Free Billy Straight Giant Book [Hardcover]

Jonathan Kellerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 1999

When the estranged wife of TV superstar cop Cart Ramsey is found murdered in a Los Angeles car park, detectives Petra Connor and Stu Bishop place the ex-husband as number one suspect. But there was a witness, Billy Straight, a homeless boy now too scared to come forward with his evidence.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (March 4, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 0316849324
• ISBN-13: 978-0316849326
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (135 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,181,965 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world's most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to more than thirty bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher's Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted,and True Detectives. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children's books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children, as well as the lavishly illustrated With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award.

Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ!, December 29, 1999

By 

Rene Rieser - See all my reviews

This review is from: Billy Straight: A Novel (Hardcover)

J. Kellerman leads you on a roller coaster ride of twists and turns in his new novel Billy Straight. I could not put this book down. Each character is so detailed. Billy is a fantastic, brave, and yet vulnerable boy, and Petra is a strong willed leader with a very sensitive side -- both are characters I would like to see in future novels. The book is filled with detailed information only a child phycologist could right about. An added bonus was Alex Delaware's cameo role. A must read for J. Kellerman fans.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder/Cruelty/Pathos/a 12 year old and Petra Connor, November 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Billy Straight (Mass Market Paperback)

Want to find out about Kellerman's newest sleuth? Pick up this book and enter the terrifying world of a runaway boy who has witnessed a murder. It is a refreshing change from Alex Delaware. This is not to imply that I am the least bit tired of Alex.I have read all Kellerman's novels and could read about Delaware forever. It is altogether different from his former novels-so it a change of pace and a cleverly woven mystery that wins my applause. That Kellerman can change his tack and produce as equally scintillating a mystery as he has, is mind boggling to me. Petra Connor is refreashingly different, not all brain, not all beauty but an astonishing mixture of both. Her thought processes in solving the many involved aspects of this mystery are fascinating to follow. And Billy Straight is right behind her. He is an intelligent, moral kid whose background does nothing to help him become a survivor, but somehow he manages his day-to-day life in a scary adult world.His character is very believable: if one is a survivor his/herself (and Kellerman has a very good handle on that).

A terrific read: no, the killer is not obvious- you just THINK you know. And the ending is slam-bang! Kellerman is the consumate mystery writer. I particularly am impressed, in all his novels, by the descriptions of people, places and things. He does it in such a way that you do not realize it and suddenly the entire picture is in your mind-down to the color of a man's tie and the shape and color of flowers on the hillside.How interesting that he managed to insert Alex and Milo(from his Delaware novels) in between the cracks of his new mystery. I am curious if they will all be together one of these days. All of his books are great-I have already ordered his next book on Delaware "Monster" due out soon-but I am looking forward to more of Petra Connor,also. Kudos to Kellerman for giving something new and different a try - and succeeding.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I hadn't read this book ..., February 8, 2000

By 

Torben Hansen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Billy Straight (Mass Market Paperback)

... because then I could look forward to a great story and hours of thrilling suspension! I only just recently 'discovered' J.K. and I must say I haven't read a bad book by him so far. And Billy Straight is definitely the best. This is an absolutely great story with plenty of layers and a good plot. I was unable to put it down once I got started and it cost me a good nights sleep and ruined the next day - but who cares :-) Do yourself a favour and read this book - you won't regret it. And then check out some of the other books by Jonathan Kellerman...