“On a Saturday, just last year, the Sixties finally died in Berkeley.
On Sunday I came for the bones.“
Now that’s a quality opening sentence!
This book is co-authored by father and son Kellermans, Jonathon and Jesse. It’s hero is Clay Edison, an Alameda County Coroner. This is the third book in the Clay Edison series, Google tells me there are now six in all. The biggest mystery in the first 300 pages is Why is it called Half Moon Bay?, but more on that below!
Background
Jonathon Kellerman is an enormously successful crime fiction author. He made his name with an long-running series starring Alex Delaware, an LA child psychologist. The main hook is him getting called no my the LAPD to interview involved in a violent crime somehow. They are very fun, and there are well over thirty of them. Four in the 80’s, and basically one a year since 1990! That’s some authorly discipline!
In the 2010’s he started writing non-Alex Delaware novels with his son Jesse. My opinion is that this is an entirely commendable attempt by dad to bring son into the family business and to pass the bookstore magic of the Kellerman name on to him. I think it’s cool, and I’m all for it!
Anyway … on to this book.
The Book
Clay Edison is the Chief Coroner for Alameda County, which means the town of Berkeley and Cal Berkeley are in his jursdctiiion. He was a starting point guard for the Cal Bears back in the day, so he’s an athletic 6’2″-ish.
The cryptic quote that starts the book references the body of a small child that was unearthed by the bulldozers razing the People’s Park in the heart of Berkeley for student housing. Any of you with familiarity with the 60’s in Nothern California could probably write your own novel from that set up! :))
The particular novel the K’s chose to write is well-crafted and engaging as their books always are, but they are starting wear me out a little with the Berkeley cliches.
- There’s the crowds of hippies protesting at People’s Park.
- There’s the family of meth-dealing biker Nazis squatting in the remote hills of Alemeda County.
- The guy that starts Edison on his quest for the baby’s identity is a mid-level tech executive, who is the son of a Berkely/Lawence Labs scientist who got protested back in the day for working on bomb tectnology.
- Along with the anti-social behavior of working on atom bombs, the dad was a real asshole in his real life. The first wife was miserable, her kids were all weirdos. He fucked around …
- Somehow the biker-Nazis are related to ole dad also.
Is that enough 60’s cliches for you?
Oh what the hell, I was a stoned college student (on the other coast) too, and basically it was all true.
Half Moon Bay
I wondered above why this book is called “Half Moon Bay”, since that place has not been mentioned and has no part of the narrative. Well, here on Page 298 (of a 354 page book) it finally appears!
Good story, but the “gee there sure are a lot of weirdos in Berkeley” stuff is a little overdone.
New baby, the Kellermans fail to make this realistic.
Leave a Reply