BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Victims.
The closing of the grand old Fauborg Hotel in Beverly Hills is a sad occasion for longtime patrons Alex Delaware and Robin Castagna, who go there one last time for cocktails. But even more poignantโand curiousโis a striking young woman in elegant attire and dark glasses, alone there and waiting in vain. Two days later, police detective Milo Sturgis comes seeking his psychologist comradeโs insights about a grisly homicide. To Alexโs shock, the brutalized victim is the same beautiful woman whose lonely hours sipping champagne at the Fauborg may have been her last. But when a sordid revelation finally cracks the case open, the secrets that spill out could make Alex and Miloโs best efforts to close this crime not just impossible but fatal.
From Publishers Weekly
When Lt. Milo Sturgis of LAPD homicide asks psychologist Alex Delaware to view the faceless corpse of a young woman in Kellerman's enjoyable if only average 26th Alex Delaware novel (after Deception), Alex is shocked to recognize the gunshot victim as someone he and wife, Robin, saw the night before in a restaurant bar. A link turns out to exist between the dead woman and a sinister-looking man Alex and Robin observed outside the bar that night. An anonymous tip leads to an online service that matches "sugar daddies" with "star-quality sweeties." The victim, who called herself "Mystery," had a "daddy," Markham McReynolds, whose wealthy, anything-goes family offers plenty of suspects, including McReynolds's wife, two sons, and two daughters-in-law. Kellerman's bantering detectives make it look almost too easy as they put together the clues and possible scenarios, despite the unusual solution to the crime. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
Alex Delaware, the L.A. psychologist and crime-solver, returns to tackle another tricky case. A woman has been murdered, her body mutilated. Homicide detective Milo Sturgis, Delawareโs frequent partner, brings Alex into the case, hoping for some insight into the psychology of the killer. Alex is surprised to discover that the victim is familiar to him; Alex and his girlfriend saw her at a restaurant only hours before her death. But how can Alex and Milo expect to find any usable clues when the restaurant is now out of business? The Delaware series has been going since 1985, and itโs long since settled into a comfortable formula, which is just fine as far as fans are concerned. The books star a pair of engaging protagonists and, for the most part, are well plotted. In addition, Kellerman usually tosses in a couple of twists to keep readers on their toes. This installment is nothing out of the ordinary for the series, but itโs a solid entry that will please the established audience. --David Pitt