Want a NOOK? Explore Now
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Dr. Morton Hander practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Hander paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.
“An engrossing thriller . . . This knockout of an entertainment is the kind of book which establishes a career in one stroke.”—Newsday
It’s psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware’s job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Meldoy’s memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl’s mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim.
Jonathan Kellerman is one of the world’s most popular authors. He has brought his expertise as a clinical psychologist to more than thirty bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, and True Detectives. 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, as well as the lavishly illustrated With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live in California, New Mexico, and New York. Their four children include the novelists Jesse Kellerman and Aliza Kellerman.
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."
"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."
9780345540218|excerpt
Kellerman / WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS
CHAPTER
1
It was shaping up as a beautiful morning. The last thing I wanted to hear about was murder.
A cool Pacific current had swept its way across the coastline for two days running, propelling the pollution to Pasadena. My house is nestled in the foothills just north of Bel Air, situated atop an old bridle path that snakes its way around Beverly Glen, where opulence gives way to self-conscious funk. It's a neighborhood of Porsches and coyotes, bad sewers and sequestered streams.
The place itself is eighteen hundred square feet of silvered redwood, weathered shingles and tinted glass. In the suburbs it might be a shack; up here in the hills it's a rural retreat--nothing fancy, but lots of terraces, decks, pleasing angles and visual surprises. The house had been designed by and for a Hungarian artist who went broke trying to peddle oversized polychromatic triangles to the galleries on La Cienega. Art's loss had been my gain by way of L.A. probate court. On a good day--like today--the place came with an ocean view, a cerulean patch that peeked timidly above the Palisades.
I had slept alone with the windows open--burglars and neoMansonites be damned--and awoke at ten, naked, covers thrown to the floor in the midst of some forgotten dream. Feeling lazy and sated, I propped myself on my elbows, drew up the covers and stared at the caramel layers of sunlight streaming through French doors. What finally got me up was the invasion of a housefly who alternated between searching my sheets for carrion and dive-bombing my head.
I shuffled to the bathroom and began filling a tub, then made my way to the kitchen to scavenge, tak- ing the fly with me. I put up coffee, and the fly and I shared an onion bagel. Ten-twenty on a Monday morning with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Oh, blessed decadence.
It had been almost half a year since my premature retirement and I was still amazed at how easy it was to make the transition from compulsive overachiever to self-indulgent bum. Obviously I'd had it in me from the beginning.
I returned to the bathroom, sat on the rim of the tub munching and drew up a vague plan for the day: a leisurely soak, a cursory scan of the morning paper, perhaps a jog down the canyon and back, a shower, a visit to--
The doorbell jarred me out of my reverie.
I tied a towel around my waist and walked to the front entry in time to see Milo let himself in.
"It was unlocked," he said, closing the door hard and tossing the Times on the sofa. He stared at me and I drew the towel tighter.
"Good morning, nature boy."
I motioned him in.
"You really should lock the door, my friend. I've got files at the station that illustrate nicely what happens to people who don't."
"Good morning, Milo."
I padded into the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee. Milo followed me like a lumbering shadow, opened the refrigerator and took out a plate of cold pizza that I had no recollection of ever owning. He tailed me back to the living room, collapsed on my old leather sofa--an artifact of the abandoned office on Wilshire--balanced the plate on his thigh and stretched out his legs.
I turned off the bathwater and settled opposite him on a camelskin ottoman.
Milo is a big man--six-two, two-twenty--with a big man's way of going loose and dangly when he gets off his...
Anonymous
Posted Sun Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2004
If you have never read a book by Jonathan Kellerman, this is a great place to start. His characters, Alex and Milo are superbly developed and really make you want to root for them in their discovery of some devastating facts that lead to an even more devestating discovery. Pick up this book today, I couldn't put it down!!!
5 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This book starts out a little slow, but only because it gives some background information on the main character so that you can understand him a little better. Then it jumps right into a great story with an interesting ending. It was a little hard to follow towards the end because of the different characters involved, but it comes together nicely.
