She has published 19 novels, all set around Glasgow and featuring the character of Detective Chief Inspector Lorimer and his psychological profiler Solomon Brightman, the earlier novels being published by Canongate and Allison & Busby and later books by Little Brown.

Her father was a telecommunications engineer and her mother, originally from Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, was a telephone exchange operator.

She studied English and Philosophy[3] at Strathclyde University and was a founding member of Battlefield Band.

[4] She worked for a period in the Department of Health & Social Security,[5] before training as an English teacher.

Gray is a member of the Femmes Fatales crime writing trio, together with Alanna Knight and Lin Anderson.