Obsession (Alex Delaware Series #21) [NOOK Book]

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Overview

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Victims.

With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller” (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.

Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her ...
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More About This Book

Overview

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Victims.

With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller” (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.

Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, she still seems older than her years– but her problems go beyond hyper-maturity. Patty Bigelow, Tanya’s aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware’s help. The doctor recalls Patty as a selfless E.R. nurse struggling to raise a child on her own–a woman seemingly incapable of the “terrible thing” she has admitted. But for Tanya’s peace of mind, Delaware agrees to investigate, and he enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis in the search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred.

Armed with only the vaguest details, psychologist and cop follow a trail twisting from L.A.’s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life to the doorsteps of a sullen heroin addict; a randy real-estate broker; and a brilliant, enigmatic physics student. Suddenly a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets–and bodies–are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death–a legacy of evil that refuses to die.

Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with the psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit– and something unique: a did-it-even-happen? This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble Review
Dr. Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis are faced with a disturbingly intimate mystery revolving around a woman's cryptic deathbed confession in another Jonathan Kellerman psychological thriller featuring the brilliant SoCal psychologist and his police consultant partner (Gone, Rage, Therapy, et al.).

The tragic death of veteran emergency room nurse Patty Bigelow, who passed away at the age of 54 from pancreatic cancer, brings with it unsettling questions. Hours before her death, Bigelow informed her adopted 18-year old daughter Tanya -- a former patient of Delaware's -- about a "terrible thing" she did years earlier: murder. In an effort to give the troubled young woman closure, Delaware and Sturgis (whose partner, Dr. Rick Silverman, worked closely with Tanya's mother) vow to unravel the mysterious admission. But their investigation leads them headlong into a sinister L.A. subculture populated by thieves, thugs, drug dealers, porn stars, and an unlikely psychopath who makes Hannibal Lecter look like a Boy Scout…

An acclaimed clinical psychologist in his own right (Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children, Helping the Fearful Child, et al.), Kellerman draws on his professional expertise in crafting his novels of psychological suspense. And nowhere is the author's understanding of the intricacies of the human mind more evident than in Obsession, a deft thriller that explores a plethora of illnesses, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, sociopathy, and the Oedipus complex. Readers will not only be shocked when Bigelow's deep, dark secret is eventually revealed, they'll be absolutely blown away by the ingenious twist at the novel's conclusion. Classic Kellerman. Paul Goat Allen
Publishers Weekly

The 21st Alex Delaware novel (after 2006's Gone) from bestseller Kellerman contains fewer twists than usual for this contemporary thriller series. Once again, Delaware, an accomplished psychologist, teams with his friend Milo Sturgis, an LAPD detective, to probe a mystery, though this time there's considerable doubt as to the nature of the puzzle. Teenager Tanya Bigelow, whom Delaware treated as a child for obsessive-compulsive disorder, consults him because her aunt Patty, who raised her, conveyed a cryptic message just before she died, apparently confessing to a crime. Shortly after Delaware and Sturgis start investigating, one of Patty's former neighbors turns up dead, the first in a series of corpses that appear, possibly as a result of the duo's turning over old rocks. Since the identity of the killer is revealed relatively early on, the final sections are short on suspense. (Mar. 27)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
Library Journal
When the aunt who's raised bright, ambitious teenager Tanya hints on her deathbed that she committed murder, Tanya turns to psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis for help. Look for the interactive online game. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780345500144
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 3/27/2007
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Sales rank: 26,244
  • Series: Alex Delaware Series, #21
  • File size: 518 KB

Meet the Author

Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman
Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to over two dozen bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, and Twisted. With his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, he co-authored the bestsellers Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is the author of numerous essays, short stories, scientific articles, two children’s books, and three volumes of psychology, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards, and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California and New Mexico. Their four children include the novelist Jesse Kellerman. Visit the author’s website at jonathankellerman.com.


From the Hardcover edition.

