I have been a fan of Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series for a long time, and I recently looked through his body of work and found that he has written two books labeled as the Petra Connor series. They are Billy Straight (1998) and Twisted (2004), and they are a spinoff of the Alex Delaware series.
In Billy Straight, the title character is a twelve year old runaway who witnesses a traumatic murder, a brutal stabbing. He is not seen and runs away into the night. LAPD homicide detective Petra Connor is tasked with solving this murder. The story switches between Billy’s reaction to what he has seen and Petra’s unfolding investigation, and as the plot unfolds, we learn more about Billy’s backstory as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was able to follow everything that was happening even though the perspective is changing in each chapter and could visualize the scenes easily. I empathized with both Billy and Petra, and I appreciated the range of minor characters as well.
Do you enjoy detective novels? Are there any that you recommend?
In So Many Words 