THE SILENT GAMES by Alex Gray (Review, Showcase & Giveaway)
The Silent Games
by Alex Gray
on Tour March 12 – April 14, 2018
Synopsis:
Alex Gray’s stunning new Lorimer novel, set against the backdrop of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, brings the vibrant city to life in a race to stop the greatest threat the city has ever known.
2014: The Commonwealth Games are coming to Glasgow and security is extra tight, particularly after a mysterious bomb explodes in nearby rural Stirlingshire. As the opening ceremony for the Games draws ever closer, the police desperately seek the culprits. But Detective Superintendent Lorimer has other concerns on his mind. One is a beautiful red-haired woman from his past whose husband dies suddenly on his watch. Then there is the body of a young woman found dumped in countryside just south of the city who is proving impossible to identify.
Elsewhere in Glasgow people prepare for the events in their own way, whether for financial gain or to welcome home visitors from overseas. And, hiding behind false identities, are those who pose a terrible threat not just to the Games but to the very fabric of society.
MY REVIEW
5 stars
I told you on January 8th, when I posted my review of THE SWEDISH GIRL, that I am addicted to this series!!
THE SILENT GAMES is the 11th novel but easily reads as a stand alone.
I have one question for Alex Gray…..how does she do it? How does she write each book with so much suspense, so much plot, so much story? And if you were to ask me which book is my favorite so far, I’ll tell you at the end of my review!
DCI Bill Lorimer has a lot on his plate. He gets called for unexplained large explosion where The Commonwealth Games are to be held in a year, in the same area, an unidentified young girl is found murdered and he attends his 20 year High School reunion, organized by his first love, Vivien. Later that night, Vivien calls saying she needs him because she has just found her husband dead.
As the cases proceed, they get worse. The explosion may be a trial run for a terrorist attack, the murder of the young girl has a wide reach of sex trafficking and Vivienne’s husband has been murdered. Could this all be related? But how?
Ms. Gray has such a descriptive writing style that with this book, and all the others I have read, I am able to create such vivid imagery. Imagery that has stayed with me from her previous books. The characters are realistic. The suspense never faltered. I found myself getting frustrated because life kept interrupting my reading time as I did not want to put this book down! Non stop action! A dynamic read!
Now to answer the question, which book is my favorite so far….the one I just finished reading but then I thought the same thing when I finished reading THE SWEDISH GIRL, and again when I read FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN, etc. etc.. Alex Gray has delivered again with another thrilling read! Please Ms. Gray, keep them coming!!!
Check out my reviews for other books in this series! THE RIVERMAN, PITCH BLACK, GLASGOW KISS, FIVE WAYS TO KILL A MAN and THE SWEDISH GIRL
Critical Praise:
“An excellent procedural in which Gray … does for Glasgow what Ian Rankin did for Edinburgh in the annals of crime fiction.” — Kirkus Reviews on The Silent Games
“Gray has no equal when it comes to unmasking killers and she has excelled herself here . . . Gray is the new master of Scottish crime writing.” — Scottish Daily Express
“Brings Glasgow to life in the same way Ian Rankin evokes Edinburgh.” — Daily Mail (UK)
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery
Published by: Witness Impulse
Publication Date: March 13th 2018
Number of Pages: 368
ISBN: 9780062659262
Series: A DCI Lorimer Novel, #11 (Stand Alone)Get Your Copy of The Silent Games from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & HarperCollins.
Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads!!
Read an excerpt:
From Chapter 2
It was worse than he could ever have imagined.
Even from the roadside, where a line of police cars was parked, Lorimer could see the devastation. Plumes of smoke and flames still rose from the heaps of broken trees, and as he emerged from the Lexus, his skin was immediately touched by flakes of ash drifting in the air. The smell of burning wood was overpowering, and he could hear the occasional crackle and hiss of fire beneath the whooshing sound from the firemen’s hoses as arcs of water were trained into the heart of the inferno. His eyes took in the gap in the hedge where the fire engines had broken through to reach the narrow walkers’ path, and the tyre marks on the verge. It would be replanted, no doubt, but the burning trees would leave a scar that would take far longer to heal.
‘Detective Superintendent Lorimer? Martin Pinder.’ The uniformed chief inspector was suddenly at his side, hand outstretched. Lorimer took it, feeling the firm once up and down as the officer motioned them to turn away from the direction of the cinders. ‘Sorry to call you out, but as I said, we needed someone to front this. And your name came up.’
‘But isn’t this a local matter?’ Lorimer asked. ‘We’re in the district of Stirling, surely?’
Pinder shook his head. ‘It’s bigger than you might imagine,’ he began. Walking Lorimer a few paces away
from the line of cars, he dropped his voice. ‘And there is intelligence to suggest that it may have a much wider remit.’