Biography

"I like to say that as a psychologist I was concerned with the rules of human behavior," Jonathan Kellerman has said. "As a novelist, I'm concerned with the exceptions." Both roles are evident in Kellerman's string of bestselling psychological thrillers, in which he probes the hidden corners of the human psyche with a clinician's expertise and a novelist's dark imagination.

Kellerman worked for years as a child psychologist, but his first love was writing, which he started doing at the age of nine. After reading Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer novels, however, Kellerman found his voice as a writer -- and his calling as a suspense novelist. His first published novel, When the Bough Breaks, featured a child psychologist, Dr. Alex Delaware, who helps solve a murder case in which the only apparent witness is a traumatized seven-year-old girl. The book was an instant hit; as New York's Newsday raved, "[T]his knockout of an entertainment is the kind of book which establishes a career in one stroke."

Kellerman has since written a slew more Alex Delaware thrillers; not surprisingly, the series hero shares much of Kellerman's own background. The books often center on problems of family psychopathology—something Kellerman had ample chance to observe in his day job. The Delaware novels have also chronicled the shifting social and cultural landscape of Los Angeles, where Kellerman lives with his wife (who is also a health care practitioner-turned-novelist) and their four children.

A prolific author who averages one book a year, Kellerman dislikes the suggestion that he simply cranks them out. He has a disciplined work schedule, and sits down to write in his office five days a week, whether he feels "inspired" or not. "I sit down and start typing. I think it's important to deromanticize the process and not to get puffed up about one's abilities," he said in a 1998 chat on Barnes & Noble.com. "Writing fiction's the greatest job in the world, but it's still a job. All the successful novelists I know share two qualities: talent and a good work ethic."

And he does plenty of research, drawing on medical databases and current journals as well as his own experience as a practicing psychologist. Then there are the field trips: before writing Monster, Kellerman spent time at a state hospital for the criminally insane.

Kellerman has taken periodic breaks from his Alex Delaware series to produce highly successful stand-alone novels that he claims have helped him to gain some needed distance from the series characters. It's a testament to Kellerman's storytelling powers that the series books and the stand-alones have both gone over well with readers; clearly, Kellerman's appeal lies more in his dexterity than in his reliance on a formula. "Often mystery writers can either plot like devils or create believable characters," wrote one USA Today reviewer. "Kellerman stands out because he can do both. Masterfully."

Good To Know

Some outtakes from our interview with Jonathan Kellerman:
"I am the proud husband of a brilliant novelist, Faye Kellerman. I am the proud father of a brilliant novelist, Jesse Kellerman. And three lovely, gifted daughters, one of whom, Aliza, may turn out to be one of the greatest novelists/poets of this century. "

"My first job was selling newspapers on a corner, age 12. Then I delivered liquor, age 16 -- the most engaging part of that gig was schlepping cartons of bottles up stairways in building without elevators. Adding insult to injury, tips generally ranged from a dime to a quarter. And, I was too young to sample the wares. Subsequent jobs included guitar teacher, freelance musician, newspaper cartoonist, Sunday School teacher, youth leader, research/teaching assistant. All of that simplified when I was 24 and earned a Ph.D. in psychology. Another great job. Then novelist? Oh, my, an embarrassment of riches. Thank you, thank you, thank you, kind readers. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.

"I paint, I play the guitar, I like to hang out with intelligent people whose thought processes aren't by stereotype, punditry, political correctness, etc. But enough about me. The important thing is The Book."

More fun facts:
After Kellerman called his literary agent to say that his wife, Faye, had written a novel, the agent reluctantly agreed to take a look ("Later, he told me his eyes rolled all the way back in his head," Kellerman said in an online chat). Two weeks later, a publisher snapped up Faye Kellerman's first book, The Ritual Bath. Faye Kellerman has since written many more mysteries featuring L.A. cop Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus, including the bestsellers Justice and Jupiter's Bones.

