Alex Delaware - 23 - Bones

✍ Scribed by Kellerman, Jonathan

• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 214 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Victims.
When it comes to writing deftly layered, tightly coiled novels of suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman reigns supreme as master of the psychological thriller (People). Now, Kellerman has worked his magic again in this chilling new masterpiece.

The anonymous caller has an ominous tone and an unnerving message about something real dead . . . buried in your marsh. The eco-volunteer on the other end of the phone thinks its a prank, but when a young womans body turns up in L.A.s Bird Marsh preserve no ones laughing. And when the bones of more victims surface, homicide detective Milo Sturgis realizes the citys under siege to an insidious killer. Milos first move: calling in psychologist Alex Delaware.

The murdered women are prostitutesexcept the most recent victim; a brilliant young musician from the East Coast, employed by a wealthy family to tutor a musical prodigy, Selena Bass seems out of place in the marshs grim tableau.

Convenientlyperhaps ominouslySelenas blueblood employers are nowhere to be found, and their estate s jittery caretaker raises hackles. But Milos instincts and Alexs insight are too well-honed to settle for easy answers, even given the dark secrets in this troubled mans past. Their investigation unearths disturbing layersabout victims, potential victims, and suspects alikeplunging even deeper into the murky marshs enigmatic depths.

Bizarre details of the crimes suggest a devilish serial killer prowling L.A.s gritty streets. But when a new murder deviates from the pattern, derailing a possible profile, Alex and Milo must look beyond the suspicion of madness and consider an even more sinister mind at work. Answers dont come easy, but the darkest of drives and desires may fuel the most devious of foes.

Bones is classic Kellermanrelentlessly peeling back the skin and psyches of its characters and revealing the shadows and sins of the souls beneath. With jolt after jolt of galvanizing suspense, it drives the reader through its twists and turns toward a climax as satisfying as it is shattering.

From Publishers Weekly

In this run-of-the-mill police procedural from bestseller Kellerman, his 23rd novel to feature L.A. consulting psychologist Alex Delaware (after Compulsion), high school miscreant Chance Brandt has been assigned to perform community service at the Bird Marsh, a nature sanctuary near Marina del Rey. After Chance dismisses as a prank an anonymous phone call warning him that there's a corpse buried in the marsh, Lt. Milo Sturgis, now Special Case Investigator for the LAPD, and Sturgis's team find four bodies there, all women missing their right hand. When Sturgis identifies one of the victims as Selena Bass, who worked as a piano teacher for the wealthy Vander family, the police focus on Travis Huck, the manager of the Vanders' Pacific Palisades estate, as the prime suspect because Travis has a criminal past. Kellerman fans wanting more of the same should be satisfied, though Sturgis gets less benefit from Delaware's psychological expertise than usual. (Nov.)
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From Booklist

Two intriguing preliminary chapters suck readers right in to Kellermans latest Alex Delaware thriller, even though Delaware is disappointingly less activethan usual in the storydoing hardly more thanrelating the circumstances surrounding the crime that he and his cop buddy, Lieutenant Milo Sturgis,are determined to solve.Themutilated corpse of a young music teacher, who turns out to be less than prim and proper, is dumped in a protected wetland.Nearby, buried in the marsh,areseveral more bodies, all ofprostitutes whose right handshave been hacked off. Clues leadSturgis andDelaware to the palatial digs of the music teachers young student,whois nowhere to be found. The only one home is the familysgofer, who apparently has ajuvenile record. Sturgis antennae really start twitching, though,when the young man disappears.Surely thats the act of a guilty man. If the whole isnt quite as suspenseful as initial chapters promise, Kellermansintriguing, often oddball characters (including a rookie detective) deliver the goods in this briskly paced procedural. Not among the long-running series best entries, but fans will be sufficiently entertained. --Stephanie Zvirin