Five Ways to Kill A Man by Alex Gray

Five Ways to Kill a Man by Alex Gray
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 5 days

Pages - 424

Publisher - Little, Brown Book Group

Blurb from Goodreads

A beautifully crafted, darkly atmospheric crime novel from one of Scotland's most talked-about crime writers An unpredictable killer is loose on the streets of Glasgow, experimenting with death. Beginning with brute force, the murderer moves on to poison and drowning, greedy for new and better ways to kill. Faced with a string of unconnected victims, DCI Lorimer turns to psychologist and friend Solomon Brightman for his insights. Lorimer is also assigned to review the case of a fatal house fire. His suspicions are raised by shocking omissions in the original investigation. Some uncomfortable questions have been buried but Lorimer is the man to ask them. As the serial killer gets closer to Lorimer's family, can the DCI unmask the volatile murderer before the next victim is found too close to home?


My Review

DCI Lorimer has a dangerous killer on his hands, to begin with they seem to kill indiscriminately and it takes a bit for the police to catch on their is a serial killer. However once the killer has gained confidence and targets their preferred group, the police pull together and set about "catching their man". Lorimers personal woes are laced through the story, his family life, inlaws. This seemed to be to give the reader a bit more understanding and depth of the character but there is actually a bit more to it which is revealed later.

In under 30 pages we had three murders so the book starts off quite fast paced. The descriptions of locations and minute details are emphasized so even if you are unfamiliar with Glasgow, you get quite a picture. I think for some people it adds enjoyment to a story if you know some of the places it is based in and it was one of the things I did like in this book. I believe this is quite a few along in a series, however I haven't read the previous ones and got on fine with this one.

It isn't too often I guess who the killer is however with this one I did. The build up and all the small things are explained very clearly however the motive is largely left to the reader to gleam from the details that are given. For me this brought the overall enjoyment of the story down and raised questions as to why the killer did a lot of the things they did. I don't like loose ends although some readers enjoy books that do that, for me it is a 3/5. I would read this author again but I won't be rushing to get anymore or chasing up the back catalogue.

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