When Kellerman wrote When the Bough Breaks in 1981, crime novels featuring gay characters were nearly nonexistent, so Alex Delaware's gay detective friend, Milo Sturgis, was a rarity. Kellerman admits it can be difficult for a straight writer to portray a gay character, but says the feedback he's gotten from readers -- gay and straight -- has been mostly positive.

In his spare time, Kellerman is a musician who collects vintage guitars. He once placed the winning online auction bid for a guitar signed by Don Henley and his bandmates from the Eagles; proceeds from the sale were donated to the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas.

In addition to his novels, Kellerman has written two children's books and three nonfiction books, including Savage Spawn, about the backgrounds and behaviors of child psychopaths.

But for a 1986 television adaptation of When the Bough Breaks, none of Kellerman's work has yet made it to screen. "I wish I could say that Hollywood's beating a path to my door," he said in a Barnes & Noble.com chat in 1998, "but the powers-that-be at the studios don't seem to feel that my books lend themselves to film adaptation. The most frequent problem cited is too much complexity."

    1. Hometown:
      Beverly Hills, California
    1. Date of Birth:
      August 9, 1949
    2. Place of Birth:
      New York, New York
    1. Education:
      B.A. in psychology, University of California-Los Angeles; Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1974
    2. Website:
      http://www.jonathankellerman.com/

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Patty Bigelow hated surprises and did her best to avoid them. God had other ideas.

Patty’s concept of a supreme being wavered between Ho-Ho-Ho Santa and a Fire-Eyed Odin thrusting thunderbolts.

Either way, a white-bearded guy bunking down in the clouds. Depending on his mood, dispensing goodies or playing marbles with the planets.

If pressed, Patty would’ve called herself an agnostic. But when life went haywire why not be like everyone else and blame A Greater Power?

The night Lydia surprised her, Patty had been home for a couple of hours, trying to wind down after a tough day in the E.R. Mellowing out with a beer, then another, and when that didn’t work, giving in to The Urge.

First, she straightened the apartment, doing stuff that didn’t need doing. She ended up using a toothbrush on the kitchen counter grout, cleaned the toothbrush with a wire brush that she washed under hot water and picked clean. Still tense, she saved the best for last: arranging her shoes—wiping each loafer, sneaker, and sandal clean with a chamois, sorting and re-sorting by color, making sure everything pointed outward at precisely the same angle.

Time for blouses and sweaters . . . the doorbell rang.

One twenty a.m. in Hollywood, who the heck would be drop- ping in?

Patty got irritated, then nervous. Should’ve bought that gun. She took a carving knife to the door, made sure to use the peephole.

Saw black sky, no one out there . . . oh, yes there was.

When she realized what Lydia had done, she stood there, too stunned to blame anyone.



Lydia Bigelow Nardulli Soames Biefenbach was Patty’s baby sister but she’d crammed a lot more living into her thirty-five years than Patty wanted to think about.

Dropout years, groupie years, barmaid years, sitting-on-back-of-the-Harley years. Vegas, Miami, San Antonio, Fresno, Mexico, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana. No time for postcards or sisterly calls, the only time Patty heard from Liddie had to do with money.

Lydia was quick to point out that the arrests were chickenshit, nothing that ever stuck. Responding to Patty’s silence when she collect-called from some backcountry lockup and wheedled bail money.

She always paid the money back, Patty granted her that. Always the same schedule: six months later, to the day.

Liddie could be efficient when she wanted to, but not when it came to men. Before, in between, and after the three stupid marriages flowed an endless parade of pierced, inked, dirty-fingernailed, vacant-eyed losers who Liddie insisted on calling her “honeys.”

All that fooling around, but miraculously only one kid.

Three years ago, Lydia taking twenty-three hours to push the baby out, alone in some osteopathic hospital outside of Missoula. Tanya Marie, five pounds, six ounces. Liddie sent Patty a newborn picture and Patty sent money. Most newborns were red and monkeylike but this kid looked pretty cute. Two years later, Lydia and Tanya showed up at Patty’s door, dropping in on the way to Alaska.

