When a case seems too easy to solve, chances are the wrong person has been identified as the killer. Sophie Barlow is found sitting at her kitchen table, ligature marks around her neck. A plastic bowl on the table, being used as an ashtray, contains Marlboro Gold butts. Testing finds that DNA on the filters is a match to Michael Heck, Sophie’s ex. Unfortunately, Heck has an ironclad alibi. He was 120 miles away in a La Jolla hotel with another woman. Although Heck refuses to identify the woman, saying she’s married, CCTV footage backs up his story.
Licking his wounds, Los Angeles Police Detective Milo Sturgis shows up at Alex Delaware’s house. The psychologist often consults on cases with Sturgis, but is at a loss to explain how Heck could have been in two places at once. Sophie’s murder will have to be put on a back burner when Milo is called to another crime scene, one that hits close to home.
The body of an elderly woman is found in her freezer, her arms cut off and placed around the torso. Martha Joline Matthias was once an LA detective and Milo had worked with her. Finding her body in such gruesome fashion, is a shock, as is the condition of her home, a hoarder’s den. Newspapers, magazines, books, and other trash is stacked up in each room. When police officers begin to search through the piles, they find bags of money. Did someone know about Martha’s stash and, after robbing her, killed her?
Neighbors know little about Martha, saying she kept to herself. But Milo is able to discover she had a daughter diagnosed as developmentally disabled who has been living in a home for compromised adults. A visit to the facility, however, finds that the young woman is missing. And when she, too, is found dead, dumped in a trash container, Milo now has three women whose murders may be linked.
Alex’s wife, Robin, repairs wooden musical instruments, often those owned by famous entertainers. In the past, what Alex does for the police often frightened Robin, so he is careful what he shares with her. Telling her about Martha’s body, however, Robin says a jigsaw was most likely used to dismember the body. That clue helps Milo narrow his search for the killer.
As a gay man married to a physician, Milo has been an outlier at the LAPD. It doesn’t help that he’s overweight with a voracious appetite (his first stop in Alex’s home is the refrigerator), and not a clothes horse. But his close rate is the best in the department. He also holds a bonus card, knowing something about his superior officer that would end that man’s career.
Although Alex’s professional focus is on children, particularly in divorce situations, his a ability to detect clues that the police might overlook is a valuable asset for Milo. Over the years, the two have formed a close relationship and, for the reader, it’s always a pleasure to have a front row seat as they zero in on the killer.
Those familiar with Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series won’t want to miss this one. Newbies will want to start at the top with the first, When the Bough Breaks, published in 1985, followed by 39 others. Yes, 39! Writer’s block isn’t something Kellerman deals with, coming out with one book a year, quite a feat!
Jigsaw
Jonathan Kellerman
Top Bigstock photo by somchaij
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