Children deserve better
Idon’t know offhand how many literary homicide detectives there are in Los Angeles, but if they were all assigned the same cases the line would stretch halfway to Chicago — nearly to New York were the number of LA private eyes included. While their private lives differ, on the job they are much the same.
Jonathan Kellerman’s Lieutenant Milo Sturgis is gay and eats like there’s no tomorrow, is intelligent and has experiencebased instincts. His edge is his friend whom he turns to when he reaches a dead end in a case. Alex Delaware, like the author, is a psychologist. Out of friendship, and for a fee, the Police Department takes him on as a consultant.
Alex has a live-in girlfriend, Robin, building and repairing classical instruments. For decades the two men have successfully combated serious crimes, saving each other’s lives in the process. They share a wry sense of humour, bringing smiles to the faces of readers now and again.
Not that Guilt, under review, is a chuckler. Its theme is children, from babies on, who are unwanted, killed, given away or neglected. Apparently this isn’t uncommon and hasn’t been for ages. More than a few women shouldn’t have children. At least as many fathers haven’t any sort of fatherly instinct.
Buried infants are accidentally uncovered, one from the 1950s, and hundreds of pages are spent identifying the skeletal remains. The smiles come from the elderly they interview. Such as the octogenarian still dating sexually. It’s a myth that age and senility go hand in hand. The memories of oldesters is often clear as a bell.
Grown women are murdered, too. Clues lead to the mansion of a Hollywood superstar, whose screen idol husband hires the most luscious prostitutes for huge fees. However, one of the women wants more than the fee and a car thrown in, but the whole enchilada by his getting her pregnant.
Kellerman knows his subject and is telling us that this is how the mega-rich live, their faces washed out from heroin. They drive the world’s costliest cars. The offspring of prostitutes are buried. Their mothers as well when they become a nuisance.
For women who are pregnant but don’t want their babies, Alex is against abortion. Rather, he recommends adoption by couples who desire them and have been checked out.