City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman is a title sent to me by the wonderful people over at Penguin Random House. This is another read I outsourced to Louisa, as she loves this kind of book. Here’s her review.

City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman

I have read all Jonathan Kellerman’s books and hoped that the City of the Dead would somehow be different. Sadly it was similar to all the other books just with a different plot.

The book starts with a naked man being run over by a van, and the lead detective, Milo Sturgis, calls in Alex Delaware, the psychologist. Unfortunately, I fail to understand why Milo always calls in Alex, as he and his team are more than capable of solving their cases.

There has been no growth in Alex Delaware’s character since he first appeared as the main character in Jonathan Kellerman’s books. He is living with his girlfriend Robin, so that hasn’t changed. They barely exchange a dozen words, and you do not really get an insight into their relationship. Alex is always neat and tidy and uses his words sparingly, and comes across as a know-it-all psychologist who thinks he is superior to everyone else and can do no wrong. I see him as a wooden character, too good to be true. 

City of the Dead follows the same pattern as all the other Kellerman books, and you know on page one already that Alex Delaware will step in and solve the case for big man Milo.

It is quite a boring book, and I hope any future book by Jonathan Kellerman brings a bit more oomph into his main characters.

Do you agree?

I’d love to hear what you think about this title. Please leave a comment below.