CITY OF THE DEAD

5 stars out of 5

Is it possible to find a book in this series not to love? Of course, some plots are a bit less appealing than others - this is the 37th, after all - but police consultant and psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and his friend, LAPD police officer Milo Sturgis, never disappoint. And with this entry, nothing's changed.

This time out, Milo and Alex visit a scene at which a moving van appears to have hit a naked man. An accident, perhaps - until one of the neighbors points to a nearby house he believes is being rented by a "suspicious" woman. When Alex and Milo go inside, they get a surprise - a woman inside has been brutally murdered. Alex, though, gets a double whammy: He once tangled with the woman, Cordelia Gannett, who at the time was posing as a psychologist.

Although she got caught, she failed to cease and desist; but as Alex and Milo investigate, they learn her earlier life was far more complicated. From there, several other familiar characters get involved, including Detective Moses Reed, Alex's guitar-repair expert and live-in love, Robin, and even Milo's physician husband Rick (always nice to hear from him, even if it's more of a cameo than a full-blown performance).

The details are what make the story take on a life of its own, but as always, everything gets sorted out in the end. This one, I think, will please most series fans like me. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy of it.

City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine Books, February 2022); 336 pp.