Watch your privates (Private Eyes - Johnathan Kellerman)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Private Eyes - Johnathan Kellerman
Date:	28/06/05 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good quality

Disadvantages: bit slow moving

Such is the size of my book collection that I have started re-reading some of my favorite authors work partly as a means to reducing my outgoings and also as a way of reminding myself of the reason why my collection boasts so much of their work.

I have always enjoyed the writing of Jonathan Kellerman despite the recent very poor joint effort with his wife Faye which was very disappointing. In particular I have enjoyed those novels that feature the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who works alongside the LAPD as a consultant and often in the company of Milo Sturgis a homicide detective.

The Characters

Delaware is portrayed as a bit of a loner and in Sturgis he has a friend who is equally on the outside as he is an openly gay cop in a very homophobic workplace. In this novel Delaware is further isolated following the break up with his long term girlfriend after one brush with danger too many and Sturgis finds himself on an enforced six month sabbatical after he struck his senior officer at the conclusion of an investigation.

Both of these characters have been established in previous books and there is little development of the characters further beyond what those who have read the earlier works already know, sometimes I feel there are questions to be answered about how Delaware traits of seeking isolation and his need to take risks on investigations have evolved, hen again maybe I’m reading too much into what is intended to be a gripping thriller.

The Storyline

The story opens when a former child patient of Delaware contacts him out of the blue after many years of silence. The former patient Melissa Dickenson came to Delaware as a nine year old racked with numerous fears and hailed from a rich family whose father had died before her birth and whose mother, a former model, was a chronic agoraphobic after a vicious acid attack had left her permanently scared both physically and mentally.

Delaware considers the rehabilitation of Melissa to have been one of his greatest successes and he has a great deal of affection for her so he is only too keen to help her when she turns to him again however this time it is her mother who she is concerned about and needs help with as Melissa is due to go to Harvard and she is worried how her mother with cope after she has started to make some progress of her own after finally seeking psychological help herself.. Delaware had received little support from the mother during his treatment of Melissa all those years ago and has to come to terms with his latent animosity towards the woman and put this to one side in order to help his former patient.

Matters come to a head when the mother disappears on route to one of her counseling sessions and Delaware and Sturgis begin to try to find the missing mother and unravel the reasons behind the attack on her all those years ago.

The Opinion

Firstly let me say that this is not the best Alex Delaware story that Kellerman has produced. The storyline is quite slow moving and in fact nothing of any significance happens until almost half way through the book. The first six chapters are spent detailing the earlier treatment of Melissa and while this is essential to the storyline it does leave a slight sense of padding.

Kellerman work is in the same genre as the Alex Cross character of James Patterson however where Patterson style is to write short punchy chapters that help keep the pace of the novel moving Kellerman is more traditional in the use of longer more flowing chapters.

What ultimately lets this novel down is the lack of suspense that is created, while the storyline is very plausible the ending is rather predictable and little attempt is made to get inside the mind of those behind the crime. There is also what I found the rather annoying habit of the author to spend great detail on describing routes from each of the locations in the novel, to those not living in Los Angeles this has little meaning and adds nothing to the story. In addition for some reason Delaware does not possess a mobile phone hence is always looking for a pay phone. I’m not being funny but surely if your business is investigating people and hunting murders you would at least arm yourself with a means of communication to summon help.

Despite all of the negatives this is still an enjoyable read however there are much better pieces of work from Kellerman out there such as Devils Waltz and The Web which are my personal favorites. On the plus side the chemistry between Delaware and Sturgis is good with some moments of black humour and for those interested in basic psychology then the subject matter will be of some interest although obviously the detail is limited.

Published by Warner Books the rrp is £6.99 however copies are from £0.50 when I last looked in the used section of Amazon.

For more information on the author check out his website on www.jonathankellerman.com.

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