City Of The Dead by Jonathan Kellerman

 

It's been a long day of moving furniture and the two movers are glad when they finally reach their destination.  While maneuvering their oversize van down the narrow street, they feel a bump and know they have hit something.  They are appalled when they get out to check and find a nude young man laying in the street.  When the police arrive, they are able to console the men; there is a blood trail leading back from the man.  When  they follow it, they find a woman brutally murdered in her home.

The case if given to homicide detective Milo Sturgis and he calls in his friend, psychologist Alex Delaware who often consults with the police.  Alex looks once, then more closely.  He has met the woman before.  Alex does child evaluations for the county and city in custody divorce cases.  He had given his opinion in one case and then was opposed by the woman lying dead on the floor.  It turned out that she had no credentials as a psychologist and she narrowly escaped prosecution.  Now she is dead.

The two men take up the case.  She had been involved with various men, some of them dangerous.  Her relationship with her family was marginal and she was closer with her stepfather than her mother.  What had she been up to lately that could have caused someone to kill her?

This is the thirty-seventh novel in the Alex Delaware series.  Jonathan Kellerman has managed to keep his main characters interesting throughout the series and each novel is a different case for the reader to try to figure out.  Family relationships are explored as well as various forms of crimes by those willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.