No talk about why Juneau, were they meeting anyone, was Liddie clean. No hints about who the father was. Patty wondered if Lydia even knew.

Patty was no kid person and her neck got tight when she saw the toddler holding Liddie’s hand. Expecting some wild little brat, given the circumstances. Her niece turned out to be sweet and quiet, kind of pretty with wispy white-blond hair, searching green eyes that would’ve fit a middle-aged woman, and restless hands.

“Drop-in” stretched to a ten-day stay. Patty ended up deciding Tanya was real cute, not much of a pain, if you didn’t count the stink of dirty diapers.

Just as suddenly as she’d shown up, Liddie announced they were leaving.

Patty was relieved but also disappointed. “You did okay, Lid, she’s a real little lady.” Standing in her front door, watching as Lydia dragged the kid out with one hand, toted a battered suitcase with the other. A Yellow Cab idled at the curb, belching smog. Noise rose from down on the boulevard. Across the street a bum slouched past.

Lydia flipped her hair and grinned. Her once-gorgeous smile was insulted by two seriously chipped front teeth.

“A lady? Meaning not like me, Pats?”

“Oh, stop, take it for what it was,” said Patty.

“Hey,” said Lydia, “I’m a slut and proud of it.” Shaking her chest and wiggling her butt. Laughing loud enough for the cabbie to turn his head.

Tanya was two but she must’ve known Mommy was being inappropriate because she winced. Patty was sure of it.

Patty wanted to protect her. “All I meant to say was she’s great, you can bring her anytime.” Smiling at Tanya but the kid was looking at the sidewalk.

Liddie laughed. “Even with all those shitty diapers?”

Now the kid stared off into the distance. Patty walked over to her and touched the top of her little head. Tanya started to recoil, then froze.

Patty bent a bit and talked softly. “You’re a good girl, a real little lady.”

Tanya laced her hands in front of her and mustered up the most painful little smile Patty had ever seen.

As if some inner voice was coaching her in the fine points of niece-to-aunt etiquette.

Lydia said, “Shitty diapers are okay? Cool, I’ll remember that, Pats, on the off chance we ever roll around here again.”

“What’s in Juneau?”

“Snow.” Lydia laughed and her boobs bounced, barely restrained by a hot-pink halter top. She had tattoos now, too many of them. Her hair looked dry and coarse, her eyes were getting grainy around the edges, and those long dancer’s legs were getting jiggly around the inner thighs. All that and the broken teeth shouted Racing Over the Hill! Patty wondered what would happen when all of Lydia’s looks went south.

“Stay warm,” she said.

“Oh, yeah,” said Lydia. “I got my ways for that.” Taking hold of the little girl’s wrist and pulling her toward the car.

Patty went after them. Bent to get eye-level with the kid as Lydia handed the suitcase off to the cabbie. “Nice to meet you, little Tanya.”

That sounded awkward. What did she know about kids?

Tanya bit her lip, chewed hard.



Now here it was, thirteen months later, a hot night in June, the air stinking of Patty didn’t know what, and the kid was back at her door, tiny as ever, wearing saggy jeans and a frayed white top, her hair curlier, more yellow than white.

Biting and gnawing exactly the same way. Holding a stuffed orca that was coming apart at the seams.

This time, she stared straight up at Patty.

A rumbling red Firebird was parked exactly where the cab had been. One of those souped-up numbers with a spoiler and fat tires and wire dealies clamping down the hood. The hood thumped like a fibrillating heart.

As Patty hurried toward the car the Firebird peeled out, Lydia’s platinum shag barely visible through the tinted glass on the passenger side.

Patty thought her sister had waved, but she was never really sure.

The kid hadn’t moved.

When Patty got back to her, Tanya reached in a pocket and held out a note.

Cheap white paper, red letterhead from the Crazy Eight Motor Hotel, Holcomb, Nevada.

