NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis unravel a shocking crime at a raucous wedding reception in this gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling master of suspense.“Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis is a fine homicide detective, but when he … Sturgis is a fine homicide detective, but when he needs to get into the mind of a killer, he leans on the expertise of his best friend, the brilliant psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. While Sturgis has a knack for piecing together the details of a crime, Delaware can decipher the darkest intents driving the most vicious of perpetrators. And there’s no better place for the doctor’s analytical skills to shine than a rowdy hall full of young men and women intoxicated on life and lust . . . and suddenly faced with the specter of death.
Summoned to a run-down former strip joint, Delaware and Sturgis find themselves crashing a wild Saints and Sinners–themed wedding reception. But they’re not the only uninvited guests. A horrified bridesmaid has discovered the body of a young woman, dressed to impress in pricey haute couture and accessorized with a grisly red slash around her neck. What’s missing is any means of identification, or a single partygoer who recognizes the victim. The baffled bride is convinced the stranger snuck in to sabotage her big day—and the groom is sure it’s all a dreadful mistake. But Delaware and Sturgis have a hundred guests to question, and a sneaking suspicion that the motive for murder is personal. Now they must separate the sinners from the saints, the true from the false, and the secrets from those keeping them. The party’s over—and the hunt for whoever killed it is on.
“As usual, [Delaware and Sturgis] form a formidable team. Also as usual, the characters here are varied and described with gritty clarity, and the puzzle facing the duo involves a delightful mix of L.A. culture, this time from its dive bars to its much more serious side.”—Booklist
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“The Wedding Guest” by Jonathan Kellerman is number thirty-four in the Alex Delaware series, but that should not discourage new readers. Even though I have read several other novels by Kellerman, I somehow missed the Alex Delaware series; however, I had no trouble following along. The book is structured as Delaware’s first person narrative, so it took a little while to discern the last names and exact roles of the participants, but the narrative was clear, cool, rational, and easy to follow.
The book opens with a scene that is every woman’s nightmare. Bridesmaid Leanza is waiting in a very long line for the public bathroom at the wedding venue, a converted strip joint. Out of desperation, she runs upstairs to the bathroom near the wedding party’s dressing rooms. There she finds the unthinkable, a body.
This was to have been the happiest day of her life for bride Brearely “Brears” Rapfogel and soon to be husband Garrett Burdette. “It’s terrible, worse than terrible, it’s it’s … tragic” LAPD consultant Dr. Alex, Delaware is called to the scene by Lieutenant Sturgis Milo. No one admits to knowing the victim, surprising since she was obviously dressed for the occasion in a designer gown and expertly coiffed black hair. “Hair falls that nicely, you’ve got a good cut.” The guests were mostly from the bride’s side, but were both the killer and the victim on the official guest list? Clues seem to be rare, but the CSI investigator finds what looks like a needle puncture.
The plot is conversation driven and the dialogue is intelligent, plausible, and revealing. Readers get to know the various players through their conversational style and the little things that they let slip in the conversations. Readers investigate right with the team and learn where guests were, how they feel about what happened, and how they feel about everyone else and everything else. Pieces of the puzzle fall into place, gradually, but it is difficult to discern who is a victim and who is a co-conspirator, who is an innocent bystander and who is a murderous psychopath. When the final picture emerges, it is scary and frantic.
Kellerman’s descriptions paint vibrant pictures of every participant:
“Milo had on one of his fossilized gray suits , a white wash-’ n’-wear shirt, and a skinny brown tie. Respectable enough if you didn’t get too close.”
“A small plain girl with dark eyes as animate as coffee beans and a husky, strangely flat voice that verged on electronically processed. She’d piled her ponytail into a careless top thatch. Errant brown hair frizzed like tungsten filament.”
And every location:
“An empty box from a West Hollywood baker and the crumbs that went with it littered his desktop. Ditto for a grease-splotched take-out carton from a pizza joint near the station. A mug filled with cold coffee sat perilously close to the edge.”
“The Wedding Guest” can certainly be enjoyed as a stand-alone mystery with a perpetrator who will be a surprise. I received a review copy of “The Wedding Guest” from Jonathan Kellerman, Random House Ballantine Publishing, and NetGalley. The pace is slow but steady, and the main characters show companionship and a determination to solve the crime. Along the way, there is both humor and thoughtful analysis of the human behavior. It is appropriate for readers who have not read the previous thirty-three books, as well as fans of the series
The Wedding Guest by author Jonathan Kellerman is another very interesting mystery with LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and his longtime friend Dr. Alex Delaware, who is a psychology consultant to LAPD working together to find the answers. The book opens with a common problem women dread during a wedding reception, one restroom and a line of ladies waiting and doing the ‘shuffle-dance’. Bridesmaid Leanza remembers a small bathroom upstairs across from the room where they had dressed before the ceremony and decides to slip out of the line and get some relief. When she opens the door to the little room Leanza is horrified to see a very pretty young woman sitting on the potty, dead as in MURDERED! LAPD is called and now LT Milo and Alex look to information and clues. The beautifully dressed woman is not on the guest list and no one seems to know her identity. I won’t post spoilers but the plot of the story is interesting and kept my attention. How do you proceed with an investigation when there are so many suspects?!
