Private Eyes

I first read this book about a quarter of a century ago and I'm certain I would have rated it higher back then - I kept it for 25 years for goodness sake.
This time I found it hard going. Pages and pages of unnecessary description, and needless flashbacks. I found myself skimming these sections to get to the next appearance of Milo. Because Milo = action, which moved the plot (such as it was) forward. Also Milo is an interesting character, an out gay cop in a steady relationship. And with so many gay characters in this book it was intriguing to see his reactions to them and the parts they played in the drama.
The ending was just ridiculous. Not a clever plot twist but completely out of left field and gratuitous and unnecessarily show more graphic. It was almost as if Kellerman didn't have a clue where he was going and come up with the ending on the fly. show less

The first 300 pages were so slow. I kept telling the book, "Get on with it!" Let me finish this. It was way too long for the story. It started to speed up, but then took so long to resolve, and the ending came out of left field, but not in a good way.

The mystery to me will be whether his later books, post-Internet, pick up the pace a bit. Only time and my reading list will show...

Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware series is one that I haven't read in order. I pick them up at book sales though and save them for times when I need an Alex Delaware fix. I just love this character, a pediatric psychologist who solves crimes, often with his friend Det. Milo Sturgis of LAPD. Delaware is smart, caring, and at the moment of this story lonely. Sturgis is gay and takes a lot of you-know-what from other LAPD cops. In this story he has been put on suspension for a period of months and Delaware talks him into taking a case as a private eye.

For those who love Delaware's former girlfriend Robyn as I do, she does make an appearance in this book. She has been through a bad time and of course Delaware is there for her.

The case show more involves a former patient of Delaware's, a rich girl whose mother is agoraphobic, her father dead, new stepfather in the picture, and the effects of all those on the girl. Melissa is bright and after two years of treatment had seemed capable of going on without Delaware. He doesn't take patients now except for former patients, and now Melissa needs help for her mother. Mom had been horribly scarred years earlier when someone threw acid in her beautiful face. She hasn't left the house since. The guilty parties have served time and one is dead, but the other is out of prison now. Meanwhile, Melissa has talked her mother into getting treatment for her agoraphobia but doesn't like the way things are going.

Kellerman is a master at characterization which is what keeps me on the lookout for his books that I haven't gotten to yet. In this one I sometimes thought Melissa was a little over the top, but maybe not considering her situation. I figured out the bad guy fairly early on, but I didn't know the reasoning behind the crimes. It was a harrowing mystery.

Highly recommended reading - the whole series.
Source: book sale find show less

Definitly on its way to a 5 star rating for the first 500 pages until it descended into a Keystone cops fire drill at the end with a series of confusing and fast moving events that I found hard to follow and accept as a satisfactory conclusion. Detective Milo Sturgis and his loyal friend Dr Alex Delaware, playing the role of Watson to Milo's Sherlock usually face complicated crimes in Southern California in most Kellerman books. This one is a bit different as it features Delaware and Sturgis comes in as second fiddle in a complicated, yet fast moving and fully absorbing plot, where typical of Kellerman, at some point, everybody falls under suspician. In true Charlie Chan style, the culprit emerges at the end and all is revealed. In my show more mind, the ending of this book betrayed the story, but some might find it pausible. show less

A good and interesting read, bringing in the uber rich of the Los Angeles area and the psychology of children. Who grow up to become adults. And the adults who influence them. As with most Alex Delaware books the ending was surprising and completely unexpected.

Psychologist Dr Alex Delaware has always looked on Melissa Dickinson as one of his greatest triumphs. A terrified, tormented seven-year-old when she first appeared in his Los Angeles surgery, Melissa after two years seemed totally recovered. But nine years later Melissa contacts Alex again, anxious this time for her mother. As Alex recalls, weatlthy widow Gina Dickinson has problems of her own. For two decades she has hidden herself away from the eyes of the world � ever since a vicious acid attack destroyed the face of Hollywood actress Gina Prince. Then the reclusive Gina climbs into her car – and totally disappears. And as Alex and Detective Milo Sturgis lead the search for her, they find their quest taking them out of the here show more and now and into a grotesque, labyrinthine private history as violent and sinister as any bad dream… How well did Alex ever understand his star patient Melissa? How could he have 'cured' her when he never even guessed at the evil and hatred that formed her inheritance? show less

Interesting foray into the realm of the psychological mystery. Full of suspense and with a detective that one can like, it definitely rates three stars.