Bones (Alex Delaware, No. 23)
By Jonathan Kellerman
When it comes to writing deftly layered, tightly coiled novels of suspense, #1
Amazon Sales Rank: #22650 in Books Published on: 2009-02-24 Released on: 2009-02-24 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Mass Market Paperback 448 pages
From Publishers Weekly In this run-of-the-mill police procedural from bestseller Kellerman, his 23rd novel to feature L.A. consulting psychologist Alex Delaware (after Compulsion), high school miscreant Chance Brandt has been assigned to perform community service at the Bird Marsh, a nature sanctuary near Marina del Rey. After Chance dismisses as a prank an anonymous phone call warning him that there's a corpse buried in the marsh, Lt. Milo Sturgis, now Special Case Investigator for the LAPD, and Sturgis's team find four bodies there, all women missing their right hand. When Sturgis identifies one of the victims as Selena Bass, who worked as a piano teacher for the wealthy Vander family, the police focus on Travis Huck, the manager of the Vanders' Pacific Palisades estate, as the prime suspect because Travis has a criminal past. Kellerman fans wanting more of the same should be satisfied, though Sturgis gets less benefit from Delaware's psychological expertise than usual. (Nov.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Two intriguing preliminary chapters suck readers right in to Kellerman’s latest Alex Delaware thriller, even though Delaware is disappointingly less active than usual in the story—doing hardly more than relating the circumstances surrounding the crime that he and his cop buddy, Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, are determined to solve. The mutilated corpse of a young music teacher, who turns out to be less than prim and proper, is dumped in a protected wetland. Nearby, buried in the marsh, are several more bodies, all of prostitutes whose right hands have been hacked off. Clues lead Sturgis and Delaware to the palatial digs of the music teacher’s young student, who is nowhere to be found. The only one home is the family’s gofer, who apparently has a juvenile record. Sturgis’ antennae really start twitching, though, when the young man disappears. Surely that’s the act of a guilty man. If the whole isn’t quite as suspenseful as initial chapters promise, Kellerman’s intriguing, often oddball characters (including a rookie detective) deliver the goods in this briskly paced procedural. Not among the long-running series’ best entries, but fans will be sufficiently entertained. --Stephanie Zvirin Review COMPULSION“A genuine page-turner . . . The comfortable banter that has helped make Delaware and Sturgis such durable crime-story heroes is as rapid-fire, keen, and wryly funny as ever, and the mystery they aim to solve is certainly not routine.”–BooklistOBSESSION“Jonathan Kellerman’s novels are an obsession; once started it is hard to quit.” –Orlando Sentinel“The characters are rich, the story’s well-plotted and you won’t stop reading.” –Boston HeraldGONE“The denouement accelerates to breathtaking, heart-pounding speed.”–Pittsburgh Post-Gazette“Sharply written and well-paced.”–Entertainment WeeklyRAGE“[An] adrenaline-fueled read.”–PeopleFrom the Hardcover edition.
He's back in fine form Jonathan Kellerman's books have been up and down for me in the last few years. It seems that once Robin left, the storylines left with her. However, in Bones, Kellerman's newest book, I finally found the "old" Alex. Witty, genuine, interesting. The story of murder of prostitutes and of a music prodigy is the center plot, but for me, what worked best in this novel was the strength of the Alex character (something that had been missing in the last few books) he felt present in this storyline. Of course, Milo is back and the banter and relationship between these two is always priceless. The story moves at a rapid pace and was intriguing enough to keep me reading throughout with an ending that was a tad predictable, but nonetheless satisfying. Finally, Alex is back. I liked "old" Alex better..... I just don't know about the direction this series is taking in the last few books. It used to be that Alex was a child psychologist, and occasionally he'd run across something he needed Milo's help on, or Milo would need Alex's take on a crime so that he (Milo) understood it better. Alex's patients were interesting and his cases were interesting. Now, Alex might as well be a cop. He goes along with Milo on every interview and every meeting, sits by while he does on-line research, and only seems to go home when Milo is going to type his report. Also, in earlier novels only Alex talked like a psychologist (Witness: "I didn't really get what was going on." Alex: "You had a hard time understanding the situation.") In this book, both Milo and Reed talk that way too. Sometimes I had to go back and really figure out who was speaking as they all sounded like Alex. This book was OK, but I'd like Alex to go back to his career and leave the cop work to Milo. A Grim Treasure Trove... When a body is discovered, via anonymous tip and openly displayed in a marsh near LA, the strangest thing about it is the missing right hand. Shortly thereafter, three other bodies are discovered - also missing hands. Then a man who goes to auctions for the contents of storage units finds a carved box containing small bones. Polished bones, like a treasure. The bones turn out to be human hands. Detective Milo Sturgis and his sidekicks, along with Dr. Alex Delaware, the psychologist who frequently consults for the LAPD, all team up to search for what now appears to be a very disturbed killer. Almost immediately, the first victim's connection to a wealthy family, whose musical prodigy child is a student of hers, leads to the pursuit of the caretaker, who has gone missing. Or is he hiding? Most of the fun in the story is following the clues as the assorted team of "detectives" pursues the connections and where they lead. Like most of Kellerman's Alex Delaware stories, this one is told with Alex as the first-person narrator - this technique lends itself to understanding how his clever mind works, as he sorts through the clues and speculates about the possibilities. We also are privy to a bird's eye view of his personal life, including his long term relationship with Robin. These segues into the lighter moments of Alex's life, including his friendship with Milo Sturgis, help to lighten what could otherwise be a very grim tale. And not at all surprising is the final revelation as to the motives and nature of the perpetrator/s - after all, the art of misdirection has been at play throughout the circuitous path to resolution. Bones (Alex Delaware, No. 23) is a must-read for Kellerman fans.
