Gone

Gone by Jonathan Kellerman

Category: Mystery Grade: A

Seems almost silly to review this one since its the 20th book in the Alex Delaware mystery series. At this point, either you're hooked or you're not. This is one of the series that I buy just as soon as it comes out. They're well written, fast paced, have great characters and plots. At this point its almost like reading about family except, of course, that they get involved in solving brutal crimes which, as far as I know, nobody in the family does yet!

This one is typical of the series. Alex Deleware is actually a psychologist that helps the police occasionally through his friendship with Milo Sturgis. There's always a fairly brutal murder that kicks off a case that gets more and more complicated as the book goes. As always, Kellerman gives us at least a half dozen possible criminals and provides just enough information that any given point, we're sure we know who did it, only to be drop kicked by some new information - sometimes as simple as a tiny piece of new evidence; sometimes as messy as the murder of the person the reader is absolutely sure did the crime.

If you like good mysteries and you've never tried Kellerman's books, I highly recommend the series. You can enjoy just about any book in the series on its own, including this one. There are, however, a number of ongoing story lines that make the books even more interesting (Allison or Robin? Robin or Allison?). If you're serious about your crime solves, go back and start at the beginning - When the Bough Breaks. And just like that, you're 20 books behind!

One warning -- some of the crimes in these books can be a little gruesome. Not Thomas Harris gruesome, but definitely not Agatha Christie either.