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Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1)
Billy Straight - Petra Connor, Bk 1
Author: Jonathan Kellerman
Twelve-year-old Billy Straight--precocious, heartbreakingly perceptive, relentlessly moral--has fled the chaos and abuse of his life at home and is fighting to survive on L.A.'s meanest streets. All alone, Billy has fashioned a precarious existence for himself, using principled tricks to nourish his body and his mind. Late one night he watches f...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780345491671
ISBN-10: 034549167X
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 448
Rating:
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 29

3.7 stars, based on 29 ratings
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Dove avatar reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 262 more book reviews
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.
reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 8 more book reviews
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).
reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 33 more book reviews
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.
SouthernDestiny avatar reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 156 more book reviews
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.
Read All 36 Book Reviews of "Billy Straight Petra Connor Bk 1"

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reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 164 more book reviews
A resourceful runaway alone in the wilds of Los Angeles, twelve-year-old Billy Straight suddenly witnesses a brutal stabbing in Griffith Park. Fleeing into the night, Billy cannot shake the horrific memory of the savage violence, nor the pursuit of a cold-blooded killer. For wherever Billy turns-from Hollywood Boulevard to the boardwalks of Venice-he is haunted by the chuck chuck sound of a knife sinking into flesh. As LAPD homicide detective Petra Connor desperately searches for the murderer, as the media swarms mercilessly around the story, the vicious madman stalks closer to his prey. Only Petra can save Billy. But it will take all her cunning to uncover a child lost in a fierce urban labyrinth-where a killer seems right at home...
reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 593 more book reviews
This was a great read.
reviewed Billy Straight (Petra Connor, Bk 1) on + 220 more book reviews
Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller. The writing is vivid, the suspense sustained, and he has arranged one final, exquisitely surprising plot twist to confound the complacent reader.- People Magazine


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