Never read Jonathan Kellerman. Never read Faye Kellerman. And had no desire to. But DOUBLE HOMICIDE – in which the bestselling husband and wife work together for the first time – was an intriguing concept of two short crime novels in one, each set in and capturing the flavor of a major American city.
Both novellas take place at Christmastime and follow a pair of detectives on their investigation of a murder. In Boston, a college basketball superstar is shot dead at a club, apparently by a rival team member. In Santa Fe, a prestigious art dealer with a long list of enemies is found at home with his head smashed to mush. While the procedurals are well-written, what I liked most was how humanized the detectives were, as roughly half the stories are devoted to their personal lives, past and present.
This book has come under a lot of flak from the Kellermans’ considerable fan base, apparently because the result of their merger is different from their solo work, but I enjoyed it and got caught up in both mini-mysteries, each of which reads like a solid episode of CSI. I still have no compelling interest in the Kellermans’ separate novels, but if they choose to continue DOUBLE HOMICIDE as a franchise, I’ll gladly play along.
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