I love these characters and hope they stay around for a while. The writing is as always, very god and succinct. No extra words which I like. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher!

Always enjoy reading an Alex Delaware novel. I enjoyed the dynamic between Alex and Milo. Great, very enjoyable book to read

As always, Mr kellerman continues to keep me interested in the comings and goings of everything Milo. I adore these characters and his quick witted writing style.

I love the combination of psychologist Alex Delaware and Homicide Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. I've only started reading this series for the last few books, and have never felt lost. But I'm pretty happy there are lots of previous books to read!

In this story the two investigate the murder of a young man in LA who was shot in his sleep. Donny had an extremely rich father and a weird dysfunctional family. His latest project was photographing homeless people. So, lots of things to investigate.

I really liked how everything came together. I also liked how the hard, detailed work was portrayed - discovering things wasn't just magical.

This was a good, solid mystery and I'd certainly recommend it.

A well-crafted thriller with an unreliable narrator can play with perceptions, challenge assumptions, and deliver unexpected twists. It invites readers to question the motives and sanity of the narrator, fostering an immersive and engaging reading experience

Once again, Jonathan Kellerman has written an excellent addition to the Alex Delaware series. I love the relationship dynamics between Alex and Milo. They balance each other out and the way they work to solve the murder mystery is entertaining. This one will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and wondering what will happen next. The characters are well developed and the story line will capture your attention from the very first page. I would, however, recommend that you read the series in order because the characters will grow and their life situations will change throughout the books. It helps to understand why they are where they are in this particular book. But you’ll be glad you took the time to read all 38 books!

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

I am never disappointed by an Alex Delaware novel and Unnatural History offers up a story I enjoyed very much. Donnie Klement, talented photographer and son of an obscenely wealthy absentee father and an already dead mother was shot while he was sleeping in his studio. His most recent project was to find unhoused people in LA and to ask them what their dreams were for their future when they were younger or what they aspired to. He took a before picture and then helped them clean up and dress in a costume as the thing they aspired to. And thus, Alex and Milo need to find and question exceedingly privileged people and the least privileged of society. Kellerman does a great job with character, as always, including the team of cops supporting Milo Sturgis. Others die, who may have had relevant information, but what is the motive for the initial murder? I started reading these with the first entry in the series and noticed it was published in 1985. There are only a few authors I have stuck with who are so prolific. Oddly, while there are ways this series is formulaic, Kellerman keeps it fresh. The story is entertaining throughout. Well written, of course.. Highly recommend the entire series but no need to read in order. Start with this one: It was great!

Unnatural History

by Jonathan Kellerman

Dr. Alex Delaware is a psychologist with great insight into the workings of the human mind. He freelances working with the courts as an expert witness, often in family court when there is a custody conflict. In his spare time, he goes to crime scenes when his friend Milo, a homicide lieutenant requests his input which he only does when he sees that a case is going to be “different.”

The case in Unnatural History is indeed very different. A rich young man working out of a bare bones photography studio is found murdered. He has been giving homeless people a makeover according to their fantasy dream career. He pays each one $500 cash, and everything is on the up and up. Everyone has only kind words to say about the deceased, but his family background is sad and he had learning difficulties. Milo, Alex, and several younger detectives try to make sense out of the case, interviewing multiple, often foggy, homeless people. They are also trying to locate the victim’s extremely rich, reclusive father who seems to make a hobby of marrying, siring a child, and divorcing, leaving a trail of wealthy half brothers and sisters who barely know each other. Things get even crazier when some of the victim’s photographic subjects become victims themselves. There are lots of suspects and possible motivations, and Alex and Milo have to bring their A game to this case.

One of the things I like about this book is the way the author treats the rampant homelessness in Los Angeles. So many people take the extreme view of “these poor people are just victims” or at the other end of the spectrum that the fault is all their own, a result of their sinful nature or lack of self-discipline. In fact, homelessness has many causes and manifestations from drug and alcohol use to mental problems. Via Alex, the author takes the reader through a brief history of changes in government policies without funding to support the necessary programs. I remember these changes in the 1970’s, and the discussion of it in the book is accurate.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 5/5

Category: Mystery and Thriller, General Fiction

Notes: 1. #38 in the Alex Delaware series, but absolutely could be read as a standalone. The mystery depends on the case, not on character development.
2. As a crime novel, there are, of course, victims, but there is no play by play depiction of the violence.
3. Psychological issues are present, but the book does not drop into the realm of creepy.
4. Contains a lot of swearing, but no sex.

