Publishers Weekly
12/12/2016
L.A. psychologist Alex Delaware specializes in “evaluating the mental health of injured, neglected, or traumatized children,” but in Edgar-winner Kellerman’s so-so 32nd series entry (after 2016’s Breakdown) he accepts the invitation of 99-year-old Thalia Mars, a retired accountant, to meet her at the Aventura, the hotel where she lives on Sunset Boulevard. The charming Thalia asks Alex to share with her “the current psychological wisdom with regard to guilt” without explaining why she’s interested in this topic. Tired, she ends their interview after a short while, but Alex agrees to visit her the following day to continue the discussion. On returning to the Aventura, he learns to his sorrow that Thalia has died, just weeks before her 100th birthday. Alex is angered when an alert paramedic finds evidence that Thalia didn’t die of natural causes. Alex and his friend on the LAPD, Milo Sturgis, look into Thalia’s past in an effort to identity the killer and the motive. The psychological insights Alex typically displays are few and barely relevant to the inquiry or its solution. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
Easy to dive into for mystery fans unfamiliar with the series, and a welcome treat for readers who have been with Officer Sturgis and Dr. Delaware since the beginning.”—Booklist
Praise for Jonathan Kellerman
“Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times
“Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.”—Detroit Free Press
“A master of the psychological thriller.”—People
FEBRUARY 2017 - AudioFile
Narrator John Rubinstein has portrayed child psychologist Alex Delaware, LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis, and Alex's live-in girlfriend, Robin Castagna, for several years. This police procedural is really historical research on the murder victim, nearly 100-year old Thalia Mars. Rubinstein delivers the excellent descriptions of the luxurious Aventura hotel, various bars, and apartments like he's actually there. Funny, sounding almost lighthearted at times, Rubinstein also provides appropriate variations in pacing and tone. The intricate plot is filled with twists and turns, and includes a final surprise at the end. Rubinstein seems to enjoy narrating this engaging mystery populated with old-time gangsters, a femme fatale, a long-ago jewel heist, and hidden treasure. Listeners will be delighted with the story and with Rubinstein's presentation. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2016-12-06
Child psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware (Breakdown, 2016, etc.) deals with his oldest client yet, a deceptively sweet old lady who gently importunes him to provide his services but dies without explaining why. About to celebrate your own centennial? Better not call the genre's most celebrated psychologist. Like Thalia Mars, a CPA who retired from the Los Angeles Assessor's Office before you were born, you may not live to keep your second appointment with him. When an observant paramedic sees signs that Thalia, against all odds, was helped into the great beyond, Alex resolves to avenge his client. The job is made more difficult by the fact that in their one meeting at her digs at the Aventura Hotel, where everyone swears that they loved her to pieces, Thalia asked about guilt only in the most general terms, and she seems to have long outlived everyone and everything that could possibly have made her feel guilty. Attaching himself to his always-accommodating buddy Lt. Milo Sturgis, LAPD, Alex questions Thalia's broker, Joe Manucci; her driver, Leon Creech; and the Aventura staff, not all of whom will survive their first interview either. When the trail seems to vanish into the distant past, he enlists UCLA history professor Maxine Driver and the extensive public records available on the Aventura and Thalia's long-dead lover, bootlegger Leroy Hoke, to nose out further suspects and complications until he's able to connect Thalia's present-day nemesis with her storied past. Entertaining as the conscientious excavation of ancient misdeeds is, it all ends up having disappointingly little to do with the motive and the culprit in the unlikely murder of the tale's most charming character.
