Killer: An Alex Delaware Novel Author: Jonathan Kellerman | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EMX9QQA | Format: PDF
Killer: An Alex Delaware Novel Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAfter thirty-five riveting, internationally acclaimed novels of psychological suspense, #1
New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman returns with his most stunning thriller to date.
Killer is a mesmerizing L.A. noir portrayal of the darkest impulses of human nature carried to shocking extremes.
The City of Angels has more than its share of psychopaths, and no one recognizes that more acutely than the brilliant psychologist and police consultant Dr. Alex Delaware. Despite that, Constance Sykes, a sophisticated, successful physician, hardly seems like someone Alex needs to fear. Then, at the behest of the court, he becomes embroiled in a bizarre child custody dispute initiated by Connie against her sister and begins to realize that there is much about the siblings he has failed to comprehend. And when the court battle between the Sykes sisters erupts into cold, calculating murder and a rapidly growing number of victims, Alex knows he’s been snared in a toxic web of pathology.
Nothing would please Alex more than to be free of the ugly spectacle known as Sykes v. Sykes. But then the little girl at the center of the vicious dispute disappears and Alex knows he must work with longtime friend Detective Milo Sturgis, braving an obstacle course of Hollywood washouts, gangbangers, and self-serving jurists in order to save an innocent life.
Killer is Kellerman—and Delaware—at their finest.
Praise for Killer “As usual, the rapport between Alex and Milo is a show-stealer, and longtime fans . . . will love the well-executed flashbacks to Alex’s professional past.”
—Booklist “Kellerman kicks this one up to a whole new level.”
—RT Book ReviewsPraise for Jonathan Kellerman “Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller.”
—People “Kellerman really knows how to keep those pages turning.”
—The New York Times Book ReviewFrom the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 1674 KB
- Print Length: 353 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0345505751
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EMX9QQA
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #64 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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The best Alex Delaware novels are among the best psychological mysteries ever written, combining fascinating scientific psychology with skillful plots, unforgettable characters and genuine chills. This is not that. It's worse than the average in the series, but better than the worst. That makes it a very good mystery by the standards of most authors, but a subpar effort for Kellerman.
The best part is several brilliantly-drawn minor characters with interesting psychological profiles. They're not as pathological as the sickest characters in the series, most are functional but troubled. It's interesting to see a mystery that results from the interactions of relatively minor problems rather than the clichéd twisted genius pyschopath.
Unfortunately, the threads never weave together tightly, the story is more like billiard balls bouncing off one another than a classic Kellerman masterpiece. Many things are unexplained. Why do two successful lawyers dress like hookers? What's going on with the good guy cut-price lawyer and the bad gal star lawyer? Why is Milo trying to give away money inappropriately? In fact both Milo and Robin appear to have mailed in their contributions, decorating the margins of the story without really being in it. Since no other character makes up more than a small fraction of the book's attention, Killer is too Alex-heavy (one Kellerman's few faults is a tendency to wallow in Alex's self-indulgent mild depression, most readers have plenty of friends willing to supply such stimulus).
Another criticism is the characters seem stuck in the mid-90s. Mobile devices and the Internet seem like afterthoughts, there's a lot more use of landlines, answering machines and human answering services than is common in 2014.
Jonathan Kellerman has been writing the Alex Delaware series since 1985 and "Killer" is #29 in the bestselling series about a forensic psychologist sleuth who helps LAPD with their homicide investigations and the courts with psychological assessments. After so many in the series this book is still well worth reading when other authors of long series would have reached their use by date or relied on co-authoring by this time.
Delaware is asked by the courts to assess what appears to be a straightforward case between a single mother Cherie (Ree);and her sister Connie for custody of Ree's sixteen month daughter Rambla. Ree is a single parent, an unsophisticated original flower child throwback, and her elder sister Connie is a dominating, cold hearted, emotionless and successful owner of a pathology laboratory. Things turn nasty when Connie, realising that Alex's decision is not in her favour, tells Alex "I'm not going to shoot you, Doctor Delaware. Even though I should."
Alex knows that he is in grave danger when he hears rumours that Connie has put out a contract on the streets for his assassination. The danger doesn't last long when Connie is found stabbed and strangled, Ree and her baby disappear and Ree's aged rocker friends are in danger.
What started as a straightforward psychological assessment turns into a murder investigation. Alex helps his best friend LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Milo Sturgis to track down the killer and find Ree and her baby - possibly before it is too late.
Kellerman is a trained psychologist and this clearly shows in his characterisation of Alex Delaware and the way he treats his clients. His compassion is clearly evident and his clients trust him, even one of the most vicious gangsters in LA.
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