The Lost Witness-Robert Ellis

The Lost Witness
Robert Ellis
St. Martin's. Feb 2009, $25.95
ISBN 9780312366155

LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division rookie detective Lena Gamble did well on her first case that reminded her of her brother’s murder (see CITY OF FIRE), but she is taken aback when her supervisor, Lieutenant Frank Barrera assigns her to a visible nasty case. Someone left a dismembered female corpse inside a Hollywood a dumpster. The police inquiry into the Jane Doe brutal murder went nowhere until an unknown apparent witness leaves the cops with the victim’s driver's license and a thumb drive displaying the kidnapping.

Dedicated Lena follows the clues while her superiors follow her. When she begins to scrutinize icons, her boss warns her to back away quietly. Lena refuses continuing her investigation into two men with ACCESS TO POWER; the son of a pharmaceutical company CEO owner and a doctor who knew the victim while seeking the unknown LOST WITNESS who remains in hiding even as the cop fears the killer will cone after this key person.

THE LOST WITNESS is an excellent police procedural filled with reasonable twists that will have the audience enthralled with what comes next. The investigation is superb as the obstinate dedicated Lena gambles her career and perhaps her life to finding the anonymous witness and subsequently the vicious killer. Fans will appreciate Robert Ellis’ fine look at Hollywood through the lens of murder.

Harriet Klausner