The Barnes & Noble Review
In a rare departure from his bestselling Alex Delaware series, Jonathan Kellerman now gives us his finest novel in several years: Billy Straight, an absorbing, multilayered suspense story built around the conjunction of a runaway child, a psychopathic killer, and a dedicated Los Angeles detective.
The runaway child is Billy Straight, an undersize 12-year-old who leaves his home in Watson, California, when life with his mother's new boyfriend, a 300-pound biker named Motor (a.k.a. Moron) Moran, becomes more than he can endure. Billy, who is both bright and resourceful, tries to make a life for himself in Los Angeles's Griffith Park. He establishes a rotating series of open-air nests, lives on garbage and the leavings of others, "borrows" books from a local branch of the L.A. Public Library, and learns to survive amid the constant predatory presence of junkies, dealers, prostitutes, and perverts. Then one day he witnesses the brutal murder of a beautiful young woman, an act that reinforces his belief in the essentially savage nature of the world around him.
The murder victim is Lisa Ramsey, former wife of television star Hart Ramsey, whose well-publicized history of domestic violence makes him an obvious perhaps too obvious suspect. The bulk of the subsequent narrative is told from the alternating perspectives of Billy Straight and a homicide detective named Petra Connor, who is handed the thankless task of spearheading an investigation that shows every sign of becoming a media circus in the manner of the O. J. Simpson case. Petra's investigationquicklyunearths the possibility that a witness was present at the murder scene; and Billy's picture, accompanied by a $25,000 bounty put up by the victim's parents, soon appears on the front page of all major Los Angeles newspapers.
From this point forward, Billy finds himself in constant jeopardy, pursued by Lisa Ramsey's killer and by a number of L.A. lowlifes interested only in the money. Eventually Billy's path intersects with those of both Petra and the murderer, and the novel ends with a moment of climactic violence. Before then, however, a number of other lives have been lost, or irrevocably altered, by the combined forces of stupidity, selfishness, and greed.
Kellerman's great strength, in addition to his knack for constructing complex, compulsively readable narratives, is his ability to understand and articulate the psychological state of a 12-year-old boy whom the world has swept aside. The majority of the characters in this book are viewed and judged by their capacity to confirm or contradict Billy's view of the universe as a hostile, loveless place. In the end, despite the fact that so many people want either to use him or do him harm, Billy encounters through characters like Petra Connor and a good-hearted Holocaust survivor named Sam Ganzer enough kindness and concern to justify the tentative, uncertain belief that he just might find a place of safety somewhere in the world.
For fans of the Alex Delaware series, there are two points worth noting. First, Delaware himself makes a brief appearance in the novel, helping Billy come to terms with the traumas of his recent life. Second, in a letter attached to the advance reader's edition, Kellerman notes that a new Delaware novel is in the final stages of completion, so that series will, apparently, continue. Still, Billy Straight represents a useful departure from the main line of Kellerman's career, allowing him to approach his characteristic concerns from an effective and affecting new perspective. If you're a Delaware fan, Billy Straight is essential reading. If you're not yet familiar with Kellerman's work, then his latest book, with its representative combination of suspense, compassion, and psychological acuity, is an ideal place to begin.
Bill Sheehan
Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. He is currently working on a book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub.
Charles Winecoff
. . . this ambitious new novel by an old pro lacks the gritty feel of Hollywood sleaze that writers like Elmore Leonard live and breathe. . .In the end, the busy but thin plot can't shake the underlying saccharine tone. Billy's surname says it all.
-- Entertainment Weekly
USA Today
Often mystery writers can either plot like devils or create believable characters. Kellerman stands out because he can do both. . . masterfully.
Detroit Free Press
Jonathan Kellerman doesn't just write psychological thrillers; he owns the genre.
Marilyn Stasio
...[T]he reason you're turning the pages so fast...[is] the winsome title character and frequent narrator....The kid is irresistible.
The New York Times Book Review
David Lehman
...Kellerman...has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller....the writing is vivid, the suspense sustained...
People Magazine
Library Journal
For 12-year-old Billy, dubbed "Straight" because of his strong sense of moral duty, life on the run in L.A. is preferable to living with his addicted mother and her sadistic boyfriend. But after witnessing the stabbing murder of a celebrity's ex-wife, things get tougher for Billy; he saw the killer's license plate and knows he should tell, but he's terrified of both the killer and the police, so he runs for his life. LAPD Detective Petra Connor investigates the murder and begins to search for Billy--as do the media, bounty hunters, and the killer. Kellerman (Survival of the Fittest, LJ 8/97) has given Detective Alex Delaware only a cameo role here, but Billy and Petra are poignant, likable characters in a fast-paced, riveting tale that will keep readers hanging until the very last page. Another winner from the master of the psychological thriller; highly recommended. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/98.]--Rebecca House Stankowski, Purdue Univ. Calumet Lib., Hammond, IN
People
A master of the psychological thriller
New York Times Book Review
Kellerman really knows how to keep those pages turning.
Kirkus Reviews
While Alex Delaware, his psychologist-sleuth (The Clinic, 1997, etc.), is out on a one-book hiatus, Kellerman produces his best work yet. Young Billy Straight, fleeing domestic non-tranquility-his mom's a drunk, her boyfriend's a sadist-happens on a woman being stabbed to death. It traumatizes him, of course-not only the brutality of it, but its way of placing on his thin shoulders one more impossible burden. What should he do? Should he tell the police he's seen a license plate number? He's only 12, but Bill is named "Straight" for a reason: he's a boy who takes moral dilemmas seriously. But this time, nevertheless, he runs. Facing the police, risking a return to the misery of his home as well as possible exposure to a killer, is more good behavior than he can force on himself. The murder victim turns out to be the divorced wife of a well-known television star-and a case for the LAPD's Detective Petra Connor, who is less than overjoyed at it, knowing it will be high profile and a media magnet. Launching the kind of professional investigation she prides herself on is tricky business in a fish bowl. Brass will get nervous. In addition, her usually rock-solid partner is already distracted in a way that mystifies her, and he won't explain himself, making Petra feel put upon and deserted. But there's plenty of bulldog in this pretty Detective, belying her laid-back and understated look. Relentlessly, she tracks down the leads that at first point unerringly to the disgruntled and jealous former husband. Soon, however, other possibilities occur, until at last Petra connects with Billy during a climactic, blood-drenched shoot-out that resolves all. An engrossing tale in lean,straightforward prose. Readers leery of Kellerman's style will be hard put to find the purple patches usually associated with it. .
From the Publisher
Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller. . . . The writing is vivid, the suspense sustained, and [he] has arranged one final, exquisitely surprising plot twist to confound the complacent reader.”—People (Book of the Week)
“Riveting . . . nobody evokes Los Angeles better than Jonathan Kellerman.”—Los Angeles Times
JUN/JUL 99 - AudioFile
Apparently, Alexander Adams can be counted on for a solid dramatic presentation that amplifies the original material but never over-shadows it. This holds true for his reading of Jonathan Kellerman's latest thriller about a celebrity murder case and the 12-year-old runaway who holds the key to its solution. Listening to Adams's thoughtful interpretations of Detective Petra Connor, young and homeless Billy Straight, and the various suspects that populate this involving police procedural, it's clear why his readings are on the increase. This is a solid thriller that, in his understated way, Adams makes even better. J.P.M. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine