Double Homicide is marketed as if it's a collaboration from two fine writers: husband and wife team Jonathan and Faye Kellerman.  Familiar with both of their styles, I looked forward to seeing what a book penned by both of them together would look like.  I expected main characters from both of their series to meet up, and thought that would be quite exciting.

But that's not what happened.  Instead we get two complete (albeit short) stories.  Each less than 150 pages, the stories are completely separate.  None of the familiar characters are in either of the stories.  And, it's not at all clear if each wrote one of the stories, or if they both lent a hand to both.  But as the stories each have their own style, it's easy to imagine that each author "took the lead" for one of the stories.

The stories have only a couple things in common.  Both take place around Christmas.  And both involve a pair of detectives working together to solve a murder.  Otherwise, the two stories couldn't be more different.

In The Land Of Giants takes place in Boston and features a detective named Dorothy.  Dorothy is an inner-city single mother doing her best to raise her two sons.  The older son seems to be on a good path - he's a star basketball player on his way to college and, hopefully, a pro ball career.  The younger son is struggling a bit, and things get even worse when Dorothy finds a gun in the kid's backpack.  But she doesn't have time to deal with the kid right now, because one of the players on the basketball team has just been killed in a nightclub.

As Dorothy and her partner Michael investigate the murder, startling details come to light.  The story twists in a way you won't see coming, and leads to a dramatic ending.  One that shows just how far a parent will go, to see a child succeed.

Still Life takes place in Santa Fe, where a local art dealer has just been found murdered.  Detectives Katz and Two Moons investigate the case, while suspect after suspect turns up.  Along the way, Two Moons ruminates about his late father, and learns a bit more about his Native American heritage.


Both stories held my interest, although I enjoyed the Boston story more.  Its pace was faster, and I found myself flipping those pages really fast, in order to figure out what really happened.

However, the characters were completely stereotypical.  Inner city kids, playing basketball, while their single mom does her best to keep them on the straight and narrow path.  Nothing too original there.  

The Santa Fe story was the opposite.  There was plenty of character development, and lots of time spent learning about Two Moons' father, and his family heritage.  In fact, the murder seemed to take a backseat.  And as we never get to know the man who was killed, or care about him at all, it was hard to really care who murdered him.  A story should delve deeply into its characters so that we really get to know them.  But when the story is given less than 150 pages, there's only so much time that should be spent on the characters.  This story delved into Two Moons' past, as if it had 300 pages to play with.  So, yes, I got to know a bit about this particular detective, but it was at the expense of the main plot.

Overall, Double Homicide is just an OK book.  The Boston story was pretty good; the Santa Fe story was a disappointment.  I would have preferred a full-length novel that captures the essence of both authors, and perhaps brings their familiar characters together.  Instead you get two stories that average out to an average book.


Faye:

Sanctuary

Street Dreams

Jonathan:

Deception

Silent Partner

The Clinic

Recommended: No