‘Oh?’ Lorimer was suddenly curious. The telephone call had mentioned an explosion, the immediate need for a senior officer from Police Scotland and a request to keep the lid on things, but nothing more.
‘You said intelligence.’ He frowned. ‘You mean Special Branch?’
Pinder nodded. ‘I’ve been charged with giving you this information, sir. And doubtless your counter terrorism unit will already be involved.’ He licked his lips, hesitating, and Lorimer could see the anxiety in the man’s grey eyes.
‘We are given to believe that this is just a trial run.’ Pinder motioned to the fire behind them.
‘A trial run,’ Lorimer said slowly. ‘A trial run for what?’
Pinder gave a sigh and raised his eyebrows.
‘The Glasgow Commonwealth Games.’
Lorimer looked at the man in disbelief, but Pinder’s face was all seriousness.
‘That’s almost a year away. Why do they think. . .?’
‘Haven’t been told that. Someone further up the chain of command will know.’ Pinder shrugged. Perhaps you’ll be told once you liaise with Counter Terrorism.’
Lorimer turned to take in the scene of the explosion once more, seeing for the first time the enormous area of burning countryside and trying to transfer it in his mind’s eye to the newly built village and arenas in Glasgow’s East End. He blinked suddenly at the very notion of carnage on such a vast scale.
‘We can’t let it happen,’ Pinder said quietly, watching the tall man’s face.
Lorimer gazed across the fields to the line of rounded hills that were the Campsies. Glasgow lay beyond, snug in the Clyde valley; on this Sunday morning its citizens remained oblivious to the danger posed by whatever fanatic had ruined this bit of tranquil landscape. He had asked why the local cops hadn’t taken this one on, and now he understood: the threat to next year’s Commonwealth Games was something too big for that. And since the various police forces in Scotland had merged into one national force, Detective Superintendent William Lorimer might be called to any part of the country.
‘The press will want statements,’ Pinder said, breaking into Lorimer’s thoughts. ‘It’s still an ongoing investigation. Don’t we just love that phrase!’ He gave a short, hard laugh. ‘And there is no loss of life, so we can try for a positive slant on that, at least.’
‘They’ll speculate,’ Lorimer told him. ‘You know that’s what they do.’
Pinder touched the detective superintendent’s arm, nodding towards the figures milling around on the fringes of the fire. ‘Apart from you and me, there is not a single person here who has been told about the background to this event. So unless the press leap to that conclusion by dint of their own imagination, any leak can only come from us.’
When Lorimer turned to face him, the uniformed officer was struck by the taller man’s penetrating blue gaze. Fora long moment they stared at one another, until Pinder looked away, feeling a sense of discomfort mixed with the certainty that he would follow this man wherever he might lead.
Wouldn’t like to be across the table from him in an interview room, he was to tell his wife later that day. But there on that lonely stretch of country road, Martin Pinder had an inkling why it was that the powers on high had called on Detective Superintendent William Lorimer to oversee this particular incident.
***
Excerpt from The Silent Games by Alex Gray. Copyright © 2018 by Alex Gray. Reprinted by permission of Witness Impulse, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Alex Gray was born and educated in Glasgow. After studying English and Philosophy at the University of Strathclyde, she worked as a visiting officer for the Department of Health, a time she looks upon as postgraduate education since it proved a rich source of character studies. She then trained as a secondary school teacher of English. Alex began writing professionally in 1993 and had immediate success with short stories, articles, and commissions for BBC radio programs. She has been awarded the Scottish Association of Writers’ Constable and Pitlochry trophies for her crime writing. A regular on the Scottish bestseller lists, she is the author of thirteen DCI Lorimer novels. She is the co-founder of the international Scottish crime writing festival, Bloody Scotland, which had its inaugural year in 2012.
Catch Up With Alex Gray On alex-gray.com, Goodreads, & Twitter!
Tour Participants:
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
Thank you, Cheryl! I certainly aim to keep them coming. Book 16 is well on its way for 2019 and my new UK title is out this week: Only The Dead Can Tell. I love writing and my mind is always full of ideas but a lot of praise has to go to the experts in police and forensics who keep me right and who fuel these ideas along. Hope my new US readers are as enthusiastic as you are about my stories.
Happy reading and best wishes from Alex
Ms. Gray:
Thank you for stopping by. YAY! So excited to hear that will be more books in this series. I’m currently awaiting delivery of your next book, KEEP THE MIDNIGHT OUT. Hoping it comes in today because tomorrow, here in RI, we are expecting another snowy Nor’Easter and there is nothing better than sitting on the couch with a blanket, a hot cup of coffee and a good book!