Plot develops at snail's pace in new mystery starring Alex Delaware

Jonathan Kellerman's "Compulsion" launches the 22nd adventure of psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis with the rescue of Kat, a young drunken woman whose car had run out of gas on a lonely highway, by an older British woman in a Bentley.

Next thing you know, a young detective mentored by Sturgis calls about the recovery of a stolen Bentley with "maybe a spoonful" of blood on the upholstery.

It's an odd little crime. The car was missing from the owner's driveway for just a few hours, and the owner found it -- and the blood -- by driving around the neighborhood. There's no immediate evidence of violence, so Sturgis sees no reason to call in forensics.

Later, when a retired teacher is stabbed to death by a man seen getting away in a Mercedes-Benz, Delaware and Sturgis wonder if there's a connection to the stolen Bentley.

There is, though it takes a long time for Delaware and Sturgis to make it.

And that is the major flaw of what is otherwise an intriguing book (Ballantine; $27). The plot, which takes Delaware to such disparate locales as a dying farm town near Santa Barbara, Calif., and New York City, moves at a snail's pace.

For example, Kat gets into the Bentley on Page 9 and dogs find her remains on page 153.

By that time, Delaware has found on the Internet the stabbing deaths of a beautician and a manicurist in the little farm town. During the day of the crime, a black Lincoln Town Car had been parked near the shop, and a tall man in a cowboy hat had been seen exiting the car and walking past the salon.

Delaware broaches the possibility of a serial killer whose M.O. includes black luxury cars and costumes.

There are a couple other problems. The murderer seems to find reasons to convince himself that he's doing a favor for someone with most of the killings, but only for most.

Kat's, for example, resulted because she laughed at him when he was shopping for women's clothes in the boutique where she worked.

And there seems to be no rationale for the crime Delaware and Sturgis interrupt during the denouement.

Except for that denouement and Kat's fate, the crimes are all off stage, discovered in retrospect, giving the book a covered-in-cheesecloth feel.

Still, "Compulsion" has much to recommend it. The murderer is a fascinating study of hubris, intelligence, creativity and evil, and a couple of subplots keep the reader's attention during the slow development of the major one. Plus, the continuing growth of Delaware and Sturgis both as individuals and as a crime-solving team is as pleasurable as in their first 21 adventures.

(Pohla Smith can be reached at psmith(at)post-gazette.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)