A MEASURE OF DARKNESS

4 stars out of 5

After I finished the debut book in this series, Crime Scene, last year, I knew I'd keep going. And sure enough - thanks to an advance review copy from the publisher - I got my chance at the follow-up. It is, I believe, better than the first, thus signaling that the father-son author combo may have found its groove. What it lacks in down-and-dirty action is more than compensated for by interesting, likable characters, a good story and expertly turned phrases.

At its heart, though, it's a fairly basic police procedural; the main character, Clay Edison, is a deputy in the Coroner's Bureau. He's got Amy, his live-in love, a wayward just-out-of-jail brother with whom he has a love-hate relationship and, at the start of this one, some dead bodies that went bump in the night.

But one of those bodies is not like the others; she was found elsewhere on the property, was strangled rather than shot and her identity can't be determined. Intrigued, Clay sets out to rectify that latter point, and once accomplished, begins to work on the whodunit and why. That trail leads to the victim's childhood school - a private one that touts total freedom for the students (think Montessori on speed). As all this is unraveling, Clay continues to work on the case of the other victims, one of whom has an identity crisis of his (or her) own. In the middle of it all, here comes his brother Luke - with a rather brash fiance in tow - claiming to be a changed man and offering Clay an investment deal guaranteed to earn a pot of money.

Beyond that, the whole thing is a fairly straightforward look at how all of Clay's professional and personal scenarios are resolved (including his relationship with Amy). Although I'd personally like fewer characters to keep straight, most things get sorted out by the end (leaving, perhaps, one or two little issues unresolved, presumably to be continued in the next adventure. For sure I'll be watching for it!

A Measure of Darkness by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Ballantine Books, July 2018); 352 pp.