019. MYSTERY (2011).

MYSTERY by Jonathan Kellerman (2011).

        

Another great book from Alex Delaware series.

Out of all the mystery series, this series belongs to top 5% and “Mystery” doesn’t disappoint, either.

P

layers. – Alex Delaware.  A child psychologist. An incredibly intelligent/smart guy with a dark childhood (alcoholic father with violent temper) which drives him to become a psychologist for kids.

He gains lots of experience dealing with children all around the states before he opens up his own practice.

These days he mainly works for the court for child custody cases. Since he never compromises (no bribes) and openly states he works for neither parents nor judges, but only for children, he is trusted by several family judges 100%, and is highly recommended by them. When custody battles turn real ugly and going nowhere, they rely on him to solve the issue and come up with the best solution for the kids, not parents.

Although, exact amount is never mentioned in entire series, judging by the reaction of his clients, attaining his service is NEVER cheap. However, once he gets to know the kids, he dose a lot of pro bono jobs for them, especially if they are his previous clients.

A brilliant observation-skill and unlimited curiosity drives him into the mind of criminals and with Milo, they form the best crime buster team in L.A.

Even if he is with Milo all the time, his official status is “consulting psychologist” and so, he is not under the payroll of police department.

With a new chief who understands psychology, therefore highly approves of Alex’s presence, Milo tries to reimburse Alex’s expenses without any success. (You know, L.A.’s slumping economy and budget cut and all that.)

Alex quite often uses himself as a bait (in this book, too), trying to fishing out a killer making Milo really nervous.

His house on L.A.’s hill side is burn down once by a psychopath, but after he re-builds the house on the same spot, he still pays not much attention to security, like forgetting to lock the front door, etc.. Again, driving Milo nuts.

Milo Sturgis.  Alex’s best friend. A first ever openly gay LAPD homicide cop( Lieutenant ). 

A giant with an appetite of elephant. Every time he comes to Alex’s house he literary raids his fridge with vengeance!

An under the table deal with a previous chief makes him a Lieutenant (without a desk work!!), and the new chief  who is efficient and brutal looks at his clear-rate (best in the force), keeps him as he is instead of promoting him to captain or something.

He has really bad choice of clothes, and with his scary face and booming voice, he to the most people looks like A BIG SCARY CLOWN that nobody wants to mess around with. Inside, however, is totally opposite. He is gentle, kind and very caring guy. But he shows that side of him only to very few of hiss close-circuit friends.

Being a gay, he has to go through lots of humiliation in his early days, but with brain and determination, not to mention his scary look, he now becomes the best cop in L.A. He is trusted by a few colleagues who matters and even if some still don’t like him, he is well-respected in the department, even afraid.

What is funny about their relationship is that like all other modern detective novel, at the beginning, there is the main detective (Alex) and then, the sidekick (Milo). However as time goes on (27 novels, so far), the importance and significance of Milo considerably grows with it. So now, Milo is as vital to the story as Alex. Honestly, I can’t imagine this series without Milo’s presence.

Extra.  There are also lots of colorful extras in all of his books. Most of them have just one time appearance but Kellerman very meticulously creates them with wild imagination and great detail, they are very much alive and quite often ridiculous and always hilarious.

P

lace. – L.A. Where else? The city of fantasy and false illusion which is perfect for all the hideous crimes and serial killers this book prominently features.

Wherever you go, you can smell the greed in the air and finding Sociopath is easier than spotting MacDonald. Dysfunctional families in every block of the city keep supplying Psychopaths and serial killers to the society. Fun City.

P

lot. –What makes this series so good is NOT a plot (honestly Kellerman is not too sharp with his plots), but the killer dialogue between Alex and Milo, and the thinking process of both guys.

Milo is the only LAPD cops who majors Literature in University (highly intelligent and cynical), and Alex is as best/cynical as you can get as a psychologist. Naturally, their dialogue is abstract, twisted, condensed and really really funny. Sometimes, the words they are choosing is too abstract, I have to momentary stop reading the book to think about the meaning behind it.

Their witty conversation sounds a lot like highly refined dialogue from high end movies (as contrast to “Blockbusters”), which is really funny because Alex and Milo both passionately hate Hollywood and anyone associates with it. 

Ok. Enough with background. Here is the real plot of “Mystery”.

1.      Alex and Robin, a long-time girl friend, visit the grand old Fauborg Hotel for one last drink before they tear it down.

2.      In there, they see a beautiful young woman obviously waiting for someone.

3.      Two days later, she is found dead with multiple bullet holes on her face.

4.      The hunt is on.

V

erdict. – This is so called Very Light Summer Blockbuster Reading Material, fast, exciting, and has enough depth to keep you turning your pages till the inevitable “let’s get that sucker!!” climax.

Like all the masters who have a successful series, Kellerman has his own system which just keep rolling and pumping up new books every year without much difficulties, I guess.

Even if, the crimes featured in here is often grotesque and usually very depressing, this series is often incredibly funny, thanks to Alex and Milo’s cynical world view and Kellerman’s killer instinct for killer dialogue. And of course, tons of wacky extras.

Because there are so many books published under Alex Delaware series so far (27, I think), the quality of books/plots differ from year to year, but Kellerman creates enough great characters and carefully builds the relationship between them, even if time to time plots a bit weak, the series still remain as one of the most entertaining series out there.

Recommend to anyone looking for light, fast, exiting reading with a touch of real psychology/intelligence.