeable (especially Bob's self-centered daugher Alexa), but they should grow and they should grow within their character's attributes. It cheats the reader when an author takes a character in a direction (which Jardine has been doing in the last three books) that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the whole series.
