Sunday, December 5, 2010

Rage by Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman's Rage had me going for about three-quarters of the novel.  Nine years ago a child was murdered and horrifically her killers were children too.  But since the guilty verdicts were handed down people involved in the case have been dying.  First, one of the child murderers is strung up in prison like a classic gang hit.  And most recently, his accomplice took a bullet to the head shortly after his release from prison - on the same evening he called psychologist and police consultant Alex Delaware for help.  Delaware and the gruff (and gay) police Lt. Sturgis go back to the beginning of the case to find out what's really going on.

Rage features the voice acting of John Rubinstein who delivers a punchy staccato performance that I found a great match for a detective story.

However, the novel devolves into the two characters discussing and refining scenarios until finally they come up with a plausible explanation for the case.  Then something completely lame happens to some of the central characters and the entire tale dies with a whimper.  A completely unsatisfactory ending.

Maybe it's because this is one in a series of Kellerman novels featuring the Delaware character.  Maybe I'm missing some backstory.  Maybe the case will be resolved in the next in the series.  I don't know.  And probably won't ever find out.

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