Title: Unnatural HistoryAuthor: Jonathan Kellerman
Series: Alex Delaware #38
Published by: Ballantine Books on Feb. 7, 2023
Genres: Mystery/Thriller, Police Procedural
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Source: Random House
Book Rating: 8.5/10
The most enduring detectives in American crime fiction are back in this electrifying thrillerof art and brutalityfrom the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.
Los Angeles is a city of stark contrast, the palaces of the affluent coexisting uneasily with the hellholes of the mad and the needy. It is that shadow world and the violence it breeds that draw brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis into an unsettling case of altruism gone wrong.
On a superficially lovely morning a woman shows up for work with her usual enthusiasm. She’s the newly hired personal assistant to a handsome, wealthy photographer and is ready to greet her boss with coffee and good cheer. Instead, she finds him slumped in bed, shot to death.
The victim had recently received rave media attention for his latest project: images of homeless people in their personal “dream” situations, elaborately costumed and enacting unfulfilled fantasies. There are some, however, who view the whole thing as nothing more than crass exploitation, citing token payments and the victim’s avoidance of any long-term relationships with his subjects.
Has disgruntlement blossomed into homicidal rage? Or do the roots of violence reach down to the victim’s family—a clan, sired by an elusive billionaire, that is bizarre in its own right?
Then new murders arise, and Alex and Milo begin peeling back layer after layer of intrigue and complexity, culminating in one of the deadliest threats they’ve ever faced.
Review:
Complex, menacing, and gritty!
In this thirty-eighth instalment in the Alex Delaware series, Unnatural History, we head back to Los Angeles where LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware now find themselves immersed in a tricky case involving a murdered photographer who happens to be the youngest son of an enigmatic billionaire and whose latest project entitled the Wishers involved photographing homeless people dressed up as the person they always wished they could be.
The writing is tight and crisp. The characters are multilayered, vulnerable, and elusive. And the plot is a sinister tale full of twists, turns, deception, mayhem, suspicious personalities, revelations, homelessness, familial dysfunction, mental illness, and murder.
Overall, Unnatural History is an ominous, sophisticated, entertaining tale by Kellerman that has just the right amount of mystery, intrigue, and intensity to keep you engaged from start to finish and leave fans of this incredibly long-running series more than satisfied.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Random House for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman is the Number One New York Times bestselling author of more than forty crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher's Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, True Detectives, and The Murderer's Daughter.
With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. With his son, bestselling novelist Jesse Kellerman, he co-authored Crime Scene, The Golem of Hollywood, and The Golem of Paris.
He is also the author of two children's books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico.
Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.
