SERPENTINE

 5 stars out of 5

Psychologist and police consultant Alex Delaware and LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis have been friends for so long they can finish each other's sentences. I've been trailing them around for just as long, enjoying their interaction as they solve sometimes complicated murder cases, that I probably could finish them as well. And this - the 36th book in the Delaware series - doesn't disappoint.

This time, though, it's a cold case that falls - make that is shoved - into the lieutenant's lap. Why now? Apparently, a very wealthy woman is demanding that the case be reopened; she's convinced that a woman who was shot, pushed over a cliff in her car and burned beyond recognition 36 years earlier is the mother she never knew. A couple of subsequent investigations revealed nothing, and the hope is that Milo will work his usual brand of magic and find out what really happened.

Any investigation of this sort means delving into family matters, and it soon becomes clear that one of her dearly loved relatives may have some connection to other suspicious deaths. Also quite clear, though, is that someone living in the present really doesn't want an investigation to proceed. The trail leads over, under, around and through the streets of Los Angeles (with plenty of territorial description and stops to eat along the way) until it comes to a surprising end. 

All told, it's another very enjoyable foray into the world of Alex and Milo - made even more enjoyable by occasional appearances of Alex's main squeeze, expert guitar-builder/repairer Robin. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy!

Serpentine by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine Books, February 2021); 368 pp.