Crime Scene by Jonathon & Jesse Kellerman
Clay Edison is deputy coroner for Berkeley and has a heavy workload. He’s committed to his work and has little time for anything else. So when a case comes along that introduces him to the quirky but beautiful Tatiana Rennert, Clay finds himself drawn away from his obsession.
Walter Rennert was a renowned psychologist involved in an experimental investigation into the way in which violent video games affect the mind. His trials went bad when one of this subjects, a black man of low intelligence, was convicted of murdering a female member of the research team. Rennert resigns in disgrace. It’s when the reclusive psychologist is found dead at home by his daughter that Clay is brought on board. But the fastidious deputy coroner is reluctant to rule the death as being from natural causes despite all evidence to the contrary, maybe because Tatiana has attracted his attentions and distracted him with her wily feminine charms.
As Edison investigates the deceased’s life, he begins to see that there might be questions that need answered before the case can be closed. When yet another member of the research team is also discovered to have died recently, Edison becomes convinced that he is missing quite a few chapters in the story.
Clay finds thread after thread and tugs. What unravels is a web of deceit and injustice stretching back decades. Has the wrong man been convicted of the researcher’s death? Is the killer still on the loose? Does anyone care? Rebel Voice doesn’t.
This is a poor book not worthy of an involved review. The plot, whilst twisty, is not enticing. It’s fairly mundane to be honest, with a lacklustre feel to both story-line and characters. There are thousands of murder-mystery books out there, so when authors decides to tackle this topic they really need to come up with something, or someone, different. Crime Scene is not an example of a new approach.
The Kellerman family are well-known as successful authors. Rebel Voice has read a number of their offerings over the years and reviewed one other on this site. The verdict of this reviewer is that they are all somewhat over-rated. Crime Scene puts two of the family together and the book is doubly boring as a result. OK, there is a link to the Alex Delaware character created by Jonathon Kellerman, and Rebel Voice does enjoy those types of connections but, sadly, even that couldn’t redeem this bland fare.
Sult scale rating: 3.5 out of 10. This is a run-of-the-mill novel that is nowhere near as good as Jonathon Kellerman can write, and that’s not saying much. Rebel Voice recommends giving this book a miss as it smacks of financial opportunism. It will likely bore any of you that bother with it.
Here is another review of Jonathon Kellerman’s work:
https://rebelvoice.blog/2017/08/24/the-heartbreak-hotel/
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