Book Review: A Small Weeping

Reviewed By: Woodstock - RAM

A Small Weeping     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Alex Gray
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Allison & Busby, 2004

A prostitute is found murdered in an elevator shaft of the Glasgow railway, and DCI Lorimer is assigned to lead the investigation. In addition to the police staff working under him, Lorimer has the assistance of Solomon Brightman, a psychologist and University professor, who serves as a criminal profiler.

As the two begin their investigation, a nurse at a local private clinic is found murdered, her body arranged in the same manner as the dead prostitute. A third death follows shortly thereafter. Working on the assumption that the three murders were committed by the same person, Lorimer and Brightman begin the painstaking process of interviews, crime scene analysis, and fact checking familiar to readers of police procedurals.

But much of what they discover only leads to more questions, and before all is sorted out the patients at the clinic, the finances of the clinic, questionable decisions made by the clinic's director, and the poignant fate of one particular patient all intertwine to complicate the investigation.

As part of their queries, the two men visit the islands of the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. The description of that locale caused this reader's wanderlust to twitch in anticipation.

Woodstock - RAM

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