Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis team up with Inspector Daniel Sharavi of Israeli police to try and uncover the links between several seemingly unconnected murders of disabled children.
brilliant...I've read an Alex Delaware novel before (I can't remember which one though) and one of the things I particularly like about them is that the character Milo is gay. He's not the protagonist/narrator, but it's significant that the second lead in an American thriller series is not only a gay cop, but an overweight, unclichéd one at that. It's refreshing too because his sexuality has absolutely no baring on his skills as a detective or on the plot, it's just one aspect of his character. The only time it really comes up in Survival is through comments made by some of the older and Jewish characters who face their own prejudices when they work with him.
This book features an interesting lead in Alex Delaware, but the focus is really on the story, which takes in eugenics, a Mensa-like killing group, and some top class sleuthing and theorising. Alex's work with Milo is believable in terms of assisting the police rather than being a maverick layman detective, and the character is very intelligent. The multiple threads of this tale are woven together with skill and the subject matter, while a tad squeamish for some, offers real food for thought.
but...
Although the mystery started off and continued strongly I find that thrillers like these can often feel unclimactic once the villains of the piece have been unmasked. This was sort of the case here, particularly as although I didn't guess 'whodunnit', I'd already worked out how everything would be wrapped up.
briefly...
A good, solid crime mystery, with the addition of believable leads and thought-provoking subject matter.
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