Publication: February 7, 2023—Ballantine (Random House)

Memorable Lines:

When you’re all strung up, there’s nothing less helpful than being told to calm down. But cops aren’t therapists and confronting anxiety kicks in their own fears of madness and impulse. So they keep saying it and getting nowhere and the beat goes on.

I did ask him what it was like working with the unhomed community in general. He said they were prisoners of circumstances and that created unnatural histories for them.

“Something with money, I assume?” “Why would you assume that?” “Because money is like dirt, Lieutenant. When it is skimpy dust, no one cares. When it collects into a mountain, people do crazy things to climb it.”

This is book #38 in the Alex Delaware & Milo Sturgis series. It can be read as a stand alone but to understand the relationships it’s good if you’ve read others in the series. I enjoy the relationship between the two unlikely friends, Alex & Milo, but the mystery was just okay. I mainly finished it because I’ve read the previous 37 books in the series and the main characters are like old friends.

Unnatural History
An Alex Delaware Novel
by Jonathan Kellerman
Pub Date 07 Feb 2023
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine,Ballantine Books
General Fiction \(Adult\)| Mystery & Thrillers


Netgalley and Ballantine Books provided me with a copy of Unnatural History for review:


In Los Angeles, the palaces of the affluent coexist uneasily with the hellholes of the insane and the needy. An unsettling case of altruism gone wrong draws Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis into that shadow world and the violence it breeds.

A woman shows up for work with her usual enthusiasm on a seemingly pleasant morning. The newly hired assistant to a handsome, wealthy photographer is ready to greet her boss with coffee and good cheer. Instead, she finds him shot to death in bed.

Earlier this year, the victim's latest project received rave reviews from the media: images of homeless people dressed up and enacting unfulfilled fantasies. Some, however, call the whole thing crass exploitation, citing the victim's lack of long-term relationships with his subjects and token payments.

Has dissatisfaction blossomed into homicidal rage? Does violence begin with the victims' family, a clan that is bizarre in and of itself, and whose ancestors include a billionaire who has evaded capture?

A new murder occurs, and Alex and Milo begin peeling back layer after layer of intrigue and complexity, culminating in one of the deadliest threats of their lives.


I give Unnatural History five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Whenever I pick up an Alex Delaware Murder mystery it takes me a bunch of pages to embrace the cadence and jargon that Kellerman employs in each installment. His writing is different than many other crime fiction authors, not in a bad way, just different. Anyway, once I am on track, his books are hard to put down and this one was no exception. The long look into the mental psychoses of his characters is awe inspiring in a troubling way. It allows for divergent tangents that not only come together but give the reader a better understanding how things can go wrong in a heartbeat. The gritty underbelly of Los Angeles, the homeless, mental illness and family relationships that are beyond bizarre all find their place in this book and are treated with a cold hard unembellished stare. So scary that this is often viewed as the norm.

Kellerman reveals the killer long before the end but that didn’t makes me turn away it just lit the path forward. Equally satisfying are the quiet musings, introspection and reasoning that Kellerman imbues in Alex Delaware.

Thank you Random House/Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy.

Another solid Alex Delaware book, with all the characters we have grown to love over the last 37 books. I really love the friendship between Alex and Milo, and I think that is what has kept this series going strong. I can sometimes give or take the case that they are working on but always come back for them. We really see what they mean to each other in this book and I cannot wait to see where they go from here.

When doctor Alex Delaware get a call from his friend, homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis, he knows that Milo has caught an unusual case. This one involves a photographer found dead in his studio, shot while sleeping. As they start to investigate they find that the photographer was the youngest son of a reclusive billionaire who had married five times, got each wife pregnant then left her within a year or so. He has ignored all the children and the siblings barely know each other.

The victim was working on a photographic series about homeless people. He would photograph them as they were now and then help them clean up and dress them in the clothes of what they had dreamed to be, occupations such as CEO, fighter pilot, movie star, etc. He would feed them and pay them five hundred dollars. Had one of these subjects seen the money in the studio and returned for more? Had it been someone involved in business with his father? Has one of the siblings decided that one less child means a bigger inheritance?

