Evidence By Jonathan Kellerman Random House Large Print, 2009, 512 pages ISBN 978-0-7393-7734-5 Genre: Mystery

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - November 13, 2009

This is Jonathan Kellerman's twenty-fourth Alex Delaware novel. The story moves along in the usual Kellerman manner – driven by interesting reasonable deductions rather than action - with the usual surprise ending, an unexpected twist due to the late discovery of new information. All in all, an excellent engrossing tale. Two vignettes stand out: the interview with old George Kaplan is finely drawn and Milos's interrogation of a suspect near the end of the novel where he cleverly uncovers lie after lie.

Nevertheless, the book seems to drag a little at times. More significantly, although supposedly an Alex Delaware novel, Alex has a very small role, indeed he seems to just tag along as an almost immobile robot who responds to questions when asked. In fact, most of the characters, with the exception of Milo and George Kaplan, could have been portrayed more elaboratively. Robin, Alex's love life, is only shown in love situations. Police officers, who appear in past Kellerman novels, are generally mentioned without any explanation how they affected Delaware in the past.

These are small matters. One can always find fault, or think he can, in an excellent book that is well worth the time to read.

Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.israelbooks.com.

• True Detectives, by Jonathan Kellerman.
  A police officer who was involved in a disappearance case for over a year, discovers that his brother, a private detective, is also on the case. The two brothers, unable to get along, work separately to search for the missing woman. They discover murders and other crimes and a wide assortment of interesting and unusual characters.
  
  
• Double Homicide, by Jonathan & Faye Kellerman.
  Two unique crime stories, one set in Boston and one in Santa Fe. The only commonality of the two stories is that they both take place during the Christmas season, and both are stories of murder and suspense.