Kellerman isn't just an Edgar Award-winning thriller writer, he's a prominent child psychologist, and it shows in Billy Straight. The hero is a 12-year-old runaway whose sharp mind and straitlaced moral sense make him fit to survive the lurid jungles of Hollywood. One night hiding in Griffith Park, Billy witnesses the butchering of Lisa Ramsey, the cokehead ex-wife of Cart Ramsey, a crummy actor-golfer once busted for pummeling Lisa. Did Cart knife Lisa, or was it his pathetic old football sidekick Greg Balch?

When O.J. was on trial, Kellerman said, "This wouldn't make a good novel," but some of Kellerman's toughest critics say this funhouse-mirror version of an O.J.-like case is his best, better than his famous Alex Delaware series. Psychologist Dr. Delaware has a bit part here, but the heroine is Detective Petra Connor, his distaff equivalent. Kellerman's main strength is his vivid invention of secondary characters and his skill at juggling subplots. When Petra's media-whore boss puts Billy's police sketch in the paper with a $25,000 reward, two marvelously sub-simian bounty hunters join the chase: a vicious Russian ex-cop and the vile biker boyfriend of Billy's stoned-out, trailer-park mom.

Like the kid hero of Russell Banks's Rule of the Bone, Billy enriches his author's customary milieu by viewing it from a new, low angle. The tale is more taut than Kellerman's 1997 bestseller Survival of the Fittest and more riveting than the O.J. case--the cops are smart and justice has a prayer. --Tim Appelo


From Publishers Weekly
Although this is only the second of Kellerman's 14 novels not to feature psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware (the first was Butcher's Theater, 1988), it has all the author's familiar strengths: a broad cast of well-defined characters, a fast-moving plot and themes sponged from the daily news yet turned fresh. (And Delaware makes a brief appearance at the end.) Twelve-year-old Billy Straight, a precocious homeless kid with a taste for reading, flees Los Angeles in terror after witnessing a murder in Griffith Park. The homicide inquiry is headed by Petra Connor, a determined, intuitive detective, and her partner, Stu Bishop, who is distracted by a family tragedy. The murder victim turns out to be Lisa Ramsey, ex-wife of the famous, and abusive, Cart Ramsey, who plays a private eye on a late-night television series. Kellerman does a fine job revealing how memories of the Simpson case shadow the Ramsey investigation, affecting the ways Petra and Stu are allowed to go about their work. The search for Billy by the cops and several villains forces a comparison with John Grisham's The Client, but Kellerman's novel is far more complex, switching points of view among a multitude of characters and amid a series of distinctive subplots. By the dramatic climax, Kellerman has pushed a number of familiar buttons?but with enough panache and surprises to satisfy his most demanding fans. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
After a 12-year-old runaway named Billy witnesses the vicious murder of a TV star's former wife, he is pursued by reporters, bounty hunters?and the murderer. LAPD homicide detective Petra Connor is also in the race, trying to save Billy. The multiple formats speak volumes.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
Apparently, Alexander Adams can be counted on for a solid dramatic presentation that amplifies the original material but never over-shadows it. This holds true for his reading of Jonathan Kellerman's latest thriller about a celebrity murder case and the 12-year-old runaway who holds the key to its solution. Listening to Adams's thoughtful interpretations of Detective Petra Connor, young and homeless Billy Straight, and the various suspects that populate this involving police procedural, it's clear why his readings are on the increase. This is a solid thriller that, in his understated way, Adams makes even better. J.P.M. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Readers rightfully equate Kellerman with blockbuster best-sellers filled with suspense, violence, and intriguing glimpses of the human psyche. His latest is no exception, although Kellerman rests series star Dr. Alex Delaware and introduces two new heroes: 12-year-old runaway Billy Straight and LAPD detective Petra Connor. Billy has escaped his alcoholic, drug-addicted mother and her abusive boyfriend and lives by his wits on L.A.'s mean streets. Petra is an artist turned homicide detective, recently divorced from a husband whose mental abuse left deep scars. The lives of these characters merge when Billy witnesses a violent murder and Petra is assigned to investigate the case. As Petra follows up leads, wades through evidence, and deals with the LAPD bureaucracy, Billy burrows deeper into street-kid anonymity, terrified the killer will come after him. The plot hurtles along at breakneck speed toward a cliff-hanger of a climax that's guaranteed to surprise even seasoned mystery fans. Kellerman, already an icon in the genre, will further cement his status as a mystery master with this diabolically clever thriller. A mesmerizing combination of violence, pathos, misery, and hope. Emily Melton


