Jonathan Kellerman

I'm really enjoying the Alex Delaware series, and this book didn't disappoint. What made it my favorite so far, though, is the way Kellerman delved into Milo Sturgis' character and brought him to life in a new and more careful fashion, so that we got more of his backstory and persona than I'd really seen before. I'm sure some readers might disagree and feel that the balancing between Sturgis and Delaware was a disappointment, as it did make for a different book than others in the series, but show more I thought it was a fantastic choice which offered a change of pace while still delivering on all of the story, depth, and character I've come to expect from this series. show less

“The Wedding Guest” by Jonathan Kellerman is number thirty-four in the Alex Delaware series, but that should not discourage new readers. Even though I have read several other novels by Kellerman, I somehow missed the Alex Delaware series; however, I had no trouble following along. The book is structured as Delaware’s first person narrative, so it took a little while to discern the last names and exact roles of the participants, but the narrative was clear, cool, rational, and easy to show more follow.
The book opens with a scene that is every woman’s nightmare. Bridesmaid Leanza is waiting in a very long line for the public bathroom at the wedding venue, a converted strip joint. Out of desperation, she runs upstairs to the bathroom near the wedding party’s dressing rooms. There she finds the unthinkable, a body.
This was to have been the happiest day of her life for bride Brearely “Brears” Rapfogel and soon to be husband Garrett Burdette. “It’s terrible, worse than terrible, it’s it’s … tragic” LAPD consultant Dr. Alex, Delaware is called to the scene by Lieutenant Sturgis Milo. No one admits to knowing the victim, surprising since she was obviously dressed for the occasion in a designer gown and expertly coiffed black hair. “Hair falls that nicely, you’ve got a good cut.” The guests were mostly from the bride’s side, but were both the killer and the victim on the official guest list? Clues seem to be rare, but the CSI investigator finds what looks like a needle puncture.
The plot is conversation driven and the dialogue is intelligent, plausible, and revealing. Readers get to know the various players through their conversational style and the little things that they let slip in the conversations. Readers investigate right with the team and learn where guests were, how they feel about what happened, and how they feel about everyone else and everything else. Pieces of the puzzle fall into place, gradually, but it is difficult to discern who is a victim and who is a co-conspirator, who is an innocent bystander and who is a murderous psychopath. When the final picture emerges, it is scary and frantic.
Kellerman’s descriptions paint vibrant pictures of every participant:
“Milo had on one of his fossilized gray suits , a white wash-’ n’-wear shirt, and a skinny brown tie. Respectable enough if you didn’t get too close.”
“A small plain girl with dark eyes as animate as coffee beans and a husky, strangely flat voice that verged on electronically processed. She’d piled her ponytail into a careless top thatch. Errant brown hair frizzed like tungsten filament.”
And every location:
“An empty box from a West Hollywood baker and the crumbs that went with it littered his desktop. Ditto for a grease-splotched take-out carton from a pizza joint near the station. A mug filled with cold coffee sat perilously close to the edge.”

“The Wedding Guest” can certainly be enjoyed as a stand-alone mystery with a perpetrator who will be a surprise. I received a review copy of “The Wedding Guest” from Jonathan Kellerman, Random House Ballantine Publishing, and NetGalley. The pace is slow but steady, and the main characters show companionship and a determination to solve the crime. Along the way, there is both humor and thoughtful analysis of the human behavior. It is appropriate for readers who have not read the previous thirty-three books, as well as fans of the series. show less

Every trigger warning I usually include in my reviews is in this book. It reads like Kellerman wanted this to be a TV series--eighty percent of his books are huge monologues, exposition through speech, character studies through speech; and odd descriptions that didn't evoke in me the emotions they were supposed to. Having a sidekick be gay doesn't absolve a book of homophobia. Milo's regularly described as ugly, and his partner Rick fits the "the hottest guys are always gay" howled by enough show more straight women for it to be a trope. There's tons of other casual homophobia in this and other books of the series. Casual racism, definitely. Misogyny in heaps. Actors are roundly mocked in this. Nobody's relationships make sense. I have zero clue how Delaware leaps to the conclusions he does. And I devoured this series when I was eighteen! I'm so glad I've changed as a person and a reader over the years.

BDSM is heavily, heavily demonized in this as well. I'm going to sum up this behemoth of a book in fifty words or less, using sex-negative misogynist language Kellerman clearly longed to: "That ball-busting bitch longed to have her smokin' hot grad assistant and boring husband tie her up and rail her. BDSM is so icky and horrid, and feeemmaaallllesss shouldn't be professors. Smart ones clearly hate men and have convoluted, melodramatically tragic backstories. SO GROSS EWWWW." Only Kellerman used far more academic language, and turned it into a poorly-structured mystery. How can a husband go from jealousy to worship of his wife, to being okay with her banging her grad assistant as long as he's involved too? It should go 1. worship 2. jealousy and 3. it turns into attempted sexual humiliation as an outlet, and then he's furious that his wife is super into it.

There's a passage where a mother describes her daughter performing sex acts on men without realizing what she's doing, as the daughter is mentally challenged and has not had any sex ed. Kellerman beats the audience over the head with the portrayal of a mentally challenged teenager. The mother doesn't sound shocked or horrified that her daughter is in these situations with men much older than her, who are manipulating her, at all. The dialogue--almost reads like she's trying not to laugh or something. WRITE THAT SHE'S UPSET, KELLERMAN. Write that she cried a little or something, or was sad! He gives NO clue about characters' emotions, which strengthens my TV series attempt idea. Heaps of characters clutter this book to utter pointlessness most of the time. Kellerman treats genuine tragedies as shock value. What a horrible reading experience. show less

A clever twist on trying to make a predator into prey and having it backfire. I have read all of these earlier Kellerman's when I was younger, but this one wasn't ringing many bells so it read like a first, fresh read. Not his best but still gripping and worth reading.

Milo and Alex team up throughout the entire book, and much of it is as usual dialogue and investigating, interviews. Sick stuff is revealed, hidden faces unmasked, questionable monsters. It's always a delight when both of the show more guys are teamed up together as they play theories and ideas off each other. Pacing was tense and the story always kept me intrigued enough - mysteries like this are why I enjoy the Alex Delaware series so much.

I didn't see some of the plot twists coming, there's a dark seediness buried in the rich streets of L.A., psychological twists make more colorful victims and villains, and Kellerman doesn't hold back from showing the multiple faces of all his characters.

The interest lies in the mystery, but more so in the uncovering of who Hope is and how she evolved. It's more of a discovery of this character rather than the psychological analysis of the villain, a creative reverse investigation that serves the story.

Robin is a little more in the background this time, which is fine by me. It's not that I dislike the character, but she's a little out there in her sense of realism and the relationship connection she has with Alex. The series starts with them already bonded, and sometimes over books you see frayed threads that unite them, but during random books they seem to only have a perfect cohesion which is somewhat mystifying.

I like how the ending leaves it open where none involved as heroes of the story, and what would you have done in this situation? It was that kind of mystery. I have to admit I didn't feel much sympathy for the main victim of the story - sometimes you can mess with the wrong monster and have them bite back too fiercely for it to be worth it. show less