4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.BookLoverCT
Posted Sun Mar 11 00:00:00 EST 2012
I have always enjoyed Jonathan Kellerman's books featureing Alex Delaware. I recently decided to read all the older stories, from Book #1 on. This is the book that actually introduces us to Alex and Milo. I especially enjoyed this book and will read the second and third books in the series soon.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Fri Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2012
Good book that is great especially if you like to read from a psychologist's perspective. Love the way the mystery unfolds in the end. Some dark content that I don't like reading about: child abuse, rape, etc. Some readers might not be bothered by it as the author didn't go into great detail. I would consider reading more of his books as he is a good writer and I love psychology.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2012
The story line is interesting and the characters are fairly well developed. But when Alex goes off on his own investigation, Mr. Kellerman begins to make his story sound a lot less logical. The end of the story, in particular, is quite unbelievable, and happens so quickly as to make one think Mr. Kellerman had a word limit! This is the only novel of Mr. Kellerman's I've read and I enjoyed most of it. Considering it was his 1st to write, and expecting improvement, I'll be reading another!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This is a great first book to get you addicted to Alex Delaware. There is a lot of explaining, who Alex Delaware is, what made him what he is, but it isn't done in a boring way, but it is detailed. But it is well worth it...the books are GREAT. These are books that i eagerly look forward to.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.AuthorAshleyDawn
Posted Wed Oct 12 00:00:00 EDT 2011
Dr. Alex Delaware is a child psychologist who has seen enough violence and evil done to children to burn him out and break him down at the age of thirty-three. Now retired, he has plenty of money to live on while he ponders the question of what to do with his life. That is until his friend, a police detective, Milo Sturgis asks him for help on his latest case.
Alex's interest is piqued by the case, but doesn't plan to get overly involved, just help out. Then he met Melody Quinn, the seven-year-old, lone witness to the double murder. She and her mother live in the same apartment building as the psychiatrist and his girlfriend that were murdered and she is the only one that can help with this case now as Milo has no other leads.
As he gets Melody to trust him and open up, Alex realizes there is more to this case than just a double murder. He digs deeper and deeper until he opens the door to secrets that several 'well to do' people would rather keep closed.and would do anything to keep it that way.
Intense, traumatic, and suspenseful, this book will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Reviewed by Ashley Wintters for Suspense Magazine
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I really enjoyed this story. It was great to see how Alex and Milo start off from their basic crime solving tactics. I admit that I didn't start reading the series from order but it was still excellent. Like the rest of the stories. Alex & Milo never lose their wits nor my interest.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I love Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series, and I'm hoping to love Jonathan's Alex Delaware as well. This first book was not as compelling as I hoped, but I'll continue on for at least a few books hoping they don't disappoint. I've even branching out to the books their children are writing. What a prolific literary family!!!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.ffuts
Posted Fri May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2010
For a book that says almost nothing about anything, it is decently written. The little it does say about anything is to keep your hyperactive kids off prescribed drugs unless absolutely necessary. Other than that, which I already knew, I would have been better off spending my time doing almost anything else.
Our new Post-Modern Detective, a burnt out ex-karate enthusiast with a 2-hour refresher in which he gets the cr-- kicked out of him by an old instructor, escapes death, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times, five, if one counts his being rescued just in the nick of time.
First, our hero is attacked by the biggest dog this side of King Kong. Our hero dives for a pitchfork and saves himself intact albeit for a bite of his arm, described as not really bad, but severe enough to render it almost useless in a fight, into which, of course, our hero soon gets himself.
That's ONE!
The killer, an already successful one, puts a gun to our hero's head, and our hero escapes, in what I suppose is meant to be an exciting car-motorcycle chase. The bad guy dies. Well, of course. Our hero is so well trained at this stuff.
That's TWO!
Then, our hero with the bad arm fights someone substantially bigger and at least somewhat trained. The author tells us, "He was strong and skilled." But, of course, our well-trained hero wins that battle as well, bad arm and all.
