Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman

In Mystery, Milo Sturgis, a police detective, asks Alex Delaware, forensic psychologist, for his thoughts on a brutal homicide. The body has been mutilated and with no DNA match or ID on the body, her identity is a mystery. Stranger still, Alex has seen this striking young woman before. Two nights previous, she caught his attention at the Fauboug Hotel in Beverly Hills, where she had been sitting all alone obviously waiting for someone. As they try to determine her identity and solve this crime, Alex and Milo stumble upon some sleazy information about the victim and the world in which she lives.

I mostly enjoyed this book. It kept me entertained and I really wanted to see this mystery through to the end. The storyline was a bit complex, though, so it was a little hard to follow at times. It was complicated even further by the fact that the victim had many aliases, which made it difficult for the police to determine her real identity. Part of the story dragged as it seemed to take an extraordinary amount of time to get to the truth. I found myself hoping for a speedier conclusion. However, I realize that this is probably more like real police work than other books I've read. I can appreciate that. 

Kellerman has written many books, but this is the first one of his that I've read. Alex Delaware was likeable enough. He's featured in a number of books going back all the way to 1985, so he definitely has some appeal. I really like Detective Sturgis and liked that he was portrayed as a police detective, who just happened to be gay and not the other way around. The fact that he was gay was a mundane tidbit, as it should be, in my opinion. I also really liked Gretchen and the part she played in the story.

While I enjoyed the book, it wasn't my favourite. I've read other reviews by fans who've said that this isn't the best one in the series.  Perhaps I started with the wrong one. Therefore, I'm not going to write off Kellerman just yet. I have a few more of his books on my to-be-read shelf and I'm going to give one of those a try.

For more information about this book, please visit the Random House website.

For more information about the author, please visit Jonathan Kellerman's website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at Random House for this review copy.

Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman, Ballantine Books (Random House), ©2011. ISBN 9780345505699(Hardcover), 320p.