Publication Date February 5, 2019
I have been reading Jonathan Kellerman for a very long time and he has not disappointed me yet with a book. I just love the interaction with Milo and Alex.
I recommend this book to new fans and old!
Generally I love his books-not the ones written with his son, however. This one is so slow and has uninteresting characters. I tried to get past the first three chapters but just couldn’t. So disappointing! Certainly hope his next book is better.
Love Milo and Alex.
This one kept me guessing right up until the end. Thought it was maybe this one, but no. Maybe that one?
Hot girl found garroted in john at wedding reception. No one at the wedding knows who she is or why she was there. Enter Milo and Alex.
False leads, old suicides that weren’t suicides, and everyone that is dead is connected to this apartment building.
Milo is called into investigate the death of a young woman, she was found dead in a restroom at a wedding reception by one of the bridesmaids. Milo calls in Alex for his help hoping that he might see something no one else does. While questioning the guests no one recognizes the young woman, so what was she doing there and why was she murdered? No identification was found on her which makes Milo and Alex’s job much harder. How can you find a killer if you don’t even know who the victim is? The two delve further into the background of the guests in hopes of making a connection with the victim. When they finally come up with an identity for the victim they are able to start making those connections. Follow along as they question suspects, come across new clues, and hunt for a killer. Kellerman knows how to write an exciting read that will keep you on edge throughout. He weaves an intricate web throughout his work that always makes it hard for you to put the book down. I always look forward to each new book and wonder what type of killer will grace the pages. I don’t always figure out who the killer is but it’s always fun trying.
Bridezilla and Corpse Couture
This is one of the few series that I have followed all the way from the beginning. This is the 34th book in the series and it started with WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS back in 1985 – 34 years ago and 34 books.
I have appreciated author Kellerman’s consistency in this L.A. world he’s created with L.A. Police Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and consulting psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware. I like the friendship between the two unlikely men. I like Robin, Alex’s partner, and their French Bulldog Blanche.
In this installment, an unidentified woman is savagely murdered in the restroom at a skanky (my opinion) wedding reception that is taking place in a former strip joint.
Milo and Alex are called in to investigate and this leads them from a country vet to a philanderer to a University – from low income shovels to penthouses. I enjoyed the mystery and, as always, I enjoyed the characters.
I highly recommend this next in a long line of psychological thrillers from Kellerman.
I received this book from Random House through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
I absolutely LOVE Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis! I hope Jonathan Kellerman never quits writing books about them and that he continues to allow them to grow and change.
That said, The Wedding Guest was full of the usual twists and turns I’ve come to expect from this series. So many characters ~ some I really enjoyed, others I disliked but then came to like them and some were amusing. Pretty typical mix of the usual reactions I have to these books.
This story takes off immediately and is in a very odd setting and the crime happens at a wedding reception. And what a crime it is. Wow.
Quite honestly I suspected almost everyone and when the story wound up I was already wanting to go back and reread it.
Definitely check this book out! You’ll be glad you did. Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author for approving my request for an ARC. My thoughts are my own.
I enjoy Kellerman’s Dr. Delaware novels. Easy reading mystery writer. This one wasn’t a page turner but fir sitting on patio with glass of wine it was perfect.
This is my second book by this author, the first book,I lasted through the first 50 pages or so. This one, I kept forcing myself to read through the first 150 pages. Then, I skipped to the end. The characters were not very exciting and the pace was slow.
I love the teamwork and the fact that I can’t figure out Who Done It is the best part.
Loved this! It was definitely a page turner!
Not 1 of his best, but at that his is always good.
This is a real page turner with pot twists galore and an unexpected ending that will shock you.
I usually enjoy this series, however, found it slow and anticlimactic. Defiantly not his best.
This is a fast paced read…a great way to spend an evening
Jonathan Kellerman does not disappoint.
Another unique mystery with the great characters that are central to his stories. After reading so many Kellerman books, they seem like old friends.
All of his books are wonderful! In this one, he has 100 suspects and very little time to find the killer. Great concept.
What a way to ruin a wedding!! Dead girl in the bathroom and no one knows who she is or do they? Enter Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis who will scour the resources between their city all the way to other countries.
This story had a lot of suspects and different story lines to follow; however, it still kept a steady pace enough for me to want to finish the story. The banter between Alex and Milo injected some much needed ‘humor’ to keep the story lighter than it was with the twisted mind they were trying to find before it was too late for others.
I like the way Kellerman shows the ‘human’ sides of Milo and Alex along with Alex’s relationship with his wife , Robin and their dog , Blanche.
Keep the series going Mr. Kellerman. Thanks.