That's THREE!
Then, a real bad guy-killer has a gun on him. He gets away from that one as well.
That's FOUR!
But, our hero doesn't quite get away from number four. The bad guy is huge, gets to our hero and begins choking him to death. No way our hero can get away. But, wait! The author arrives with the cavalry just in the nick of time.
Maybe, that's not really number FIVE since our hero was saved from a certain death by another person, but it's close enough.
We readers can console ourselves with the knowledge that the hero is a man of principle, at least that's what the author keeps telling us.
But, the hero's buddy, a homicide detective, admits in the last pages that he has murdered in cold blood one of the villains. He has done so because he believed the murderer was a man of power, wealth and influence and would get away with his horrid crimes only to commit them again.
When our hero, our man of principle, hears the cop's confession, he says "Okay."
OKAY?
Though I don't remember anything about having read this book when it was first published 25 years ago, I am sure that I did since I do remember having read 2 or 3 of the earlier Alex Delaware books, and it is my nature to start at the beginning. But this re-beginning is surely the end.
This book's low quality has finally driven me back to my own, too long neglected novel. I assure you, my 'hero," if there is one, won't beat up or otherwise get physical with the bad guys or the big dogs. He oe she will just be a more normal human being.
1 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.This book was decent. There is almost a little too much going on at one time, so can be hard to follow. I would reccomend this book though. It is very thrilling, and worth your time and/or money.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.The first book in the series that builds information as you go along. Alex is asked to provide assistance in solving the crimes, which seem to be interconnected. Milo uses Alex to get information about those that are suspect in their truth telling.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 EST 2004
After 'Over the Edge', this is the second book by Mr Kellerman that I have just read. Not bad for a first try, though it also shows the author was still rather immature in his plot-creating skills. At times it felt like reading a strange medley of pulpfiction thriller plus the story of a medieval detective mixed with the straightforward confessions of a top lover who never ever disappoints a gal in bed and has the most immaculate woman in the world for a partner. On top of this all, put Milo and a required knowledge of psychopharmacology. Nonetheless, one has to be lenient in their opinion when reviewing a first book . . .
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Apr 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013
I liked the part where Milo was scolding Alex for not locking his door.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.EmaCA
Posted Fri Mar 29 00:00:00 EDT 2013
It has a decent storyline and original characters. Didn't expect a couple of the turns it made. Nice book to sit down and read over a weekend.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Mar 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013
WHY CAN'T WE GET THE CORRECT PUBLISH DATES FROM BARNES AND NOBLE? WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS WAS PUBLISHED IN 1986? I USUALLY HAVE TO DO RESEARCH ON AMAZON FIRST BEFORE MAKING A PURCHASE? THEY OFFER CORRECT DATES AND BETTER FILTER OPTIONS WHEN SHOPPING?
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.16671004
Posted Fri Mar 08 00:00:00 EST 2013
The first I read by Jonathan Kellerman was " Over The Edge" and I had skipped his first two books. This is the first book in the Series of Alex Delaware.
I loved it so much I stayed up reading it.
This is one of his best and it maybe better than "Over The Edge".
If you are or were a fan and you have not read it all I can say "If you have to read this book! it is Great!
Did anyone else notice that in the brief review from Publisher's Weekly, the reviewer calls Alex Delaware "Alex Davenport?" I know this is the first book in the series, but I discovered the series with "Therapy," and after a half dozen or so, I decided to start at the beginning.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Sep 24 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I had read many of the Alex Delaware novels before I discovered this "first" one. Great story while at the same time providing the historical background into what makes Alex Delaware tick, and how the friendship between him and Detective Milo Sturgis developed. I'm looking forward to reading more of the early stories. I haven't been disappointed yet!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Sat Jul 21 00:00:00 EDT 2012
I felt that he took too long to get into the mystery, such as it was. Then he wrapped it up too fast, almost as if trying to hurry and finish the book. I will read another of his books, maybe they will get better.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Overview
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Dr. Morton Hander practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Hander paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have ...