Below that, Lydia’s handwriting, way too pretty for someone with only junior high. Lydia had never put any effort into learning penmanship or anything else during those nine years but things came easy to her.

The kid started to whimper.

Patty took her hand—cold and teeny and soft—and read the note.

Dear Big Sis,

You said she was a lady.

Maybe with you she can really turn out to be one.

Little Sis


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3
( 48 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(9)

4 Star

(8)

3 Star

(9)

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(10)

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(12)

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See All Sort by: Showing 1 – 20 of 48 Customer Reviews

  • Posted March 16, 2009

    Excellent read.

    Excellent read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted November 12, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    Jennifer Wardrip - Personal Read

    As a long time fan of both Jonathan Kellerman and Alex Delaware, OBSESSION does not disappoint. As I was immersed once again into another case of past meeting present, I was reminded of how much I love these characters!

    When Dr. Delaware is contacted by a former patient after her mother dies, a very strange story unfolds. The girl's mother was a "saint," a nurse who kept the E.R. running smoothly with her tenacity and talents. The fact that she died after a brief illness, and after confessing to having committed a terrible deed, leads her daughter to seek Alex's help. The fact that her mother's boss was Rick Silverman, Milo Sturgis' significant other, only adds to the creative layers of this case.

    Tanya Bigelow, now nineteen, once suffered from OCD, and thanks Dr. Delaware for "curing" her. Although Alex has his doubts about the state of Tanya's condition, more stressing matters are on his mind when bodies start piling up, and the "terrible deed" and possible murder that Patty Bigelow confessed to on her deathbed is only the beginning.

    OBSESSION is a must-read for all Delaware fans, and for readers who really love a good thriller/mystery. I promise, you won't be disappointed -- although you will be wondering when the next Alex Delaware novel will be published!

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted December 9, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    fascinating tale

    Obsession Jonathan Kellerman Ballantine, Mar 27 2007, $26.95 ISBN: 0345452631 Tanya Bigelow was not even four years old, when her slutty mom Lydia finally dumped her on her single Aunt Patty. The ER nurse took in her niece and raised her as best as she could. She got the child help from psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and ultimately Tanya proved her aunt¿s assertion that she is a lady turned out true. Now nineteen, Tanya calls Dr. Delaware to ask for his help. Just before dying from pancreatic cancer, Aunt Patty told her that she committed a homicide years ago. Tanya has trouble believing that the caring person who sacrificed so much for her could have killed someone, but needs to know the truth to obtain final closure about the person who was a mom to her. Unable to say no, Alex enlists the help of his friend LAPD detective Milo Sturgis as they determine ¿A did-it-even-happen¿ investigation? As they make inquiries into Patty¿s past, both are stunned with what they learn including a new murder tied to their maybe cold case. --- Though a light case for the level expected of the Milo-Alex tandem, this remains a fascinating tale as the investigators assume Patty was delusional at the end until they begin to find unexpected clues otherwise punctuated by the modern day murder. The story line is action-packed from the first call until the final consultation that Alex knows is only the beginning for Tanya. Dr. Delaware¿s fans will enjoy this combining a client¿s psychological need with a maybe murder investigation. --- Harriet Klausner

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted July 18, 2009

    more from this reviewer

    I Also Recommend:

    9780553586664 9780553381511 9780312427368

    I did not finish reading this book.

    This book is a steamy drama taking place in a crime-ridden city. The characters were nearly all people you would not want to know, and I grew tired of the ugly things they did. The plot might have held my attention better if the characters were not so distasteful. In the end I put the book down about half-way through and have not picked it up again.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 1, 2009

    BORING!

    This was the most boring book, one big YAWN. The entire story was theories, what-ifs, and maybes. --K--

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 29, 2009

    Good read

    I always enjoy reading his books. This one is not quite up to par, non the less it was a good story.

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  • Posted April 29, 2009

    Excellent read.

