‘A Small Weeping’ by Alex Gray

Published by Allison & Busby
1^st August 2004.
ISBN: 978-0-74908-330-4 (HB)

The body of a prostitute is found at Glasgow’s Queen Street Station, her hands pointing towards her feet, placed as if in prayer, a small flower pressed between her palms. Psychologist Solomon Bright is called to assist DCI Lorimer in the murder hunt but before any conclusions can be drawn, further bodies turn up arranged in exactly the same careful way and it seems increasingly clear that they have a serial killer on their hands.

A Small Weeping is wreathed in Scottish atmosphere as Alex Gray skilful weaves together the contrasting worlds of the Glasgow streets, a private clinic and the Outer Hebrides. As well as adding descriptive power to the book such diverse settings also give her the opportunity to add depth by exploring some differing manifestations of the healing nature of personal happiness. The simplicity of the needs of a clinic patient with multiple sclerosis, Phyllis, is particularly affecting.

Throughout the book the hunt for the killer is pacy and, as you would expect, full of twists and turns and the result is a taut, suspense-filled thriller with a satisfying ending. And no, I didn’t guess whodunit.
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Reviewer: Ruth Wade

Alex Gray was born 27 May 1950, Glasgow.  She was brought up in the Craigbank area of Glasgow and attended Hutchesons' Grammar School. She studied English and Philosophy at Strathclyde University and worked for a period in the Department of Health & Social Security before training as an English teacher.  In 1976 she lived in Rhodesia for three months, during which time she got married, and she and her husband returned to Scotland. She continued teaching until the 1990s, when she gave the profession up and began to write full-time. Alex is a member of the Femmes Fatales crime writing trio, together with Alanna Knight and Lin Anderson. Her  novels are all set around Glasgow and featuring the character of Detective Chief Inspector Lorimer and his psychological profiler Solomon Brightman.

www.alex-gray.com/‎

Ruth Wade is a part-time lecturer teaching creative writing at local colleges and academies. She spends the remainder of her working week researching and writing crime novels. Ruth Wade also writes as BK Duncan. Under that name her historical crime novel Foul Trade (the first in a series featuring May Keaps, a 1920's Coroner's Officer) was published in 2014.