Guilt

by Jonathan Kellerman,  Ballantine Books, February 2013 

...the energy and suspense have gone out of this series for me

Guilt is the newest offering in the long running Alex Delaware series.  The early books in this series emphasized the psychological skills and interest of Delaware.  They were taut thrillers.  In the more recent books, Milo Sturgis, Delaware’s police lieutenant pal has become a central character as the series has moved into a more straightforward murder mystery type story.

 In this novel a series of seemingly connected events in an upscale LA neighborhood start the story.  The bones of an infant long dead are found buried in a yard of a home.  Nearby, the body of a woman and the bones of a second infant are found.  Milo conducts the investigation that leads to a power Hollywood couple (read Brad and Angelina) and their unusual life style. There are a few twists and turns before the murderer(s) are identified in the improbable ending.

As you can probably tell from my tepid review of this book, the energy and suspense have gone out of this series for me.  I find these stories to be just average police murder mysteries.  The characters have become predictable in their actions and the endings of these stories wildly unrealistic.  I will pass on the next book in this series.

I read a copy of this book provided by the publisher.