True Detectives

TRUE DETECTIVES is Kellerman's second offering featuring PI Aaron Fox and Detective Moe Reed, LAPD. John Rubinstein, who has performed other Kellerman novels, deftly handles the demands that a large cast places on a narrator. Switching smoothly between genders, ages, and varied regional and ethnic accents, Rubinstein successfully leads the listener through involved dialogue, plot twists, as well as changes in scene and setting while maintaining the brisk pace required by an action-filled mystery. Although Fox and Reed appear to be lining up as Kellerman's new mismatched pair, fans of his earlier novels need not despair: Milo Sturgis and Dr. Alex Delaware are still on the scene and make cameo appearances. M.O.B. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

February 2, 2009
PI Aaron Fox and L.A. cop Moe Reed, interracial half-brothers who played minor roles in 2008's Bones
, take center stage in bestseller Kellerman's routine 24th Alex Delaware novel. When Fox, who used to work for the LAPD, looks into the missing-persons case of 20-year-old Caitlin Frostig, he runs into conflict with Reed. The brothers end up pursuing some predictable lines of inquiry, checking out Rory Stoltz, Frostig's college boyfriend, as well as links to a filmmaker, Lem Dement, who's suspected of domestic abuse. More A-list connections surface after the investigators learn Stoltz was the personal assistant for actor Mason Book, whose rumored suicide attempt came shortly after Frostig's disappearance. The strains between Fox and Reed don't generate much heat, while the pacing and writing aren't up to Kellerman's best. Hopefully, Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis, relegated to cameos, will be back in their usual starring positions next time.