GREAT BOOK IN A GREAT SERIES

At a rich people’s do, Andrea Bauer hears 2 women talk about a 36-year old unsolved murder and decides to pull some strings. Ellie Barker’s mother was shot and burned in ‘her’ car. She employed several PI’s but never got an answer to what had happened. Now Milo is put on the case with the help of his friend psychologist Alex Delaware. At first reluctant, they dive into the case and find out that there were already 3 detectives who investigated this over the years, but none of them had any success. 2 of them have died since then; the third one says that he felt that he was put up to fail. Atypical here is that almost everybody is very friendly and helpful, maybe even too helpful?

This is another great story in this series. The investigation meanders in every possible direction and you never know what part of which conversation will be relevant. But you know that Milo and Alex will find the pieces of this puzzle and put it all together. That’s something I really like in these books, real old school police leg-work (well, cars here) without fancy CSI or DNA miracles or heroic chases and shootings by super-cops. Although there is some DNA testing going on, it’s not the thing that solves everything.
Kellerman always gives very good directions and road descriptions. I’m certain that locals can trace the journeys they make without much effort. If you’re like me, you look up some of the places on Google earth and such. Of course, I won’t check out all the details but sometimes I’m just curious what the area or scenery looks like.
Also usual is that the detective and doctor consume a lot of delicious meals in various establishments or out of Alex’s larder and fridge. Milo isn’t too happy when they meet a witness in a place with organic apple-juice that doesn’t look too pretty. I always get hungry when I read books by Kellerman!
There are a lot of accidental deaths in this story, not only amongst the witnesses or people remotely involved but even amongst the police. But there are also a lot of nice and friendly characters in this story. Milo brokers an unexpected friendship between 2 lonely women that could be a mother and daughter age-wise (but they’re not). He’s a secret softie at times.
I received a free ARC from Netgalley and Random House UK and this is my honest and unbiased review of it.