City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman

City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman
Buy City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: It's book no 37 in the Alex Delaware series and whilst I wouldn't say it was one of the best, it's still a good read and would work well as a standalone.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 336	Date: February 2022
Publisher: Century
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1529125948
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When you drive large vehicles for a living, you're careful and it's not just about the way that you drive. You restrict your alcohol intake and if it's a trip that needs overnight stays you make certain you get your sleep. When you're taking a removals truck through a residential neighbourhood you head off at 5 a.m. when the roads are quieter, even if you have to wait up when you get to where you're going. And it was going well until the men hit something in Westwood Village, an upmarket neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The man was stark naked and couldn't be identified.

Lt Milo Sturgis was called to the scene and in view of the rather strange situation, he took psychologist Dr Alex Delaware with him. The neighbours don't know the man but believe that he might have come from a nearby house, which they believe to be a brothel. When the police gain entry, they discover a woman's body - and Alex Delaware knows her. She's a psychologist too. Well, 'psychologist' might be stretching the bounds of credibility just a little far. The doctorate had been bought and action has already been taken against her. Is there a connection between the two deaths?

I came to City of the Dead a year after reading Jonathan Kellerman's Serpentine which I loved. That was the thirty-sixth book in a long-running series and I was surprised that Kellerman could keep coming up with winning ideas but he seemed to keep doing it! City of the Dead was a good read but my expectations were high and the book didn't quite live up to them. The characterisation is good, with the regulars all being present and correct and newcomers coming off the page well. I was going to say fully clothed but that would have been a little insensitive...

The plot is well-thought-out, too, with plenty of twists and turns. The ending is neat - perhaps just a little too neat - but I didn't see it coming which is always rewarding. With any other author, I'd probably have been well-satisfied with the book but City of the Dead didn't feel like Kellerman at his best.

We're in the midst of a house renovation and I managed to pack away my review copy of City of the Dead: it's in one of the fifty-odd boxes of books that are stacked all over the house. So, I listened to an audio download narrated by John Rubinstein (which I bought myself). He's not a narrator I've encountered before but I found him good to listen to. His pacing is excellent and the range of voices, both male and female, were good to listen to. I liked that he delivered the story, rather than intruding upon it. I'll happily listen to more from Rubinstein.

Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware Series in Chronological Order

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