True Detectives: A Novel

By Jonathan Kellerman

In Jonathan Kellerman’s gripping novels, the city of Los Angeles is as much a living, breathing character as the heroes and villains who roam its labyrinthine streets. Sunny on the surface but shadowy beneath, this world of privilege and pleasure has a dark core and a dangerous edge. In True Detectives, Kellerman skillfully brings his renowned gifts for breathless suspense and sharp psychological insight to a tale that resonates on every level and satisfies at every turn.

Bound by blood but divided by troubles as old as Cain and Abel, Moses Reed and Aaron Fox were first introduced in Kellerman’s bestselling Bones. They are sons of the same strong-willed mother, and their respective fathers were cops, partners, and friends. Their turbulent family history has set them at odds, despite their shared calling. Moses—part Boy Scout, part bulldog, man of few words—is a no-frills LAPD detective. Aaron, sharp dresser and smooth operator, is an ex-cop turned high-end private eye. Usually they go their separate ways. But the disappearance of Caitlin Frostig isn’t usual. For Moses, it’s an ice-cold mystery he just can’t outrun, even with the help of psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis. For Aaron, it’s a billable-hours bonanza from his most lucrative client. Like it or not, Moses and Aaron are in this one together–and the rivalry that rules them won’t let either man quit till the case is cracked.

A straight-arrow, straight-A student from Malibu, Caitlin has only two men in her life: her sullen single father and her wholesome college sweetheart, who even the battling brothers agree seems too downright upright to be true. Reluctantly tag-teaming in a desperate search for fresh leads, Moses and Aaron zero in on Caitlin’s white knight as their primary “person of interest,” hoping that, like most people in L.A., he has a secret side.

But they uncover more than just a secret as they descend into the sinister, seamy side of the City of Angels after dark, populated by a Hollywood Babylon cast of the glamorous and the damned: a millionaire movie director turned hatemongering eccentric; a desperate Beverly Hills housewife looking for an exit from the fast lane; a heartthrob actor being eaten alive by personal demons; a hooker who’s probably seen it all . . . and might just know too much. And at the center, a dead young woman whose downward spiral and brutal end loom over Moses and Aaron like an omen of what may come to be if the dark end of the street claims another lost soul.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9780345512529

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, and True Detectives. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he coauthored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. 

Reviews for True Detectives

[momma2_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not an Alex Delaware novel but with all the familiar faces. Coming from the perspectives of two very different detectives and with some very interesting glimpses into their background, this book does not play out in the more typical fashion of other Kellerman books. A good read all around.

[darrol_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Two (half) brothers, one a cop and white, the other a high end private detective and black, are involved in what appears to be two connected abductions. It leads them to a troubled, anorexic actor and a hypocritically religious scumbag of a film director who abuses his wife. The scumbag fathers a child on a woman who is then truly abducted. By whom would be telling. An interesting twist on the detective sleeping with the perpetrator (or in this case, a guilty party). The mother the brothers share is an interesting, flamboyant character. Alex Delaware does not play much of a part. I also enjoyed the subplot of the private detective's undercover, female associate.

[kraaivrouw · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm fond of Jonathan Kellerman's books, but this one was a disappointment.Generally, his books are well-plotted with interesting well-developed characters & unusual spins on behavior that keep me absorbed & in suspense. I also really like his wife's books (Faye Kellerman) & I enjoy the way they mix their LA characters into each other's worlds. It makes the world of their LA more real somehow.This book is okay, but just okay. The characters are okay, the plot is okay, it's just kind of flat & okay. It feels perfunctory in the way a series starts to feel when the author has written too many too fast for too long & is running out of ideas &/or desire (see also, Patricia Cornwell). Kellerman's writing about new characters here, but it still falls flat. Hopefully the next one out will have improved. He's capable of writing great mysteries/thrillers which makes this one even more disappointing.

[phoenixcomet · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I prefer the Alex Delaware novels. The brothers are interesting, but the friendship between Alex and Milo is more compelling than the antagonism between the brothers, one a private detective and one a cop.

[wiccked · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A bit slow to start, I thought. And I don't like Moe and Aaron as much as I like Alex and Milo.By the time I finished the book though, I'd definitely enjoyed it.

[reannon_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is loosely tied to Kellerman's Alex Delaware series, about a psychologist who consults often with the police. In the last book in the series, Kellerman introduced two new detectives, Aaron Fox and Moses Reed.. They are brothers with the same mother, but different fathers. Aaron, the older, is the son of a black cop, and Moe is the son of a white cop who was the black cop's partner. The brothers do not get along. Reed is a policeman while Fox is a private detective. Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis, the main characters for most of the series, almost don't show up in this novel at all. It is all about Reed and Fox. They wind up on the same case of a college student who has been missing for a year and a half. Their antagonism is sometimes put aside for the sake of solving the case.The story is a good one, though perhaps a little overlong. The new guys are good, and one of the best characters is their mother. But I miss both Alex and Milo.

[jsharpmd · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book more than most I have read recently. Alex Delaware, Milo Sturgis, Petra Connor play peripheral roles as "consultants;" Petra more than the others. The main detective is Moses Reed and his brother Aaron Fox is a Private Investigator and ex policeman. Moses is white, Aaron is black both having the same mother but different fathers. Their long relationship and feelings toward one another was featured, as well as how the relationship changes. The story of searching for the killer was well told.

[jenniferthomp75 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Kellerman's books are a guilty pleasure of mine. When I need a break from YA fiction, I tend to grab the latest Kellerman mystery. This one revolves around half-brothers Aaron and Moe, who do not get along. One is a private eye, the other a LAPD detective. They realize they have to work together in order to solve a mystery. The book was fun, but I find their relationship lacking. Perhaps this is a new venture for Kellerman, who touched on this characters in a previous book. I haven't become attached to either one yet, so hopefully the next one will grab me. While most of the plotting is interesting, a side story involving a female working for Aaron, is strange and ultimately goes nowhere. The book would've been fine without it.

[she_climber · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a spin-off book from the Alex Delaware series and I struggled to get into it and found that it was not a book that I was eagerly making and finding time to read. Being a huge fan of the Alex Delaware series I found this disappointing. The thing I found most interesting was the celebrity character Lem Dement seemed to be, in my mind, based on Mel Gibson . .. Lem v.s. Mel - is it just me? Hoping that Kellerman goes back to the Delaware novels with a more engaging story line next time.