SKINNER'S RULES

Just when it seems that Superintendent Robert Skinner and his crew have solved Edinburgh's grisly Royal Mile murders—whose victims have included, among others, rising advocate Michael Mortimer and his colleague and lover, Rachel Jameson—the bottom falls out of the case. First: The suspect, samurai industrialist Toshio Yobatu, has diplomatic immmunity, so all the evidence in the world (which Skinner has: It's not often you find a victim's testicles in the perp's dresser drawer) won't do any good. Second: Yobatu refuses to talk and, shortly after returning to Japan, hangs himself. Third: New evidence suggests that the solution was a masterly frame-up by diplomatic terrorists from still another corner of the globe whose stakes include...the legitimacy of Israel, the rise of militant Islam, and the fate of the free world. Wow. The procedural/international conspiracy mix is intriguing and spirited, though newcomer Jardine carries a lot more conviction as long as he keeps his distance from those Middle East death-dealers and the Foreign Office sharpies who are covering up for them.