Wednesday, July 20, 2022

City of the Dead (Alex Delaware #37)

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City of the Dead is the 37th Alex Delaware procedural mystery by Jonathan Kellerman. Released 8th Feb 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. 

This has been such a solid and dependable long-running series. The returning characters are so well defined at this point, with so much background written in, that they really seem to live and breathe. Dr. Delaware himself is always insightful and the "odd couple" aspects of his relationship with Milo Sturgis are fun and engaging to read. I don't think I'm familiar with a series which is this long running which doesn't have moments which feel less vital and less well written. This series has delivered solidly since 1985 which is stupendous. 

This is a modern procedural and, as in the other books, the descriptions and themes can be graphic. There are aspects of aberrant psychology or behavior and themes which may be upsetting for some readers. 

The mystery itself and all necessary back-story are written in, so it works quite well as a standalone. I recommend the whole series, but readers who are new to the characters won't have any trouble keeping up. 

Four stars. A solid mystery in a solid, very long-running series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

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