The Museum of Desire

September 1, 2019

Dr. Alex Delaware gladly accompanies LAPD Lt. Milo Sturgis on his rounds to offer psychological insight, but the case now staring them in the face is particularly grisly: four people with no obvious connection have been brutally murdered and displayed like awful artworks in a stretch limo. Next in a long line of mega-best-selling Delaware novels.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 2, 2019
Early in bestseller Kellerman’s disappointing 35th whodunit featuring L.A. psychologist Alex Delaware (after 2019’s The Wedding Guest), a professional cleaner who arrives at a house the morning after a big party finds a white stretch limo parked near the pool containing four corpses. All are dressed in black and drenched in blood from the waist down. In the front seat, the chauffeur has a bullet wound to the head; in the backseat, the lone female victim holds the penis of a male victim. Delaware and his LAPD buddy, Lt. Milo Sturgis, must figure out how the four are connected, along with a motive for the murders and the staging of the bodies. The eventual explanation is a letdown, and Delaware and Sturgis make a judgment error at the climax that doesn’t fit with their years of experience interviewing suspects. Overdone prose is another negative (“Misfortune is the mother’s milk of journalism... those who suckle the teats of tragedy are rarely forced to confront evil directly”). Those looking for a cleverer resolution of a similar macabre setup should check out P.D. James’s A Taste for Death.

December 1, 2019
Behind an empty faux castle lurking above Beverly Hills, four bodies are found inside a limousine, arranged in a blood-strewn erotic tableau. Behind the driver, the killer has positioned the bodies of playboy Ricky Gurnsey, street-worn Mary Jane Huralnik, and Benny Alvarez, who recently disappeared from a group home for developmentally delayed adults. It's a psych case if there ever was one, so Homicide Lieutenant Milo Sturgis reaches out to his closest friend, consulting psychologist Alex Delaware. Given the sexualized crime scene, Gurnsey's exploits are a logical starting point, but Milo and Alex shift focus when a staffer from Alvarez's group home is murdered. Something is off with Benny's boss, art-gallery owner Medina Okash, but each lead begs more questions after ties are discovered to the art world's dark history. This complex revenge tale is another treat for Kellerman's many fans, and newcomers who have somehow missed the iconic Alex Delaware series can easily jump on board here; Milo and Alex's partnership is crime-solving magic, and free this time of inside jokes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)