The 27th Alex Deleware novel, starts with Alex being called by his friend and police detective Milo Sturgis to a particular grizzly murder. A seemingly obnoxious woman has been disembowelled and there are very few clues.

The body count rises as the story progresses, with the victims connected by the method of murder, but little else.

Milo’s superiors increase the pressure on Milo for a resolution, but there is little in sight, until Alex makes a breakthrough…

I’ve been reading Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware for many years now, and after twenty-seven outings the series has still not lost it’s edge. These are strong procedural tales and ‘Victims’ is no exception.

The characters are brought alive by strong and well written dialogue, and you can feel the tension building as the case develops, and Milo and Alex are unable to break the case. The main focus in this story is very much Milo and Alex with other regular characters taking more of a back seat this time. The relationship between the two has the clear hallmarks of any long standing friendship, and the way Jonathan Kellerman brings this out through the descriptions and interactions between the fictional characters is impressive. This is an excellent study in character development and delivery.

The set pieces of procedural investigation are exceptionally well described, with the portrayal of the various settings and elements bringing the pages to life, and drawing the reader in to keep turning page, after page.

Although this is a work of fiction, it is all too believable, with the background and circumstances seemingly being those that could easily have been drawn from a real-life situation. The resolution is also similarly believable, although coming relatively quickly this fits well with the other elements of the story.

If you’re a fan of Jonathan Kellerman, you won’t be disappointed with Victims.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars – I really liked it.