From Kirkus Reviews
While Alex Delaware, his psychologist-sleuth (The Clinic, 1997, etc.), is out on a one-book hiatus, Kellerman produces his best work yet. Young Billy Straight, fleeing domestic non-tranquility--his mom's a drunk, her boyfriend's a sadist--happens on a woman being stabbed to death. It traumatizes him, of coursenot only the brutality of it, but its way of placing on his thin shoulders one more impossible burden. What should he do? Should he tell the police he's seen a license plate number? Hes only 12, but Bill is named Straight for a reason: he's a boy who takes moral dilemmas seriously. But this time, nevertheless, he runs. Facing the police, risking a return to the misery of his home as well as possible exposure to a killer, is more good behavior than he can force on himself. The murder victim turns out to be the divorced wife of a well-known television starand a case for the LAPDs Detective Petra Connor, who is less than overjoyed at it, knowing it will be high profile and a media magnet. Launching the kind of professional investigation she prides herself on is tricky business in a fish bowl. Brass will get nervous. In addition, her usually rock-solid partner is already distracted in a way that mystifies her, and he wont explain himself, making Petra feel put upon and deserted. But there's plenty of bulldog in this pretty Detective, belying her laid-back and understated look. Relentlessly, she tracks down the leads that at first point unerringly to the disgruntled and jealous former husband. Soon, however, other possibilities occur, until at last Petra connects with Billy during a climactic, blood-drenched shoot-out that resolves all. An engrossing tale in lean, straightforward prose. Readers leery of Kellerman's style will be hard put to find the purple patches usually associated with it. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
“Taut, compelling . . . Everything a thriller ought to be. The writing is excellent. The plotting is superior. The characters ring true.”
—USA Today

“JONATHAN KELLERMAN HAS JUSTLY EARNED HIS REPUTATION AS A MASTER OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER. . . . The writing is vivid, the suspense sustained, and [he] has arranged one final, exquisitely surprising plot twist to confound the complacent reader.”
—People (Book of the Week)

“[A] TENSION-FILLED THRILLER . . . A COMPELLING READ . . . KELLERMAN MAKES YOU CARE DEEPLY FOR THIS CHILD.”
—San Francisco Examiner

“RIVETING . . . NOBODY EVOKES LOS ANGELES BETTER THAN JONATHAN KELLERMAN.”
—Los Angeles Times



Review
?Taut, compelling . . . Everything a thriller ought to be. The writing is excellent. The plotting is superior. The characters ring true.?
?USA Today

?JONATHAN KELLERMAN HAS JUSTLY EARNED HIS REPUTATION AS A MASTER OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER. . . . The writing is vivid, the suspense sustained, and [he] has arranged one final, exquisitely surprising plot twist to confound the complacent reader.?
?People (Book of the Week)

?[A] TENSION-FILLED THRILLER . . . A COMPELLING READ . . . KELLERMAN MAKES YOU CARE DEEPLY FOR THIS CHILD.?
?San Francisco Examiner

?RIVETING . . . NOBODY EVOKES LOS ANGELES BETTER THAN JONATHAN KELLERMAN.?
?Los Angeles Times



Book Description

A resourceful runaway alone in the wilds of Los Angeles, twelve-year-old Billy Straight suddenly witnesses a brutal stabbing in Griffith Park. Fleeing into the night, Billy cannot shake the horrific memory of the savage violence, nor the pursuit of a cold-blooded killer. For wherever Billy turns--from Hollywood Boulevard to the boardwalks of Venice--he is haunted by the chuck chuck sound of a knife sinking into flesh. As LAPD homicide detective Petra Connor desperately searches for the murderer, as the media swarms mercilessly around the story, the vicious madman stalks closer to his prey. Only Petra can save Billy. But it will take all her cunning to uncover a child lost in a fierce urban labyrinth--where a killer seems right at home. . . .



