Mystery: An Alex Delaware Novel

When Lt. Milo Sturgis of LAPD homicide asks psychologist Alex Delaware to view the faceless corpse of a young woman in Kellerman's enjoyable if only average 26th Alex Delaware novel (after Deception), Alex is shocked to recognize the gunshot victim as someone he and wife, Robin, saw the night before in a restaurant bar. A link turns out to exist between the dead woman and a sinister-looking man Alex and Robin observed outside the bar that night. An anonymous tip leads to an online service that matches "sugar daddies" with "star-quality sweeties." The victim, who called herself "Mystery," had a "daddy," Markham McReynolds, whose wealthy, anything-goes family offers plenty of suspects, including McReynolds's wife, two sons, and two daughters-in-law. Kellerman's bantering detectives make it look almost too easy as they put together the clues and possible scenarios, despite the unusual solution to the crime. (Apr.)