    One of his best.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 1, 2008

    NOT A VERY GOOD ALEX DELAWARE BOOK

    Okay, let's be frank. Basically all of the Alex Delaware books are pretty much the same. And that's okay. The problem is that this one follows the standard formula but with disappointing results. Still, it's mildly entertaining. As satisfying as a quick bite at the nearest fast food joint. Nothing else.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 3, 2008

    Boring, boring, and more boring

    It's really worse than poor, but there is no provision for awful. Kellerman seems to be an author intent on fulfilling a contract by writing periodically. His books are incresingly mechanical and pointless. To make up for his lack of ideas, he invents perversions, supposedly heard in his practice, and fills his pages with needlessly bloated descriptions that are irrelevant. And that is how I sum up Obsession and his more recent stories. Irrelevant.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 13, 2008

    Boring

    The entire book was nothing but supposition and theories of what could have happened, how it could have happened, who could have done it, and why did they do it? There is no real action, just two guys talking and guessing about who did a past murder.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 6, 2008

    What a disappointment!

    I've read all the Alex Delaware novels and was so looking forward to this one coming out in paperback. I've had to make myself read the first half and have no motivation to finish: there are too many characters and it's flat out boring. Unfortunately, even paperback price was too much. I'm afraid Jonathan Kellerman's gone the same route as Patricial Cornwell and a few other authors who were once great but have lost their touch.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 13, 2007

    What happened to Alex and Milo?

    I have been a big fan of the Alex Delaware series. He and Milo pretty much carry the plot line but in this novel there are way too many characters. Let's bring family continuity back with more Robin and Spikes predicessor. I also like Rick. This storyline just rambled on and on until I was speed reading the last chapter just to get it over with. Money wasted.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 12, 2007

    A reviewer

    'Obsession' can be a blessing of sorts or an ugly disease. This book shows all forms of obsession and does so in an extremely interesting way. This is my favorite of all of Jonathan's books.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted July 20, 2007

    Tedious and Disappointing

    Have always enjoyed the Alex Delaware series. So disappointed in this one and could barely finish it. Also way too much description of characters' wardrobe/attire- found these especially annoying - a waste of time.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted September 6, 2007

    A reviewer

    I love the Delaware series, but too many dead ends and speculation ruin this book. He normally writes clean and leaves out muddy details. This book speculated, speculated some more, then re-speculated who done it. Alas, all the supposition leads to a anti-climactic end, with the original speculation being the conclusion. Very 'shake your head' what did I just read material. Looking forward to a new book in the series.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 15, 2007

    More of the same

    I always have high expectations when a new Kellerman Alex Delaware novel becomes available. The last several, and this one in particular, were very disappointing. Same old stuff, re-cycled, little or no interaction with Robyn, and the plot was mundane, with little action. I hate to say this but I feel Mr. Kellerman is going the way of James Patterson - downhill all the way. Don't waste your money ... if you feel you have to read it..wait for paperback.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 14, 2007

    A reviewer

    I am a devoted Kellerman and Alex Delaware fan and have read all previous books. I have never been disappointed until this book. The first half of the novel is just too tedious. It is nothing more than redundant speculation of what might have happened. Nothing of interest happens to Alex or Milo or to the story line. If you read only the second half, there is a glimmer of the essence of the previous 20 Delaware novels which were a treat to read. Please, Jonathan, don't take the sad path of Patricia Cornwall.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted April 29, 2007

    A reviewer

    This is my first book that I read from this Author. I was sorry I ever bought it. The book has no action. I was hoping the ending would make up for the dullness. But as with the whole book, it was also a let down. I've had more fun getting root canal.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 20, 2007

    Another Disappointment

    I was an avid Kellerman follower until the last few books. The spark seems to have played out and his books have become difficult to finish for lack of holding my interest.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted May 18, 2007

    Great Detective Story...

    Come on, What's with the low ratings... this book was great.. Held my interest... very well written... Give it a chance.

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