This is the thirty-eighth adventure of Alex and Milo. Kellerman keeps the characters fresh while letting readers remember their past cases and relationships. The plotting is tight and the murderer is a surprise with a motive that isn't easily guessed. This book is recommended for mystery readers.

Unnatural History is the 38th Alex Delaware procedural mystery by Jonathan Kellerman. Released 7th Feb 2023 by Penguin Random House on their Ballantine imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, large print paperback, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This has been such a solid and dependable very long-running series. The returning characters are so well defined at this point, with so much background written in, that they really seem to live and breathe. Dr. Delaware himself is always insightful and the "odd couple" aspects of his relationship with Detective Milo Sturgis are fun and engaging to read. I don't think I'm familiar with a series which is this long running which doesn't have moments which feel less vital and less well written. This series has delivered solidly since 1985 which is stupendous, and that the author continues to deliver without feeling too formulaic or "phoned in" is unbelievably wonderful.

This is a modern procedural and, as in the other books, the descriptions and themes can be graphic. There are aspects of aberrant psychology or behavior and themes which may be upsetting for some readers. The mystery itself is straightforward in this case, the shooting death of a young artist scion of a very odd, very wealthy family with an extremely reclusive patriarch. Alex Delaware is called in by Milo to try and untangle the odd family dynamics, and as always, his observations are vital to the solving of the case.

The mystery itself and all necessary back-story are written in, so it works quite well as a standalone. I recommend the whole series, but readers who are new to the characters won't have any trouble keeping up. This series would make a superlative buddy/binge/summer vacation read, or a year long project for a mystery book club. Highly successful, it's already on public library acquisition lists, but if not, it's a must have.

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 11 hours 11 minutes and is capably narrated by long time series narrator John Rubinstein. Mr. Rubinstein does a superb job juggling the different characters and his baritone voice manages to go from adenoidal whiny to gravelly and hard-boiled (Milo) without a single hiccup. Sound and production quality are very high throughout the read.

Four and a half stars. A solid mystery in a very solid, very long-running series.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I might need to take a break from Alex Delaware novels they don't capture my attention like they use too. I wish I liked it more not near as good as his other novels.

Alex and Milo end up at the studio of a young photographer, called in by his even younger assistant when she finds him shot to death in the studio. From there, Alex and Milo end up on a twisty path, through both the upper echelons of wealth and the dirty corners of homeless encampments in the LA area. The photographer is the youngest son of a reclusive billionaire, who was taking pictures of area homeless dressed up in the outfits of their dream jobs. Alex and Milo need to figure out who killed him, but will the trail lead them to one of his rich siblings, or was he killed by one of his photography subjects for the large amounts of cash he had around his studio?

This one wasn't one of my favorites--there are just far too many leads to chase down, from the victim's multiple siblings to the many people he photographed and paid $500. It really made the middle of this book drag as we watch Alex and Milo have the same conversation multiple times, just with different people, all pretty much ending in the same exact way--all of the sibs have "i was travelling" alibis and the homeless people all ended up dead or barely coherent from years of living on the streets. If you're a diehard Jonathan Kellerman fan, you'll like this one. Otherwise, I'd probably just skip it. It was fine, just kind of boring for an Alex Deleware novel.

I loved reading of Dr. Alex Delaware and Milo in this latest installment. The plot was clever and the mystery kept me fully engaged. I recommend reading the earlier books in the series to experience the backstory of the characters.
Many thanks to Random House and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I've been a fan of Jonathan Kellerman's books featuring Alex and Milo for years and this book is no exception. As usual, Kellerman writes with great description, humor, and clarity as the cop and doctor try to figure out this latest case. The premise is interesting - a murdered photographer who was by all accounts a very nice person who had been photographing homeless people and paying them handsomely for their time. Who would want to murder him? That's for Milo and Alex to find out and the reader happily goes on their journey to a satisfying conclusion (except for the murder victim of course!)

Unnatural History reunited me with Alex and Milo. I love the psychologist (Alex) helping the detective (Milo). In this case a dead body leads them searching for estranged family members, homeless people and the mentally ill people usually found homeless. As usual, a great job at showing all the work that is involved in solving a crime. I will always read a book in this series.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. Totally unbelievable and didn’t catch my attention much. Ending predictable and also way too drawn out. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.