Five Ways to Kill a Man
by Alex Gray

Release Date: 6th May 2010
Publisher: Little Brown
ISBN: 978 1 8474 4197 3
RRP: £11.99

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Wonderful new novel featuring the impressive DI Lorimer...

DI Lorimer is back, but this time it’s more personal. Aside from reluctantly taking up a temporary promotion involving reviewing a previous case of wilful fire-raising that may have been mishandled; his wife’s mother suffers a stroke and brings home to Lorimer and Maggie the frailty of their small family unit. On a lighter and happier note, Psychologist, Solly Brightman, has married the lovely pathologist, Rosie Fergusson; their romantic liaison blossoming rapidly after Rosie’s near-fatal car accident.

Five Ways to Kill a Man does a great deal to expand on Gray’s cast of characters; bringing them all closer to the reader and offering tantalising insights into their personal lives, but in some ways this relegates the criminal aspects of the book to a tawdry second-place. The offender is unusual, in the sense that their method of killing is relatively unimaginative: pushing vulnerable old ladies to their death, poisoning a homeless person, guiding a young child to a river’s edge resulting in him drowning – the deliberate lack of extreme, gruesome violence is a stark contrast to the direction crime fiction seems to have taken in recent years. Gray’s approach perhaps intending to make the point that even “mundane” murders are still as horrific as the more physically violent. That said; those avid crime fans will not fail to recognise when the author is trying to lead them wrong, and the true perpetrator is quickly obvious.

A rather nice touch is that one of the victims is a fan of crime novelists Ian Rankin and Val McDermid – the ironic nod to Gray’s contemporaries won’t be lost on her readers... And in fact, the burgeoning relationship between Lorimer and Brightman is not altogether dissimilar to the relationship between McDermid’s DI Jordon and Dr Tony Hill. The initial scepticism falling away into mutual admiration and a keen friendship. What is most refreshing about Gray’s DI Lorimer though, is the fact that the spotlight is not on his faults and failings, but rather emphasises his capabilities and professionalism.

Five Ways to Kill a Man is not extravagant, but Gray’s storytelling is second to none; providing her readers with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the unpredictable world of crime – and of course, the inescapable essence of Glasgow and its environs.

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