Alex Gray is one of the top Scottish writers working today. Make that one of the top writers, period.

Detective Superintendent Lorimer finds himself in the familiar chase to expose the men who plan to explode a bomb at the opening ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. While the games did occur for real, there was no bomb.

That storyline is not the best part of the mystery. An unidentified body appears to complicate the investigation and a teenage girl friend shows up at a class reunion and works her way into Lorimer’s life.

There are enough plot twists to seed several mysteries and you may need to take notes from time to time.

I have read better books, but not many.

Mike Lawrence