THERE can’t be a football supporter in the country who hasn’t, on occasion, taken exception to a referee’s decision; ask anyone who watched Scotland getting beaten by Italy at Hampden last year. But angry enough to put a bullet in the poor whistler’s head? Hardly. Yet that’s the dilemma facing Chief Inspector Lorimer in Pitch Black, the latest in Alex Gray’s enjoyable police procedurals set in Glasgow. Of course, what makes things even more intriguing for DCI Lorimer is that this isn’t the only recent suspicious death concerning Kelvin FC (a Glasgow football club based near the West End, think Partick Thistle, but not quite). The team’s latest big- money signing has recently been found stabbed to death in his home and his wife’s in custody without a plausible alibi. Before the detective can get into his stride, another player is brutally murdered and it becomes clear that someone is carrying out a pretty hideous vendetta against the club and the players and officials are left trying to play football while wondering who’s next on the death list. Thanks, she says to help from Strathclyde Police, Gray – a former DSS visitor, folk singer and teacher– has always been pretty convincing with her depiction of crime investigation. This time, she’s spot-on with her behind-the-scenes look at football too. The portrayal of underpressure managers, venal owners and too-rich-too-soon players will be familiar to anyone who reads the back pages of the newspapers. It’s not all gore and football, though. Back home, DCI Lorimer has to learn to accept that his family life won’t be all it could be, and friends and colleagues have a tragedy of their own to deal with. As ever with Gray, the story is told with pace and style and it would take a reader with the detective skills of her hero to come up with the killer’s identity before the last few pages. This is a golden age for Scottish crime writing and Gray more than holds her own against the likes of Rankin and McDermid.