Book Review: The Murder Book

Reviewed By: Carl Brookins - RAM

The Murder Book     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Jonathan Kellerman
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Psychological Suspense   Police Procedural
Series: Alex Delaware & Milo Sturgis # 16
2002, 408 pp.

When the past rises up and smacks one in the face, people sometimes get hurt. In this instance, out of Detective Milo Sturgis's past, to Dr. Alex Delaware comes a plea from the grave. Years ago rookie detective Sturgis couldn't make any headway at solving the particularly nasty rape and murder of a young girl. When he's abruptly transferred the case dead-ends and, interestingly, it also stays out of the public perception. Sturgis thinks he's forgotten, or at least put the case behind him. But then comes this package, a pseudo murder book like those created by detectives every time they're assigned another murder. It contains all the relevant facts, suppositions and documents of a case. This one, however, points a finger at Milo in an unsettling way.

With help from Delaware, who is sinking into an incredible miasma because his long-time lover, Robin, appears to be really leaving him this time, Sturgis sets out to reopen the ten-year-old case. He and Alex follow tortuous, mesmerizing paths through big money and mean streets, trying to find a key to poor Janie Ingalls hideous death. There are surprises at every turn and the form of the novel, switching back and forth between the two men, enhances the impending feeling of dread. For the most part, the chapters alternate between Alex's point of view and that of the detective so that we can follow them, sometimes together, sometimes apart, as they close in on the suppressed facts and, as a result, begin to detect rising inimical deadly forces arrayed against them, evil forces that will not hesitate to kill again to protect themselves. This is one of Kellerman's best.

Carl Brookins - RAM

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