What do You think about A Cold Heart (2003)?
“The witness remembers it like this:…”The LAPD are perplexed when a middle-aged blues guitarist and a promising young artist with a druggy past are murdered in quick succession. Petra Conner, reserved detective with a recent break-up, and Alex Delaware, ex-police psychologist, are both intrigued by the cases and feel duty-bound to follow them up.This had the potential to be a great thriller – two sort-of linked cases, both of which are pretty cold, with tenacious investigators, and all sorts of crazy characters lurking on the sidelines. The main characters are strong, tough people with recent personal relationship issues but no bizarre behaviour which can be so limiting in police procedurals.HOWEVER.The two main characters (ignoring Milo, who according the blurb is the lynchpin but I didn’t even know who he was when I read the blurb again to do this review) are so similar, with such similar recent relationship troubles, and both perspectives are told in the first person singular, that I actually got the characters mixed up and was really confused when they seemed to be hanging out with people they didn’t know.Ergo – narrative weakness. And when the plot hadn’t grabbed me by page 100 enough to overcome the extremely confusing double/same character issue, on the DNF list it went.
—Yvann S
There is a lot to like about this novel for fans of Kellerman's Alex Delaware series. We see both Milo Sturgis and Petra Connor work the case. Also, we see Petra, who usually works solo, given a partner who has major quirks. Kellerman does a great job of shading in just enough of his backstory to keep the reader interested without disrupting the plot.So why did I only give it three stars? It had to do with the tricky business of dropping clues. Most of the mystery writers that I enjoy give just enough of a hint when the bad guy is introduced that I think "this might possibly be the guy." Sometimes I have no idea at all during the introduction, and that is fine as long as some hint is dropped before the climax, even if it is disguised in a very clever manner. My problem with A Cold Heart was that the clue at the introduction was too revealing. I had one of those Adrian Monk "That's the guy" moments where the whodunit element was absolutely over. As a fan of Alex, Milo, and Petra I still enjoyed the remainder of the book, but had to do so in the context of a police procedural rather than a whodunit.
—RJ
A few years ago, I got tired of Dr. Alex Delaware to say nothing of author, Jonathan Kellerman and his increasingly weird plots. I must say, though, with this novel, they are both back.The story covers the pursuit of a serial killer who appears to be murdering people because he or she is jealous of their rising success. A series of supposedly unrelated killings are eventually identified as being the probable work of one person. Kellerman uses an interesting approach by following three people as they work to solve the case. Dr. Alex Delaware, presented in the first person and the core narrator, Petra Connor, a homicide detective and Milo Sturgis, a cold case detective and Delaware's usual sidekick. By dividing the story three ways, Kellerman is able to put aside the restrictions of Delaware's first person narration and broaden the story in interesting ways. It made the plot more enticing and kept the reader guessing as the three major characters collected information without them or us knowing how important any of it was.Kellerman brings in a cast of interesting supporting characters as usual. Using Los Angeles as a backdrop gives the author an opportunity to introduce all sorts of weirdos, particularly Detective Eric Stahl, an ex-special forces member assigned to be Connor's partner. We also get to meet a number of underground Hollywood losers, all of whom contribute to the unfolding plot.The story's ending is satisfying without being too neat. I'm glad I picked this up to read.
—Ed
