I'll try another ( )

On the front of the paperback edition to this book it boldly states that "Brings Glasgow to life in the same way Ian Rankin evokes Edinburgh" This is a disgraceful statement to be pointed at the good name of Rankin and the god amongst crime detectives John Rebus. Reading "Never Someone Else" can only be compared to viewing a rather poor episode of Murder She Wrote starring the ever youthful Angela Lansbury. The crime market is awash with wannabe Rankinists and yet seemingly the author of this story is a well respected and revered past winner of Scottish Association of Writers' Constable and Pitlochry trophies for her crime writing....whatever that is....

DCI Lorimer has been tasked with the unenviable job of unmasking a vicious killer who has mutilated and scalped three women leaving their bodies to be discovered in St Mungo's park. To help him understand the mind of the perpetrator he requests the services of psychologist Sol Brightman. Lorimer is probably the most characterless detective I have ever encountered there is nothing enthusiastic or appealing about him...and surely a DCI should be bold and charismatic in order to instil enthusiasm in the officers under his command. Even his English teacher wife Maggie finds him unpredictable and boring, they rarely communicate and she never knows what time to expect his presence at home...if at all. We learn little about the inner Lorimer, his interests: does he like music? does he have a weakness for alcohol? does he prefer the company of other women? He is uninteresting and dull and it is surely only a short time before his long suffering Maggie departs in tears closely accompanied by a disillusioned reader! For crying out loud, dear author, this is the first in a supposedly exciting crime series and yet nothing is done to expose the mind of the lead player...leaving him as a dull soulless pathetic individual......you get the picture I didn't like him!

Any reader of crime will know that the villain will always make an appearance in the story before he is unmasked and it is always fun to try to second-guess this individual. It was a relatively simple process to successfully select the killer in such a poorly written novel. Undoubtedly the later books in the series will gradually expose the inner thoughts of" Mr very very dull and boring DCI" but I will certainly not be reading and will be planning my escape with the lovely perplexed Maggie........... ( )

I got to p53 of this and left it for awhile...not a good sign :(
Just tried to pick up the threads of it ....and can't remember any of the previous pages. My memory is like a sieve....but not for books.
After a page I've just decided to give up as its ' blocking up the system". I've read A small weeping which got me on to Alex and loved it. So decided to start from the beginning. So confident was I that I'd enjoy this one I've got the 3rd one ready to read from the library in my ...library bag.
When I'm into a book I can read it within 24 hrs. I've been diddling with this for about 3 wks now...so...for now its an abandoned. ( )

Never Somewhere Else by Alex Gray is the first book in the DCI Lorimer series that first came to my attention when I was reading a list of authors that are grouped under the banner of Tartan Noir. Other authors often found under this grouping are Stuart MacBride, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and Christopher Brookmyre, all favorites of mine. Tartan Noir books are crime novels, set in Scotland, and often have a dark or even hard-boiled aspect but it appears to me that these days the Tartan Noir banner is applied pretty loosely to just about any crime novel that happens to be set in Scotland.

In this story, it appears that a serial murder is at work on the streets of Glasgow as three young women are found in one of the city’s parks, victims of murder and mutilation. But when DCI William Lorimer enlists the services of Dr. Solomon Brightman, a psychologist and criminal profiler, a suspicion arises that there is more premeditation to these murders than mere chance encounters.

There are at least four blurbs on the cover comparing this author to Ian Rankin which I think is a disservice to her. This is not Ian Rankin, her characters aren’t as sharply drawn, her main character is quite different from John Rebus in that, at this time, Lorimer is a happily married man who doesn’t drink and appears to follow the rules. What Never Somewhere Else is however, is a pretty good first book in a promising police procedural series set in Glasgow. I enjoyed the book and will definitely be continuing on with the next book in the series. ( )