I have told you this before, and I will tell you now. Jonathan Kellerman continues to amaze, dazzle, delight and entertain. There are few authors who can make new readers of their work so immediately comfortable with their characters as Kellerman can.

Alex Delaware, a child and forensic psychologist, is an eye of sanity in the maelstrom of contemporary Los Angeles, and has been so for the 30-plus years’ existence of this series. He has assisted in murder investigations at the request of his good friend, LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis, a droll but extremely sharp investigator and interrogator. While Alex is ostensibly compensated for his time, one gets the sense that he would do what he does for the police for free; indeed, he occasionally interjects himself into the proceedings in a manner above and beyond the call of duty. This brings us to the newly published NIGHT MOVES, which continues Kellerman’s practice of making his latest books among his best.

"NIGHT MOVES is simply the best. As with its predecessors, it is narrated in Alex’s somewhat world-weary but cautiously optimistic voice filtered through Kellerman’s straightforward, workmanlike and always perfect prose."

Kellerman wastes little time in immersing his readers and characters into the heart of the story. It begins with Alex accompanying Milo to a single-family home in an upscale neighborhood. They discover a corpse whose face has been obliterated by a shotgun blast and whose hands have been removed. Care obviously has been taken to keep the police or anyone else from determining the identity of the deceased. The homeowners profess to have no idea. Something about them is way off, though. The Corvin family, consisting of Chet and Felice, as well as an adolescent daughter and son, are frighteningly dysfunctional. Think of the Al and Peg Bundy clan, but without the charm, warmth, love and mutual respect.

Chet’s aggressive cheerfulness and concrete certainty about everything that passes within his notice are particularly aggravating and wearing, not only upon his family but also upon Alex and Milo. He, of course, has no idea why anyone would dump a mutilated corpse in his home office, but he wants Alex and Milo to determine the who and the why, if not necessarily the how. Milo, with some invaluable help from Alex, manages to figure out all three, as well as a couple of southern California cold cases and a subsequent murder or two. It makes for a plot that eventually becomes complex, but is never boring or obtuse. Kellerman’s utilization of the ever-expanding and always-changing greater Los Angeles area as a carousel of backdrops is well worth the price of the book.

Oh, and in the course of one of the many memorable vignettes here, an improbable story is told about an incident in a San Francisco strip club involving a dancer and a piano. I said “improbable,” but it’s 100% real-world true.

NIGHT MOVES is simply the best. As with its predecessors, it is narrated in Alex’s somewhat world-weary but cautiously optimistic voice filtered through Kellerman’s straightforward, workmanlike and always perfect prose. Pay your hard-earned money for some worthwhile entertainment and read this book. You won’t be disappointed.