Book Review - "Evidence," an Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman

A half built mansion is a question mark that starts the novel. The structure is owned by a fabulously wealthy sultan from a small country very close to Indonesia similar to Brunei. He is Muslim, but also adheres to older pagan customs. It seems his younger brother, while in the US, may have been killed, after killing a girl. Based on pagan custom, the brother's soul needs to have his last home lie fallow, i.e. undisturbed. The half finished mansion seems to fit this strange description.

In the mansion grounds, which have a guard, cops find the bodies of a woman and man. The man has been shot, the woman has been strangled and raped with a gun.

A mysterious woman enters the scene. She is a half sister of the girl the younger brother is alleged to have murdered. In the novel, Delaware and Sturgis find that she first tried to have the house dynamited, to punish the brother's soul. Then, later, she successfully dynamites it.

The first time, she paid $50,000 to the murdered woman and man to do her work. They took the money and skipped LA to go north. This duo, when younger, were found to have been part of an eco terrorist group. Along with two friends, they formed a vicious activist foursome.

At a storage shed tied to the murdered couple, the surveillance camera shows a man taking off with a suitcase. It is believed that the suitcase contained the money taken by the couple. Presumably, they gave up the location of the storage shed under torture.

In the meantime, the woman who allegedly destroyed the structure is arrested. Since she is not strip searched, and is wearing a wig, she removes a vial of poison from the wig and commits suicide. Her mission to punish the brother is complete. Fortunately for Detective Milo Sturgis, Delaware's co-investigator, the assisting FBI agent was responsible for the woman not being stripped searched.

In the meantime, cops find a hanger with several Indonesian planes. In one of them, under a tarmac, lies the corpse of the girl murdered by the missing brother.

This novel continues the tradition of clever and persistent psychological insight and police work expected from Kellerman/Delaware stories. Alex and his Homicide Division partner, Sturgis, tie the dots together to solve a set of sadistic murders.

Norman E. Hill, FSA, MAAA, Member AICPA, ASCPA NoraLyn Ltd. Books By Hills

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