True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman Headline, HK$216
Jonathan Kellerman's thriller, with its references to the biblical story of Cain and Abel, promised brotherly tension, lessons learned and a dramatic denouement.
But the novel fails to deliver any emotional roller-coaster rides for its two main characters, half-brothers Moses Reed and Aaron Fox.
Both were minor characters in another Kellerman detective novel, Bones, and are here promoted to major players. This time, Fox is hired as a private detective by the demanding Mr Dmitri, the boss of a missing girl's father.
On the other side of town, Reed, a police officer, has been handed the job of finding out what happened to the girl, Caitlin Frostig, after her case was closed without conclusion.
With the same mother but different fathers, Aaron - whose father was black - is a smooth-dressing, lady-killing bachelor; Moses is a no-frills guy with a sexy black girlfriend.
We know from the outset that Fox and Reed's fathers were both police officers and that Reed senior was his partner the night Fox senior was murdered.