Billy Straight - Softcover

Kellerman, Jonathan

3.89

7,830 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 034549167X ISBN 13: 9780345491671

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2006

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In this riveting, astute, high-tension thriller, the creator of psychologist sleuth Alex Delaware weaves a Dickensian tale of innocence, urban depravity, and the resilience of the human spirit, and brings to the page one of the most endearing and finely drawn characters in contemporary  fiction.

Twelve-year-old Billy Straight--precocious, heartbreakingly perceptive, relentlessly moral--has fled the chaos and abuse of his life at home and is fighting to survive on L.A.'s meanest streets. All alone, Billy has fashioned a precarious existence for himself, using principled tricks to nourish his body and his mind. Late one night he watches from his hiding place as a man viciously butchers a woman. The victim turns out to be the ex-wife of a television celebrity with a history of domestic violence, and Billy becomes the center of terrifying attention--from the media, from violent bounty hunters, and from the murderer himself. As he runs for his life, relying on his native wit and instincts for survival, Billy is also tracked by a potential savior: Petra Connor, a tough, gifted, beautiful LAPD homicide detective with a past of her own.

Breathtakingly paced, Billy Straight  brings to life one street kid's efforts to survive in the face of unspeakable evil. Richly layered, emotionally compelling, and peopled by a vivid cast of supporting characters--including Alex Delaware himself in a strong cameo role--this gripping novel represents one of the century's great story-tellers at the top of his form.
From the Hardcover edition.

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Review:

There are few writers practising in the crime and thriller field with the assurance and skill of Kellerman, and this latest jumbo-sized outing is well up to par. While the plotting may be more diffuse than usual, the rich panoply of characters created here soon ensures a compelling read. When a young boy witnesses a murder, he finds himself pursued by both the police and the killer. The killing (of a beautiful young woman, Lisa Ramsey, in Los Angeles' Griffith Park) soon has Detective Petra Connor and her partner Stu Bishop involved. The principal suspect is her husband, TV star Cart Ramsey, who had beaten her up. And the echoes of the OJ Simpson case has the LAPD brass keen to avoid a repetition of history. Along with a gift for making a now-familiar locale seem fresh and unusual, Kellerman's ace in the hole has always been dialogue: rudimentary and lacking in any true-life resonance in so many thrillers, razor-sharp in Kellerman. With a cannily drawn heroine and a scarifying vision of the political blood-letting within a major us police force, this is a different kind of thriller to such earlier winners as Blood Test, but none the worse for that. Perhaps Kellerman is only just beginning to show us what he can do. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

Strong insights into the quirks of human and criminal behaviour (Guardian)

Filled with insight (Stephen King)

Coolly intelligent (GQ)

A sense of humanity and justice (Publishers Weekly)

An alert eye for detail (New York Times)

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