The Web

After thirty years of attending to the phsical and mental health of the inhabitants of Knife Island, a tiny community in the Micronesian archipelago, Dr William Moreland feels it would be of benefit to his successor, and to his colleagues throughout the Pacific, if his records were properly analysed. Only too grateful to escape the violent atmosphere of Los Angeles and recoup their emotional resources, Dr Alex Delaware and his partner Robin accept Moreland's invitation to spend a sabbatical on the island to help him in the task. But Knife Island is not the paradise of the travel brochures. The murder of a young woman has created an atmosphere of division and fear. A potential development threatens a large part of the island with show more environmental pollution. And Dr Moreland is not universally regarded as the saintly healer of his own mythology. Co-habiting with cockroaches the size of dinner plates and spiders more venomous than rattlesnakes, Alex and Robin discover the doctor is concealing an older and darker mystery, a conspiracy of such startling magnitude that even Alex, with his knowledge of the depths of human depravity, is hard put to comprehend, or understand why he has been invited into such a horrific web of intrigue and abasement. show less

When I first saw some of the ratings on this book thought it would be not just so so but might be really be bad. Well the first couple of chapters did not do much to disagree with some of the negative reviews. However as the story built it improved. Admittedly this is not the typical Jonathan Kellerman book or story but I enjoyed it for what it is; an interesting yarn by a psychologist who stepped outside of his normal comfort zone.

Delaware working almost entirely without Milo was an interesting twist in the series.
It got a little rushed near the end, leaving me with alot more questions than answers, which is not typical for this series.

The second half I felt like I was reading an Agent Pendergast novel at times.
I think Delaware and Pendergast would work well together and I'd like to see that someday ;-)

Kellerman does go for the odd menagerie. The Pacific island vacation is not Delaware's true milieu. But an entertaining story--I guess.

I can't believe that Jonathan Kellerman wrote such a dreadful book.

Alex Delaware and Robin are lured to a tropical island to collaborate on a book to be written from the records of a medical doctor's experiences working among the population of the island.

The book then descends into murder, cannibalism, giant invertebrates, worm-like monsters and government corruption.

It was truly dreadful but I kept reading on the assumption that it had to get better. It didn't.

In this tenth Dr. Alex Delaware book, he and Robin leave Los Angles, where his home is still being repaired for an all expenses paid work vacation on the Pacific island of Aruk, by Dr. Woodrow Mooreland, a scientist, and philanthropist who needs help with his many case files to ready them for publication.

But things are not as they seem. A couple, one a botanist, the other a meteorologist studying weather patterns in the area are to go on a plane ride over the jungle where no one goes because of the land mines left by the Japanese during World War II. They get in a fight before the flight and he goes alone and the plane crashes into the jungle. The Navy base on the other side of the island, which is blocked off by a large iron gate, that show more went up after the villagers protested the death and mutilation of a local girl who was known to hand around sailors.

The other cases the doctor shares with him besides that of the girl is one of a man who suffered radiation poisoning when the Bikini Islands were bombed and the air shifted and drifted over some of the Pacific Islands, causing death and cancer. The people were compensated monetarily, but in the doctor's opinion, that was not enough. The people of Aruk receive government checks each month because of their poverty, which does not encourage them to try to revive the island's economy and while Dr. Mooreland has the money to help, he does not.

There are also two strange American men on the island who seem to want to drink all day and harass the local women. But they are not the only odd thing on the island. A man who is running for the Senate seat of Washington State, and known for his environmental policies back stateside, is perhaps not so eco-friendly concerning the island. A big business is interested in the island and all the land the doctor owns, which is considerable.

But that is not the biggest secret being kept. The good Dr. Mooreland waits until the end to show and tell his story to Alex and Robin one stormy night. A story that may get them all killed. This book's ending will come as a complete shock. As all of the secrets kept by the various players unravel, a horrendous revelation and a shocking request made by Dr. Mooreland to Alex and Robin could quite possibly end in tragedy for them all. show less

Psychologist Alex Delaware and girlfriend Robin Casta gnarly go to Micronesia to help am aging doctor with his cases. What ensues is a weird mystery unlike no other Kellerman novel. This one has all the usual grit and grime but more weirdness than exoected. And, if you don't like bugs, you may want to skip this one.