Cold cases are the bane of most detectives' lives, but when a case is so old it's almost frozen, that's when the going gets truly tough.
In Jonathan Kellerman’s novel Serpentine, Detective Milo Sturgess is presented with a cold case from 36 years ago, a case that has been pushed into the limelight after a conversation at a charity dinner for the Los Angeles elite. A relative of the victim sits next to a rich friend of a woman who has police connections. The last-mentioned offers to help, then passes the case along to a state assemblyman, who hands it to the mayor, who hands it to the Chief of Police, who bounces it to his deputy, who dumps it on the desk of Milo Sturgess.
Needing another perspective on the case, Sturgess ropes in his long-time friend and case partner, psychologist Alex Delaware. Together, they set about delving into the history of the case, meeting dead-end after dead-end. Several detectives have been tasked with solving the case in the past, but none of them has achieved anything; in fact, most of them have passed on. But as more information becomes available, and other cold cases from the same era start to come to light, it would appear that the original case could be one of murder, as opposed to the accident it appeared to be.
Bodies pile up, and the story takes some wonderfully unexpected turns, the hallmark of a master of his craft such as Kellerman. Fans of the Delaware/Sturgis team will certainly not be disappointed by this latest novel in the series, and it is highly-recommended reading.
One little irritation, but maybe this is just me reacting - whenever Sturgis and Delaware drive anywhere in Los Angeles (and they cover many miles during this case), Kellerman describes their route in explicit detail, as though one should know the geography of the city in minute detail. Don't let this put you off, though.
Serpentine is published by Century, part of the Penguin Random House group of companies. ISBN: 978-1-780-89906-0 – Barry Meehan
Posts
