Category Archives: Jonathan Kellerman

February 13, 2017 · 11:57 pm

Review: Heartbreak Hotel by Jonathan Kellerman

Title: Heartbreak Hotel by Jonathan Kellerman
Alex Delaware Series Book 32
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis investigate the death of Alex’s most mysterious patient to date in the sensational new thriller from the master of suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman.

At nearly one hundred years old, Thalia Mars is a far cry from the patients that child psychologist Alex Delaware normally treats. But the charming, witty woman convinces Alex to meet with her in a suite at the Aventura, a luxury hotel with a checkered history.

What Thalia wants from Alex are answers to unsettling questions—about guilt, patterns of criminal behavior, victim selection. When Alex asks the reason for her morbid fascination, Thalia promises to tell all during their next session. But when he shows up the following morning, he is met with silence: Thalia is dead in her room.

When questions arise about how Thalia perished, Alex and homicide detective Milo Sturgis must peel back the layers of a fascinating but elusive woman’s life and embark on one of the most baffling investigations either of them has ever experienced. For Thalia Mars is a victim like no other, an enigma who harbored nearly a century of secrets and whose life and death draw those around her into a vortex of violence.

Heartbreak Hotel is classic Delaware and classic Kellerman.

Review:

Heartbreak Hotel by Jonathan Kellerman  is the latest fast-paced and engrossing addition to the Alex Delaware series.

A child psychologist and part-time consultant to the LAPD, Dr. Alex Delaware’s newest client is a surprisingly well-liked woman about to celebrate her 100th birthday.  Alex is intrigued and charmed by his first meeting with Thalia Mars, but he has no idea exactly what direction their sessions are going to take.  Unfortunately, he never gets the chance to find out what his client hoped to gain from talking to him since she is murdered before their second appointment.  Alex and his friend, LAPD homicide detective, Lt. Milo Sturgis, team up once again to solve the case and their search for answers takes a very interesting  turn when Alex begins poking around in Thalia’s past.

By all accounts, Thalia is well-loved by everyone she knows. She has lived at the Aventura Hotel for most of her life and while her bungalow is a getting a little shabby, she is still paying a pretty hefty chunk of change in monthly rent.  When Alex begins trying to find out more about Thalia’s past, he quickly realizes there are a few incongruent details about the former CPA and long retired county assessor.  Thalia’s lawyer, Ricki Sylvester fills in a few of the blanks about her former client’s life but Alex is still very curious about how Thalia acquired her surprising wealth.  Once he figures out her unexpected ties to gangsters and a long ago jewel heist,  Alex and Milo’s investigation takes yet another compelling turn.  But the one piece of the puzzle they are having a difficult time finding is the link between those long ago events and Thalia’s murder nearly seventy years later.

With a cleverly plotted and very fascinating storyline, Heartbreak Hotel is a spellbinding installment in the Alex Delaware series.   The age of Delaware’s latest client makes the premise of this latest release very unique as does the discovery of Thalia’s ties to a decades old robbery and her surprising link to the mob.  The investigation never lags as Alex and Milo leave no stone unturned during their search for Thalia’s killer.  Veteran author Jonathan Kellerman has penned another solid police procedural that readers of the genre are going to love.

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Filed under Alex Delaware Series, Ballantine Books, Contemporary, Heartbreak Hotel, Jonathan Kellerman, Mystery, Rated B+, Review

February 3, 2016 · 11:57 pm

Review: Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman

Title: Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman
Alex Delaware Series Book 31
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman has been universally hailed as the master of psychological suspense, and the blockbuster new thriller featuring Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis confirms his status as today’s preeminent practitioner of saber-sharp storytelling.

Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets beautiful and emotionally fragile TV actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, Alex is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after Zelda’s release, an already sad situation turns tragic when she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Having experienced more than enough of L.A.’s dark side to recognize the scent of evil, Alex turns to his friend LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis for help in finding out who ended Zelda’s broken life.

At the same time, Alex is caught up in another quest: the search for Zelda’s missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror.

As Alex struggles to piece together the brief rise and steep fall of a gorgeous, talented actress, he and Milo unveil shattered dreams, the corruption of a family, and a grotesque betrayal of innocence. With each devastating revelation and damning clue, Alex’s brilliant mind is challenged as never before—and his determination grows to see a killer caged and the truth set free.

Review:

Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman is an exceptionally well-written and intriguing addition to the Alex Delaware series. In this outing, psychologist and police consultant Alex Delaware and police lieutenant Milo Sturgis stumble onto some very perplexing murders while at the same time searching for a missing young boy with ties to one of the victims.

Although Alex’s history with Zelda Chase and her young son Ovid was brief and occurred several years earlier, he agrees to evaluate her when contacted by a psychiatric outpatient facility. He is rather stunned to see the once beautiful actress’s mental state has greatly deteriorated and he grows very concerned about Ovid once he learns she has been living on the streets. Deeply medicated and mostly uncommunicative, Zelda is unable to answer questions about his whereabouts so Alex enlists Milo’s help in locating the missing boy. Knowing there might be a glimmer of truth in Zelda’s psychotic ravings, Alex tries to separate fact from fiction after her untimely death and he quickly becomes obsessed as he tries to uncover new details that he hopes will lead to Ovid.

