LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis has summoned his friend, psychologist Alex Delaware, to the fashionable gallery where a promising young artist has been brutally garrotted on the night of her first major showing. What makes it a strange case is the lack of any obvious motive, and the luridly careful staging of the murder scene -which immediately suggests to Alex the taunting modus operandi of a serial killer.
Alex's suspicion is borne out when he compares notes with Milo's associates, Petra Connor and Eric Stahl. The Hollywood cops are investigating the vicious death of Baby Boy Lee, a noted blues guitarist, fatally stabbed after a late-night set at a local club. What links Baby Boy's murder with that of painter Juliet Kipper is the shadowy presence of an abrasive fanzine writer. This alias-shrouded critic's love-the-art/disdain-the-artist philosophy and his morbid fascination with the murders leads Alex and the detectives to suspect they're facing a new breed of celebrity stalker - one who's made cold-blooded murder his own chosen art form.
Jonathan Kellerman is a master at creating psychologically nuanced novels of high suspense - an author whose name is synonymous with unrelenting action, intriguing plot twists and penetrating insight into the criminal mind. Now he ventures into bold, new territory with his biggest and best novel yet. A Cold Heart is a tour de force.

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