Evidence

August 24, 2009
L.A. police lieutenant Milo Sturgis investigates a double homicide at the site of an unfinished, obscenely large mansion in bestseller Kellerman's nerve-tingling 24th Alex Delaware novel (after Bones
). Construction halted on the house two years earlier, and ownership can be traced only to a defunct holding company in Washington, D.C. The male victim is easily identified—Desmond Backer, who worked for an odd little architectural firm—but the female victim's identity isn't immediately apparent. Alex serves as a sounding board while Milo pursues assorted rumors and false leads: the site owners are Arabs, Asians, Muslims; the killings were vengeance; the victims were eco-terrorists; the deaths are linked to the disappearance of a Swedish or Swiss woman years before. Without magic, just steady, inspired police work, including horse-trading with the FBI and skillful interrogations, Milo uncovers the unsavory truth.

October 1, 2009
The twenty-fourth Alex Delaware thriller (the series debuted in 1985, with When the Bough Breaks) is a tightly plotted story of murder and conspiracy. This is familiar ground for the mystery genre, familiar, too, for Kellerman, but over the years, he has proven himself adept at working interesting variations on familiar themes. As usual, the characters take center stage: Delaware, the crime-solving psychologist, and Milo Sturgis, the L.A. homicide detective. The story begins with the discovery of a murdered man and woman, their bodies evidently posed to simulate an intimate act. Following the trail of evidence (the Delaware novels generally stick to the police-procedural format), Delaware and Sturgis gradually realize this was no simple homicide. But as interesting as the story is, its the two leads, who are like old friends to us by now, who capture our interest: two men who figure they must have seen it all and who are shocked, frightened, and saddened by the depravity they encounter now. Although the Delaware novels have appeared roughly one a year since 1985, they have never felt rushed or lost their punch. Kellerman knows his characters and their world so well that he always finds new things to say about them. And we keep happily reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)