Unnatural History - Alex Delaware #38

 

Unnatural History is the 38th Alex Delaware procedural mystery by Jonathan Kellerman. Released 7th Feb 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, large print paperback, 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 very 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 Detective 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, and that the author continues to deliver without feeling too formulaic or "phoned in" is unbelievably wonderful.

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 is straightforward in this case, the shooting death of a young artist scion of a very odd, very wealthy family with an extremely reclusive patriarch. Alex Delaware is called in by Milo to try and untangle the odd family dynamics, and as always, his observations are vital to the solving of the case.

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. This series would make a superlative buddy/binge/summer vacation read, or a year long project for a mystery book club. Highly successful, it's already on public library acquisition lists, but if not, it's a must have.

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 11 hours 11 minutes and is capably narrated by long time series narrator John Rubinstein. Mr. Rubinstein does a superb job juggling the different characters and his baritone voice manages to go from adenoidal whiny to gravelly and hard-boiled (Milo) without a single hiccup. Sound and production quality are very high throughout the read.

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

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