Victims: An Alex Delaware Novel

After trying to read a couple bad books, trying new authors who wrote books I couldn’t finish, I escaped to a sure thing, an Alex Delaware novel by Jonathan Kellerman. This was a good choice, the latest in the series, just released in March 2012. It was the usual cast of characters, crime psychologist Alex, his live-in girlfriend Robin, and detective Milo. Kellerman didn’t waste time on character development of these people who are already well-known. Rather, he jumped in with a grisly murder of Vita Berlin whose neck had been twisted an angle “not compatible with life.” She had also been dissected. She was one of those antagonistic bitches that pissed off everyone she came in contact with. Unable to make any headway with the case, a second dissected body was found, Marlon Quigg, a kind a well-loved man, who seemed to have nothing in common with Berlin except the method of execution. As the story unfolds and Kellerman leads us through the detective process, more murders occur. The story takes us through various mental health facilities in Los Angeles, and even to now closed massive state facilities that were functioning when I was doing psychiatric training at UCLA in the 70s. He touches on the unsavory world of the insurance-for-profit industry and pseudo-professionals who are able to dupe nearly everyone. It was a good story, disturbing in several ways, but a very good escape.