Quintin Jardine

Biography Jardine was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, and educated at the High School of Glasgow and Glasgow University, where he studied law but did not graduate. Returning home, he began working life as a trainee journalist for the Motherwell Times in 1964, before joining the Government Information Service at the Scottish Office seven years later. He later moved to the Office's Publicity Unit, organising media coverage of Royal visits. In 1980, Jardine became a press officer for the Scottish Conservative Party, but left that role after six years to set up his own media consultancy. He settled upon being a writer in 1993 after publishing his first novel, Skinner's Rules.

Jardine supports his hometown football club, Motherwell F.C. At around the time of the 1997 general election he abandoned them for the Scottish National Party (SNP), standing unsuccessfully in his new colours for Aberlady, Gullane and Dirleton ward at the 1999 East Lothian Council election. He later gave up on the SNP, finding it "too left wing" for his taste. State Secrets (2017) A Brush With Death (2018) Cold Case (2018) The Bad Fire (2019) The Roots of Evil (2020) Deadlock (2021) Open Season (2022) The Cage (2023) Secrets and Lies (2024) Dead Man's Tale (2025)

Oz Blackstone series

Novels featuring Oz Blackstone, a private investigator in London:

Blackstone's Pursuits (1996) A Coffin for Two (1997) Wearing Purple (1999) Screen Savers (2000) On Honeymoon with Death (2001) Poisoned Cherries (2002) Unnatural Justice (2003) Alarm Call (2004) For the Death of Me (2005)

Primavera Blackstone series

Novels featuring Primavera Blackstone, Oz Blackstone's ex-wife:

Inhuman Remains (2009) Blood Red (2010) As Easy As Murder (2012) Deadly Business (2013) As Serious as Death (2013)

Other projects

The Loner (2011) A standalone story about Xavier "Xavi" Aislado's life Mathew's Tale (2014) A story concerning Mathew Fleming, a 19th-century ancestor of Bob Skinner, set in 1818 in Carluke, Lanarkshire. Skinner's Elves: A Bob Skinner Christmas Story (2017). A short story set in 2041. Included in the audiobook for The Cage.