Guilt is Jonathan Kellerman’s 28th
Dr. Alex Delaware/ Lt. Milo Sturgis novel spanning over four decades. A proven formula, Delaware’s high intellect,
knowledge of human behavior, and skill at retrieving information provide the
leads and Sturgis’ tenacity and investigation skills linked with his departmental
influence result in a high success rate of solving who-done-its.
An infant’s skeleton is found inside a
vintage cash box in the backyard of an older home in an affluent West Los
Angeles neighborhood. Milo and Alex
canvas the neighborhood but since the bones date back to the early 1950’s, they
find very little. One neighbor, a child
at the time, remembers a rare but classic Duesenberg luxury automobile was
parked in that driveway a few times, very little to go on. Then another fetal skeleton is found in a park
in the same West LA neighborhood but this one is present day and is coated with
wax. A short time later, a jogger
discovers the body of a grown woman in the same park. The LAPD gives the recent crimes a higher
priority than the 1950’s crime. When the
evidence points toward involvement of celebrity power couple, Donny Rader and
Prema Moon (dubbed Premadonny by the media,) the LAPD chief calls a meeting
with Lt. Sturgis and Dr. Delaware. He
encourages solving the case but cautions discretion in investigating the
celebrities, obviously concerned about his career. Singling out Alex in a private conversation,
he acknowledges Alex as the real brains behind the crime solving pair and
wishes the city pay scale could attract more psychologist types into crime
fighting. Alex responses with his usual
noncommittal, unemotional, nonjudgmental stare that readers can clearly
interrupt as ‘You pretentious, self-serving ass’.
To gain access to the celebrity power
couple without being squelched by an avalanche of lawyers and media types, Alex
asks his long-term love interest, Robin to make some calls to her friends ‘in
the business.’ Robin is a craftsman of
high quality wooden musical instruments for wealthy people, many of them celebrities.
She finds a disgruntled agent willing to vent about the power couple but not willing
get involved. Alex learns enough to
causally approach Prema and her adopted children on a private outing and begin
to build a rapport. Milo methodically
follows all the evidence of the present day crimes and the 60 year old crime
becomes increasingly ignored. But Alex
can’t forget the skeleton of the baby buried in the vintage cash box and
independently follows the historical records of the Duesenberg to its present
day owners.
Guilt is difficult to differentiate from
the long string of Delaware/ Sturgis novels previously created by
Kellerman. Just more of the same that his
fans have grown to expect and love to read.
Dr. Delaware and Lt. Sturgis stay true to form… Alex the intellectual
and highly skilled therapist and Milo the persistent bulldog maneuvering
through department politics… all to solve murder cases for reasons deep seated
in each of their psyches… far beyond a paycheck.
I agree with the basic tone of Midwest Dave’s review, that this one rates a B+/A- rating. Kellerman’s Delaware/Sturgis team is a classic. I thought this tail was a bit more convoluted than most with lots of suppositions by the main characters about the suspects, suppositions which often went no where. The funniest part of this book was the clear association of the celebrity power couple Donny Rader and Prema Moon, referred to in the press as Premadonny, to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, referred to in the press as Brandelina. The linkage to Brad Pitt is especially unfavorable to his character and intelligence. I’d put this book in the category of airplane books, one you could read easily in a couple hours, but also one you could put down and not one that would keep you up at night.
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