From the Inside Flap
A resourceful runaway alone in the wilds of Los Angeles, twelve-year-old Billy Straight suddenly witnesses a brutal stabbing in Griffith Park. Fleeing into the night, Billy cannot shake the horrific memory of the savage violence, nor the pursuit of a cold-blooded killer. For wherever Billy turns—from Hollywood Boulevard to the boardwalks of Venice—he is haunted by the chuck chuck sound of a knife sinking into flesh. As LAPD homicide detective Petra Connor desperately searches for the murderer, as the media swarms mercilessly around the story, the vicious madman stalks closer to his prey. Only Petra can save Billy. But it will take all her cunning to uncover a child lost in a fierce urban labyrinth—where a killer seems right at home. . . .

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
In a rare departure from his bestselling Alex Delaware series, Jonathan Kellerman now gives us his finest novel in several years: Billy Straight, an absorbing, multilayered suspense story built around the conjunction of a runaway child, a psychopathic killer, and a dedicated Los Angeles detective.

The runaway child is Billy Straight, an undersize 12-year-old who leaves his home in Watson, California, when life with his mother's new boyfriend, a 300-pound biker named Motor (a.k.a. Moron) Moran, becomes more than he can endure. Billy, who is both bright and resourceful, tries to make a life for himself in Los Angeles's Griffith Park. He establishes a rotating series of open-air nests, lives on garbage and the leavings of others, "borrows" books from a local branch of the L.A. Public Library, and learns to survive amid the constant predatory presence of junkies, dealers, prostitutes, and perverts. Then one day he witnesses the brutal murder of a beautiful young woman, an act that reinforces his belief in the essentially savage nature of the world around him.

The murder victim is Lisa Ramsey, former wife of television star Hart Ramsey, whose well-publicized history of domestic violence makes him an obvious — perhaps too obvious — suspect. The bulk of the subsequent narrative is told from the alternating perspectives of Billy Straight and a homicide detective named Petra Connor, who is handed the thankless task of spearheading an investigation that shows every sign of becoming a media circus in the manner of the O. J. Simpson case. Petra's investigationquicklyunearths the possibility that a witness was present at the murder scene; and Billy's picture, accompanied by a $25,000 bounty put up by the victim's parents, soon appears on the front page of all major Los Angeles newspapers.

From this point forward, Billy finds himself in constant jeopardy, pursued by Lisa Ramsey's killer and by a number of L.A. lowlifes interested only in the money. Eventually Billy's path intersects with those of both Petra and the murderer, and the novel ends with a moment of climactic violence. Before then, however, a number of other lives have been lost, or irrevocably altered, by the combined forces of stupidity, selfishness, and greed.

Kellerman's great strength, in addition to his knack for constructing complex, compulsively readable narratives, is his ability to understand and articulate the psychological state of a 12-year-old boy whom the world has swept aside. The majority of the characters in this book are viewed — and judged — by their capacity to confirm or contradict Billy's view of the universe as a hostile, loveless place. In the end, despite the fact that so many people want either to use him or do him harm, Billy encounters — through characters like Petra Connor and a good-hearted Holocaust survivor named Sam Ganzer — enough kindness and concern to justify the tentative, uncertain belief that he just might find a place of safety somewhere in the world.

For fans of the Alex Delaware series, there are two points worth noting. First, Delaware himself makes a brief appearance in the novel, helping Billy come to terms with the traumas of his recent life. Second, in a letter attached to the advance reader's edition, Kellerman notes that a new Delaware novel is in the final stages of completion, so that series will, apparently, continue. Still, Billy Straight represents a useful departure from the main line of Kellerman's career, allowing him to approach his characteristic concerns from an effective — and affecting — new perspective. If you're a Delaware fan, Billy Straight is essential reading. If you're not yet familiar with Kellerman's work, then his latest book, with its representative combination of suspense, compassion, and psychological acuity, is an ideal place to begin.

—Bill Sheehan

Bill Sheehan reviews horror, suspense, and science fiction for Cemetery Dance, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and other publications. He is currently working on a book-length critical study of the fiction of Peter Straub.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jonathan Kellerman, America's foremost author of psychological suspense, weaves a tale of innocence, urban depravity and the resilience of the human spirit, bringing to life one street kid's efforts to survive in the face of unspeakable evil.

