AN established writer of thrillers, Jonathan Kellarman usually uses the expertise of detectives and psychologists to solve murder mysteries. In Evidence, the detective has a more prominent role than the psychologist. The novel opens with the scene of a double murder—a man and a woman—in a discarded construction project looked after by Doyle; it appears that they had been murdered while having sex, but their positioning looks unnatural. Doyle is the first to be interrogated by a detective, but he knows nothing about the dead; he does not even know who owns the property.
The dead man is Desmond Backer, who worked on green architecture for Helga Gemein. She tells the detectives that he had sexual connections with all her female employees, who admit having sex with Backer, but also give them information about Helga and the dead woman. Milo, the detective, learns that the murdered woman is Brigid Ochs. From then on the net of investigation spreads to different people and locations.
The detectives are led to Backer’s sister Ricki through his e-mail account. She gives them details about his growing up and his long association with the murdered girl, whose actual name is Doreen Fredd. She also tells them that both of them were involved with one Tariq, the owner of the property where they had been found murdered. Just before his murder, Backer had given her two boxes for safekeeping, which contained $50,000. She suspects that they were involved in some racket, possibly of eco-terrorism, which might have led to their death. Then we learn about Tariq’s affair with Helga’s sister, Helga’s revenge and her attempt to set the property on fire, and many more details about the activities of several other people, and the final resolution of the mystery.
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