Billy Straight

Billy is 12 and lives in a trailer park in Watson, California - a small town, north from LA. He had never known his father and his mother had made all kinds of bad choices, including the latest man she decided to live with - a man who amused himself by abusing and hitting Billy to the point where the boy decides that he had had enough and runs away. When the novel opens and we meet Billy, he had been in LA for 4 months and had found a way to survive. Until the night he sees a woman being killed anyway.

The murder is in the Hollywood division and get assigned to Petra Connor (who we met in "Survival of the Fittest") and her senior partner Stu Bishop. The boy is long gone by the time the police shows up so it takes awhile for them to show more realize that they have a witness, let alone who he is. The victim is Lisa Ramsey, the ex-wife of a famous TV actor - and nothing in her death adds up.

Stu Bishop is unusually distracted so Petra ends up doing most of the work. With the victim belonging to the famous and powerful set, the investigation soon gets out from the division and other detectives need to be pulled in. Clues and details pile up, things get more and more complicated when people start disappearing before the police can talk to them. And somewhere in there, the target is painted on Billy (because Petra's superiors are more concerned with image than with his well-being). He is already running but that adds an additional layer to it.

Kellerman uses a double POV here - Billy in the first for half of the chapters, Petra in the third for most of the rest plus a few non-POV chapters to get us some details that neither of the two see (plus a few killer's chapters). There is a very limited number of people who could have done it but it is a throwaway line in the thoughts of the killer very late in the novel that finally let us know who the killer really is - a few pages before Petra discovers it (and a few hours after Stu start having suspicions that the story they think they know is not what it seems).

As much as the murder and its consequences are the base of the novel, Billy and Petra are as important and we get a lot of background on both of them - some of it heartbreaking (most of it in Billy's story), some of it just moving. And somewhere in all that ugliness, there is also love and laughter, people who do good just because they can and family reunions and drama (with all they entail). But there are also villains - some of them comically stupid, especially if they are compared with the main villain.

Milo Sturgis is name-checked by Petra a few times, Alex Delaware shows up in the last chapter to help Billy. It is a good start of a new series but if anyone expects a less gory series than the main Delaware series, that won't work for them. show less

Kellerman's thrillers are never disappointing. His characters; main, secondary, and even bit; are well-drawn and genuine. In this, the first Petra Connor novel, a young runaway witnesses the murder of the wife of a TV star and Petra immediately suspects said TV star. Kellerman alternates between the viewpoints of Petra, Billy the runaway, the killer, and a couple of other interested parties, but it's not as jarring as this can sometimes be. I really liked how Kellerman got into Billy's head and really conveyed his youth, his fear, and his survival acumen without dumbing him down. I found myself reading really fast toward the end because I wanted to make sure Billy was going to be okay. It was quite suspenseful. I look forward to reading show more more of this series, since I've only read his Alex Delaware books before. show less

Lisa, the estranged wife of TV superstar cop Cart Ramsey, is found murdered in a Los Angeles park. She'd divorced him for cruelty and the detectives on the case, Petra Connor and Stu Bishop, immediately elevate him to No 1 suspect. But a thorough investigation of the scene reveals that there was probably a witness to the killing. Reading the evidence on the ground Petra and Stu believe it is a homeless man, but in fact it is a homeless boy – Billy Straight. He knows he has vital evidence, but he is too scared of being returned to his former existence to come forward. As Billy battles with his conscience, Petra and Stu have plenty of other leads to follow and a dual narrative of stunning complexity and suspense develops until they show more eventually combine into a single crescendo of tension. Jonathan Kellerman has produced a thriller which is genuinely unputdownable. show less

An twelve year old boy witnesses a murder in a park. He has already fled an abusive home situation and now he is on the run from a murderer. Petra Connor, a beautiful, tough and talented LAPD detective is assigned to the case with her partner who is distracted because his wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. All leads point to the victim's husband but it all looks too pat.

We are also introduced to the boy's background where we witness the life his mother has created for the two of them. The man she now lives with is brutal to both of them and eventually the boy, Billy flees to LA hiding in parks which is how he happened to see the murder. Even in flight, he has the misfortune to run into crazies who want to take his money or show more use him for sex. Kellerman sure paints an unattractive picture of life in LA after dark.

An intriguing read that has many characters who come in and out of the narrative much like they would in real life. A page turner. show less

Ok, I am giving up. I don't think there's anything that could make me go back to this book. It's not badly written and the story seems interesting, but I just cannot stay with it.

One of Kellerman's few novels not focusing on forensic psychologist Alex Delaware, this one tells the story of a bright runaway boy who witnesses a brutal murder. Well-written and suspenseful, with adequate character development. But not up to the caliber of his Delaware books.

I still miss Milo in the books by Kellerman... But this time the story was written from police point of view in stead of Delawere's. That's okay too. Liked the story, its many story lines and the action overall.