Twisted: A Novel by Jonathan Kellerman

Kellerman hits home run, January 22, 2005****


As a longtime fan of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware/Milo Sturgis novels, I have been less impessed with some of his recent work. This novel, featuring detective Petra Connor who starred in a couple of previous novels, ranks among his better yarns.

Two main plots underpin the story. One involves the shooting of several teenagers on the parking lot of Club Paradiso on Sunset Boulevard, one of whom remains unidentified. The second plot involves the discovery by boy genius Isaac Gomez,a Ph.D. student interning at the police station where Petra is based, of six murders on June 28 of different years by a hard blow to the base of the skull.The victims come from diverse backgrounds and appear unrelated.

Petra tracks down the culprits in the Paradiso shootings but is suspended because she didn't play by the rules and leave the apprehension to the downtown LA gangbuster task force. While suspended, Petra continues to pursue the idea that a serial killer is at work in the June 28 killings. Meanwhile Isaac becomes involved with a middle-aged librarian who comes up with a key to the mystery in an old book. This reinforces Petra's view as to the likely suspect being the husband of the first known victim. While she and her partner Eric stakeout the suspect, Isaac boots up his computer and realizes that they have missed an important clue. Singlehandedly, he apprehends the killer and catches himself a beautiful girlfriend in the process.

I would like to see more adventures featuring Isaac but I alsso miss Alex and hope to see him again soon.