Rating:  Summary: Good detective story - but too much technical shrink stuff Review: This is the third in Jonathan Kellerman's series of detective novels featuring psychologist Alex Delaware. So far, this has been a great series, and this book is no exception. I just wish that Mr. Kellerman hadn't gone into so much detail about the psychological information he presents in his book - that put me to sleep REAL fast.This story's been done before - but never quite in this way. The plot was totally believable, although the character of Souza the lawyer wasn't - he seemed to be too pompous to be true. But Delaware does ring very true, as does his policeman buddy, Milo Sturgis. I know that a new Alex Delaware novel has just come out - I look forward to reading it, but I prefer to read series in order, so I don't miss anything. I just hope that Kellerman de-emphasizes the research in the rest of his books. I grant that it's important, but he should know when enough is enough.
Rating:  Summary: Sorry, Dr. Delaware! Review: This story is good from several aspects, the best being his realistic portrayal of psychosis and psychological illness. He is not a journalist of the 20/20 variety trying to get it right--he's got the knowledge and experience to make the details believable. Kellerman is a nice narrator, and he has some characters we can really root for--Detective Sturgis, Alex himself, and the true victim in this story, Jamey.
Unfortunately, this book is twice as long as it needs to be. You can skim so many paragraphs that don't contribute to character or plot development--you know, all the times Dr. Delaware goes to feed his fish, or the descriptions of some tract of houses off some California freeway.
In the end, the plot is fairly contrived. The final scene has all the suspects in the same room. The villain is unmasked, those characters we thought were benign turn out to be malignant, a few gunshots ring out--but just who shot who?!! The plot is also implausible as well. If you sit down and summarize how the bad guy(s) pulled off the plot, it seems pretty silly.
All in all, it's a pretty good read, but it's an early enough effort to still have significant drawbacks. Delaware sure is a nice guy, though!
Rating:  Summary: Mind catcher of a book Review: This was the 4th book I read of Kellerman's. I found it to be very interesting, it kept my mind going. I thought some of the technical lingo was hard to pronounce and understand. I thought the overall book was excellent, but at times I wished I had a medical dictionary to be able to pronounce some of the words. I ran across Kellermans books by accident, but I am hooked on them now.
Rating:  Summary: A frantic psychological whodunit. Review: When Dr. Alex Delaware is woken up in the middle of the night by an incoherent, frantic call from a former patient, he suspects that not all is well with the world. Things take a decided turn for the worse when said patient is found in the midst of a bloody murder scene, what appears to be one of a long series of sexually-motivated murders. Thrown into the middle of the fray by his desire to find the truth out about his patient, Dr. Delaware once again must put his experiences as psychologist and a sleuth to the test. The third of Jonathan Kellerman's Dr. Alex Delaware novels, readers will find a cast of familiar characters amongst the throngs of the new and the suspicous. In addition to the good doctor himself, we also have the return of Detective Milo Sturgis as well as luthier and love interest Robin. The familiar characters are comforting, because the rest of the cast of characters are a frantic mess of psychological problems which leaves the reader dizzy. I found the pacing and the character development in this book to be odd, and somewhat off. It's nothing that I can really quantify, but something didn't feel quite right throughout the work. That being said, Kellerman has once again produces a psychological thriller that is compelling and leaves a couple of bits of mystery left until the end, even for those who can unravel the threads of the tale before the denouement. Definitely worth reading if this is your genre, though I still find Kellerman's first Alex Delaware novel (When the Bough Breaks) to be my favorite in the series thus far.
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