museum of desire

A quick search of the books tab here at the blog confirms that I haven't read anything from Jonathan Kellerman in the recent past, and I don't recall ever reading anything by this guy, which may be a little odd given how prolific he has been. This book, The Museum of Desire, is the latest* in a long series of books about psychologist Alex Delaware. The Delaware series start in 1985, and the front matter lists 34 of them prior to this one. Kellerman also writes some nonfiction, children's books (which he has also illustrated) graphic novels, other novels outside the Alex Delaware universe, and has co-authored some books with his wife, Faye Kellerman, and his son, Jesse Kellerman. take a breath, bro

Not having read one of these before, I can't tell you if Dr. Delaware is normally involved in helping the police to solve murder cases, but that's the impression I have. And while I can imagine a series of crime procedural novels with the staying power to endure four decades, I can't really imagine Kellerman's success with this series is typically driven by how Dr. Delaware helps his patients come to grips with how they relate to their peers and the world around them, but who knows. 

Milo Sturgis is the hard working, pastry eating LA Detective that Delaware has hitched his wagon to for this ride into the realm of the bizarre. The crime they are investigating is a strange and twisted multiple murder. You can see right away why Sturgis would want to bring in his old friend the doctor to help him figure this one out. The story arc follows a series of starts and stops in the investigation, including some interesting false trails that seemed as tho they may have worked out. think I just described writing

There isn't a lot of glamour, and it seems clear that Kellerman is trying hard not to fall into the trap that television and movies have done with crime procedurals, by making up something flashy that real police work doesn't include, but again, who knows, I'm not a police detective. But there is lots of pounding the bricks, knocking on doors, and chipping away at the case to try and find leads. Kellerman keeps enough balls in the air to ensure the story doesn't suffer because of this. 

All-in-all, pretty solid, with a dash of outrageous.

* 'Latest' is probably wrong, as this was published in 2020. Kellerman pro'ly cracked out one or two more since then; lets see... Yep. Serpentine in '21, and City of the Dead, this year. really ought to do research ahead of time #editonthefly