Excerpt from Billy Straight by Jonathan Kellerman, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Also - people aren't scared of kids, at least not white kids, so if you ask someone for spare change, the worst they usually do is shine you on. I mean, what are they going to say to me? Get a job, junior?

One thing I learned back in Watson: Make people nervous and you're the one who gets hurt.

So maybe God helped me by making me small for my age. I would like to grow eventually, though.

Mom, before she got sadder, would sometimes hold me under the chin and say, "Look at this. Like an angel. A damn cherub."

I hated that; it sounded so gay.

Some of those kids being raped in the magazine looked like angels.

There's no way to know what's safe. I avoid all people, and the park's perfect for that - 4,100 acres of mostly peace and quiet.

Thank you, crazy Mr. Griffith.

The way he tried to kill his wife was by shooting her in the eye.




In eight months, Petra had worked twenty-one other homicides, some fairly sloppy. But nothing like this. Not even the Hernandez wedding.

This woman looked shredded. Washed in blood. Dipped in it, like fruit in chocolate. The front of her dress was a mass of gore....

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