Private Eyes (Alex Delaware Novels)

by Jonathan Kellerman

1992

Status

Available

Publication

Bantam (1992), 560 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Guilt. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The voice belongs to a woman, but Dr. Alex Delaware remembers a little girl. It is eleven years since seven-year-old Melissa Dickinson dialed the hospital help line for comfort�??and found it in therapy with Alex Delaware. Now the lovely young heiress is desperately calling for the psychologist�??s help once more. Only this time it looks like Melissa�??s deepest childhood nightmare is really coming true. �??A page-turner from beginning to end.�?��??Los Angeles Times Twenty years ago, Gina Dickinson, Melissa�??s mother, suffered a grisly assault that left the budding actress irreparably scarred and emotionally crippled. Now her acid-wielding assailant is out of prison and back in L.A.�??and Melissa is terrified that the monster has returned to hurt Gina again. But before Alex Delaware can even begin to soothe his former patient�??s fears, Gina, a recluse for twenty years, disappears. And now, unless Delaware turns crack detective to uncover the truth, Gina Dickinson will be just one more victim of a cold fury that has already spawne… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Darrol

Narrative drags, and the build up is not quite worth the ending. Plenty of psychology. Cannot characterize themes without giving away the plot. Main theme fairly current even today.

7 more

LibraryThing member moosenoose

I give up. After reading approximately a third of this book I am still no nearer to starting the actual ‘thriller’ part of the story nor any closer to finding a single thing I like about the characters I have so far come across. I love a good physiological thriller, but this is not one. Time to

move onto something that will hopefully not make me feel as if I am wasting my weekend!

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LibraryThing member bjmitch

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 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

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LibraryThing member dbsovereign

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.

LibraryThing member brucemmoyer

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 mind, the ending of this book betrayed the story, but some might find it pausible.

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LibraryThing member threadnsong

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.

LibraryThing member Rockhead515

Excellent!
A real whodunnit.

LibraryThing member lbswiener

Private Eyes has a lot of suspects for the horrible that occurred in the story. Four stars were given to this review.

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