Quintin Jardine (born 1945) is a Scottish author of three series of crime novels, featuring the fictional characters Bob Skinner, Oz Blackstone, and Primavera Blackstone.
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. Having been a member of the Conservatives for many years, his support for a 'maximalist' position on Scottish devolution estranged him from the majority of the party, especially after he wrote a paper (together with Michael Fry, Brian Meek and Struan Stevenson) calling for the establishment of a 114-seat Scottish Parliament with tax-raising powers. 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. He now divides his time between Gullane and Spain.
Jardine has written 35 novels featuring senior Edinburgh policeman Bob Skinner:
Novels featuring Oz Blackstone, a private investigator in London:
Novels featuring Primavera Blackstone, Oz Blackstone's ex-wife: