The Wedding Guest by Jonathan Kellerman

The Wedding Guest by Jonathan Kellerman
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Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: It's number 34 in the Alex Delaware series. Don't be worried about picking up part way through a long-running series - it reads perfectly well as a standalone and it's still as good as ever if you've read earlier books. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 384/12h20	Date: February 2019
Publisher: Century
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1780899015
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It was a bridesmaid who found the victim's body in a rather disreputable toilet at the wedding venue. She didn't know who she was and neither did the bride or groom. The bride wasn't particularly worried about the dead girl, but she was furious that someone had set out to disrupt her wedding. Baby (yes, that was what people called Brearley) didn't come across as being particularly likeable, despite the fact that she said that everyone liked her, and her groom, Garrett didn't inspire confidence either. Lt Milo Sturgis was the senior investigating officer and he called on the help of his friend, psychologist Dr Alex Delaware.

Solving a murder is rarely easy (particularly in books) but it's made even more difficult when it seems impossible to identify the victim. She'd been beautiful, was wearing an expensive red dress and matching shoes and she was even wearing a body shaper to look her best, despite having the body of a model. Still there were a hundred guests to question, eighty five from Baby's side of the family and the other fifteen were the groom's guests. Everyone was adamant that they didn't know the girl - she must know someone from the other side.

The reviewing gods can be quite indiscriminate when they allocate books. I mention this because I read every Alex Delaware book I could lay my hands on before we started Bookbag and reading was then restricted to what was sent to us. In consequence I've had a thirteen year gap since I last read from this series and I was quite nervous that it was a mistake to come back into a series at number thirty four, when I'd left it at number nine. I needn't have worried. I enjoy stories where there's a background narrative about the personal lives of the regular characters, but the lack of one is a bonus in this situation. I rejoined the series and within a few pages it was as though I'd never been away. It was like catching up with old friends.

It's helped, of course, by the fact that this is a superb story. It's detective work at its best with plenty of twists and red herrings. I read it over the course of a couple of days when I really should have been doing other things, but I was determined to find out what had happened. Characterisation is superb, and even relatively minor characters stay with you. The location, Los Angeles, comes to life complete with traffic snarl-ups. There's only one thing worrying me now - I think I might be going back to read books ten to thirty-three...

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For another recent North American crime story, you might like to try Kingdom of the Blind (Chief Inspector Gamache) by Louise Penny. It's part of a long-running series too, but Dr Alex Delaware wears his age more gracefully.

Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware Series in Chronological Order

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