Double Homicide
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.
[...] Elsewhere in the collection, Michael Malone pulls off a courtroom drama most notable for having the best title in the book – “White Trash Noir” – while Parnell Hall’s “Fear of Failure” – about a law office employee investigating a college star’s possibly accidental death – may closely resemble the first half of Jonathan and Faye Kellerman’s 2004 two-in-one DOUBLE HOMICIDE, but manages to be compelling and memorable in its own way. [...]
[...] Following DOUBLE HOMICIDE – Jonathan and Faye Kellerman’s 2004 murder-mystery two-in-one set in the cities of Boston and Santa Fe – the married bestselling authors collaborate once more with CAPITAL CRIMES, whose pair of novellas this time take place in Berkeley and Nashville. Is it the couple’s intent to eventually have the whole country covered, like a literary cousin to Sufjan Stevens’ states-as-CDs project? If so, I will follow. [...]