Helpful Score: 5
A very gripping book because the hero is a 12 year old boy. You can't help rooting for Billy Straight. There are unexpected turns and close encounters that keep your attention and keep you wanting to read long past bedtime.
Helpful Score: 5
Good book. Kept my attention the whole time. The protagonist is Petra Connor, who is a side character in a couple of J. Kellerman's "Alex Delaware" mystery novels. She's a detective with the LAPD (a sometime associate of Milo's).
Helpful Score: 2
The hero is a 12-year-old runaway whose sharp mind and straitlaced moral sense make him fit to survive the lurid jungles of Hollywood. One night hiding in Griffith Park, Billy witnesses the butchering of Lisa Ramsey, the cokehead ex-wife of Cart Ramsey, a crummy actor-golfer once busted for pummeling Lisa. Did Cart knife Lisa, or was it his pathetic old football sidekick Greg Balch?
Psychologist Dr. Delaware has a bit part here, but the heroine is Detective Petra Connor, his distaff equivalent.
Psychologist Dr. Delaware has a bit part here, but the heroine is Detective Petra Connor, his distaff equivalent.
Gena S. (SouthernDestiny) -
Helpful Score: 2
Spunky twelve-year-old Billy Straight is a runaway managing to survive in L.A.'s Griffith Park. Billy is a remarkable boy who ran away from an abusive home life in a mobile home. He spends his time sneaking into libraries to read and planning and plotting how he'll get an education and get along in the world. Then he unexpectedly witnesses a brutal murder. He decides not to reveal what he has seen for fear he will be returned to the trailer with his alcoholic mother and her brutal boyfriend.
Los Angeles homicide detective Petra Connor is the lead detective on what turns out to be a high profile murder case. The victim, Lisa Lee Ramsey, is the gorgeous ex-wife of a prominent TV actor, Cart Ramsey, who stars in the syndicated TV detective show "The Adjuster." The investigation takes a lot of delving behind the scenes of the precarious, competitive, sometimes sleazy world of television and the police administration is terrified of a media circus.
Petra is told to solve the killing quietly and quickly, but while she is trying to do just that Billy is being pursued by a pair of wackos in the park who scare him into hiding. Then a media slip reveals there has been a witness to the murder and he is in deep trouble.
BILLY STRAIGHT, a solid mystery adventure loaded with suspense and good, old fashioned police work. It's a super way to while away a quiet evening by the fire.
Los Angeles homicide detective Petra Connor is the lead detective on what turns out to be a high profile murder case. The victim, Lisa Lee Ramsey, is the gorgeous ex-wife of a prominent TV actor, Cart Ramsey, who stars in the syndicated TV detective show "The Adjuster." The investigation takes a lot of delving behind the scenes of the precarious, competitive, sometimes sleazy world of television and the police administration is terrified of a media circus.
Petra is told to solve the killing quietly and quickly, but while she is trying to do just that Billy is being pursued by a pair of wackos in the park who scare him into hiding. Then a media slip reveals there has been a witness to the murder and he is in deep trouble.
BILLY STRAIGHT, a solid mystery adventure loaded with suspense and good, old fashioned police work. It's a super way to while away a quiet evening by the fire.
