Motive (Alex Delaware series, Book 30)

Alex Delaware returns in a thrilling new case, featuring one of the most devious murderers ever conceived by New York Times No.1 bestseller Jonathan Kellerman.

Even hundreds of closed cases to his credit can't keep LAPD police lieutenant Milo Sturgis from agonising over the crimes that don't get solved - and the victims who go without justice. Victims like Katherine Hennepin, a young woman strangled and stabbed in her home. A single suspect with a solid alibi leads to a dead end - one even psychologist Alex Delaware's expert insight can't explain. The only thing to do is move on to the next murder case - because there is always a next one.

This time the victim is Ursula Corey, a successful, attractive divorcee who's been gunned down - not a robbery but an execution, a crime that smacks of simple, savage revenge. And along with that theoretical motive come two strong contenders for the role of suspect: the dead woman's business partner/ex-husband and her divorce lawyer/secret lover. But just as Alex and Milo think they're zeroing in on the killer, a bizarre new clue stirs up echoes of the unsolved Hennepin murder. And the discovery of yet another crime scene bearing the same taunting signature raises the spectre of a serial killer on a mission, whose twisted method is exceeded only by his manipulative and cunning madness.