SYNOPSIS

A resourceful runaway alone in the wilds of Los Angeles, twelve-year-old Billy Straight suddenly witnesses a brutal stabbing in Griffith Park. Fleeing into the night, Billy cannot shake the horrific memory of the savage violence, nor the pursuit of a cold-blooded killer.

FROM THE CRITICS

Charles Winecoff

. . . this ambitious new novel by an old pro lacks the gritty feel of Hollywood sleaze that writers like Elmore Leonard live and breathe. . .In the end, the busy but thin plot can't shake the underlying saccharine tone. Billy's surname says it all.
-- Entertainment Weekly

USA Today

Often mystery writers can either plot like devils or create believable characters. Kellerman stands out because he can do both. . . masterfully.

Detroit Free Press

Jonathan Kellerman doesn't just write psychological thrillers; he owns the genre.

David Lehman - People Magazine

...Kellerman...has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller....the writing is vivid, the suspense sustained...

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times Book Review

...[T]he reason you're turning the pages so fast...[is] the winsome title character and frequent narrator....The kid is irresistible. Read all 10 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

From a barnesandnoble.com e-nnouncement

America's foremost author of psychological suspense takes a rare departure from his bestselling Alex Delaware series with the recently released BILLY STRAIGHT -- a riveting thriller that weaves together the lives of a 12-year-old runaway, a psychotic killer, and a dedicated detective from the LAPD. Here is what Jonathan Kellerman had to say when barnesandnoble.com asked about the inspiration behind his new book BILLY STRAIGHT.

Where Ideas Originate by Jonathan Kellerman

One of the questions I'm asked most frequently is "Where do you get your ideas?" So often am I faced with this that the urge to answer flippantly -- "From my warped mind." "At Sears." "At the blackjack table in Vegas." -- can be overwhelming.

The truth is that there's no pat answer. My ideas -- my novels themselves -- spring from a variety of sources. Sometimes a character appears to me and his/her persona drives the book. Other inspirations include chance meetings, overhearing a particularly delicious snippet of dialogue, my concern about social issues, and news items. (Not the headline-grabbing stuff. What turns me on is the obscure little piece buried in the back pages of some arcane journal.) Most often, a combination of factors is at play.

Occasionally, events from my own life guide my pen. For example, when I retired from the practice of psychology over a decade ago, I realized that my patients would remain in my life for as long as they needed my counsel. Hence, the first line of the book-in-progress, PRIVATE EYES: "A therapist's work is never over."

I've been quoted often regarding my affection for the two jobs with which I've been blessed: clinical psychology and writing fiction. What unites the two, I believe, is a deep curiosity, and hopefully, a compassion, about people. What differentiates them, is that psychology strives to develop rules about human behavior while fiction explores the exceptions to the rules.

Twelve-year-old Billy Straight, whom I believe to be among the most fascinating and endearing characters gracious enough to visit my head, presented himself in astonishing detail, virtually commanding me to write his story.

Billy is a grand exception, cast by Fate, Province, accident of birth -- whatever you choose to call it -- in the role of congenital victim. He enters this world in turmoil, encounters obstacles at every turn, and suffers the kind of terror and degradation that most children are fortunate never to encounter.

Yet, Billy never abandons his essential goodness, never takes leave of a strong moral stance. Billy survives. He thrives. I think of him as a hero for our time.

The same can be said for Petra Connor, the brilliant but troubled homicide cop who finds herself searching for Billy. Introduced in SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, Petra kept returning to my office, urging, "C'mon, Kellerman, there's more to me than that little cameo."

The streets of Hollywood played a role, too.

For many years, I worked in an inner-city hospital on the tough east end of Hollywood, came into contact with street kids, learned about the horrors of abuse and abandonment. I wanted to write about street life, but not in the usual way -- merely reciting a litany of horrors -- because that had been done before. And because I don't traffic in despair.

I wanted to write about the exceptions.

Every page of this book was a joy to construct. Writing BILLY STRAIGHT permitted me to explore the resilience of the human spirit within the framework of what I hope is an entertaining and gripping thriller. For, despite the sometimes dismal state of the world, I remain a stubborn optimist.

I know life can't be tied up neatly. I always strive to avoid pat endings to my novels.

But there are heroes out there. And I'm one of the lucky guys who gets to tell some of their stories.

I hope you enjoy reading BILLY STRAIGHT as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kellerman