Sadly, Zelda quickly ended up homeless after her sitcom was cancelled and finding anyone who knew her is like finding a needle in a haystack. With little to go on, Alex tracks down her former cast mates and while he does not learn much new information, their observations reiterate his suspicions she suffered from bipolar disorder. Quickly exhausting the scant clues he uncovers, he finally gives up actively investigating her life and death, but two perplexing disappearances in the same area where Zelda died revitalizes the investigation. Piecing together the connection between Zelda’s death and the two missing maids takes the case in a very surprising direction, and Alex and Milo continue to struggle to make sense of the evidence. Another seemingly unrelated death is too coincidental to ignore but finding the link between the murders is seemingly impossible.

Alex and Milo are both too stubborn to give up despite their lack of progress and initially, Alex does a lot of the legwork on the different cases. Utilizing some of Milo’s police contacts, he uncovers new information about a long ago disappearance, but he quickly hits yet another dead end. Once the truth about closely guarded family secrets is exposed, the pieces begin to fall into place, but Milo and Alex are prevented from searching for new evidence by bureaucratic red tape. Alex cleverly maneuvers around the legal obstacles that stand in their way and the case is eventually cracked wide open when they uncover the evidence they need to make arrests for the murders.

Breakdown is a riveting police procedural that is full of shocking twists and turns. The storyline is complex but very easy to follow and each new development brilliantly advances the novel toward its stunning conclusion. As with the previous novels in the Alex Delaware series, Jonathan Kellerman provides enough background information about Alex, Milo and their longstanding friendship/professional collaboration that newcomers to the series will have no trouble reading this latest installment (but I highly recommend the entire series). An outstanding crime drama that fans of the genre are to enjoy.

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Filed under Alex Delaware Series, Ballantine Books, Breakdown, Contemporary, Jonathan Kellerman, Mystery, Rated B+, Review

August 17, 2015 · 11:56 pm

Review: The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman

murderer's daughterTitle: The Murderer’s Daughter by Jonathan Kellerman
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense
Length: 385 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of the acclaimed Alex Delaware series comes a tour de force standalone novel that illustrates perfectly why “Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller” (People).

A brilliant, deeply dedicated psychologist, Grace Blades has a gift for treating troubled souls and tormented psyches—perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars: Only five years old when she witnessed her parents’ deaths in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her fierce intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But even as an adult with an accomplished professional life, Grace still has a dark, secret side. When her two worlds shockingly converge, Grace’s harrowing past returns with a vengeance.

Both Grace and her newest patient are stunned when they recognize each other from a recent encounter. Haunted by his bleak past, mild-mannered Andrew Toner is desperate for Grace’s renowned therapeutic expertise and more than willing to ignore their connection. And while Grace is tempted to explore his case, which seems to eerily echo her grim early years, she refuses—a decision she regrets when a homicide detective appears on her doorstep.

An evil she thought she’d outrun has reared its head again, but Grace fears that a police inquiry will expose her double life. Launching her own personal investigation leads her to a murderously manipulative foe, one whose warped craving for power forces Grace back into the chaos and madness she’d long ago fled.

Review:

The Murderer’s Daughter is a very intriguing mystery starring an intrepid psychologist turned sleuth. This latest release by Jonathan Kellerman is well written with an unique storyline but it is lead protagonist Grace Blade’s backstory that makes it such a riveting read.

Grace entered the foster care system after witnessing her parents’ murder/suicide when she was five years old. She bounced from home to home until her case worker, Wayne Knutsen, placed her with Ramona Stage, one of the few foster parents who cared actually cared about the children’s welfare. Through the help of her brother-in-law Malcolm, a psychology professor, Grace received a specialized education tailored to her genius level intelligence. For several years, things went smoothly for Grace until the arrival of three young children late one night. Although their stay was brief, their appearance irrevocably changed Grace’s life.

In the present, Grace is a successful psychologist who specializes in caring for patients whose lives have been altered by trauma. She is a survivor and she learned the hard way not to depend on anyone but herself. She is empathetic and caring with her patients, but in her personal life, she has no emotional attachments or relationships of any type. Grace is rather detached and unemotional but given her horrific background, it is understandable that she does not (or maybe cannot), truly connect with anyone.

Grace’s present collides with her long forgotten past after her newest client, Andrew Toner, is murdered. Andrew tracked her down through an obscure article she published years earlier and although he changes his mind about discussing his problems, Grace surmises one of his relatives is most likely a killer. When she realizes she has a distant connection to him, she begins her own investigation into his death. With very little outside help, Grace single-mindedly tracks down the evidence she needs to find his killer.

The Murder’s Daughter is a compelling but leisurely paced novel that seamlessly alternates between Grace’s investigation and her heartbreaking past. Grace is an interesting and complex character although it is sometimes difficult to like her. The storyline is quite clever and brilliantly executed. An outstanding mystery that old and new fans of Jonathan Kellerman do not want to miss.

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Filed under Ballantine Books, Contemporary, Contest, Jonathan Kellerman, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Suspense, Uncategorized