Alex Gray has set her sixth DI Lorrimer novel in Kelvin FC premier league football club where a serial killer is on the loose.Alex Gray has set her sixth DI Lorrimer novel in Kelvin FC premier league football club where a serial killer is on the loose.
DI Lorrimer is on his way home from his annual holiday with his wife on a peaceful Scottish island when he watches a woman being arrested off the ferry. The woman’s face haunts his thoughts as shortly after he is called in to head the murder investigation of a star footballer from the famous Kelvin FC club who has been found brutally stabbed, and Lorrimer learns that the same woman was the wife of that murdered player and is the chief suspect for the murder. When Lorrimer visits and interviews her, and she denies the charges, there is something about her that makes Lorrimer believe her protests of innocence. He can only see the face of a victim in her. The evidence though, is stacked against her, and she is locked in prison pending trial and bail. Within days Kelvin FC are back on the field playing, and a few nervous tempers have flared and a player is sent off. Shortly after the game, the team’s referee is found dead, with a bullet hole in the middle of his skull; and then, shortly after that, another vital player from Kelvin FC’ is murdered on his way home from a night out in a club. Lorrimer is left to work out if someone is out to bring the team to its knees, or if there is there more to these murders than seems on the surface. As Adultery, jealousy and rivalry all show their heads and lies and tensions emerge within the club, the remaining players are left in a state of heightened fear, each a potential victim and each too, now a suspect. All left to wonder who they should fear or can trust.
Gray’s writing is clear, suspenseful and page-turning. This is the first of her books that I had read, but I will be sure to be reading the ones prior to this and all she writes in the future. She is a master of plotting and of the craft of keeping us guessing, her story builds and builds until in the final pages when the game is in full swing and we are still wondering if there is a murderer hidden amongst the crowds of spectators who are so immersed in the game they surely wouldn’t notice if a killer was preparing to strike again. The effect of the thunder striking and the crowd roaring and goals being scored had me on the edge of my seat. All was so well observed I felt I was actually in that crowd watching. If you are a football fan you will love this book, if you are not a football fan, as I am not, you will still love this book. It is totally engrossing and skilfully plotted.
There is a quote on the front of the book comparing Alex Gray to Ian Rankin which left me wondering how complimentary quotes such as these actually are. There is no doubt that Alex Gray is a first class thriller writer and knows how to tease and play with her readers to prevent us putting her book down, and for that I totally salute her skill, but I am reminded of the saying: Comparison is odious. And I have to agree. Alex Gray is not like Rankin, she is different, but undoubtedly as readable. And is she being compared because both are Scottish? One would never compare the genius of Val McDermid with the talents of Ian Rankin- they are different writers, both top of their leagues but both with their own, unique, style. Alex Gray certainly has a place up there at the top of her genre, but from her own invention as oppose to being like someone else.
I now cannot wait to read her other books.
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Linda Regan