worked for me...kinda | Compulsion (Alex Delaware, No. 22)

Kellerman Needs to Dump Alex Delaware (For A While) ! | Compulsion (Alex Delaware, No. 22) | Jonathan Kellerman

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	• Compulsion (Alex Delaware, No. 22) Jonathan Kellerman Ballantine Books, 2008 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 84 reviews view larger image
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The bar has dropped

While I have read every J Kellerman book, the plots have become less plausible, hence, less enjoyable. While Milo remains one of the most interesting characgers in suspense fiction, Dr. Delaware is losing his alure. Kellerman can still write, but the premise of the books needs re-examination or the story line strengthened.
Ron Lealos author of Don't Mean Nuthin'

worked for me...kinda

ya know...i read these books when i need to unplug from the chaos of my life. so i don't require a lot, just some interesting characters (alex and especially milo qualify), some plot tension and enough detail to keep me involved but not too much as to require full engagement, know what i mean? so that being said, this book was fine with me. i sat down and read it in three hours and felt a little refreshed for having done it. however...the concept of how alex links these murders together is ridiculous. so, for you folks that need the story to work, you will be disappointed. but for me, i wasn't asking for much. so it was fine. cheers.

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Kellerman Needs to Dump Alex Delaware (For A While) !

Having read several of the novels in this series, I have found them to become very rote. I think it would serve Mr. Kellerman well to maybe attempt a novel with Milo Sturgis, the gay detective in this series, as the lead character. I am sure JK could create a pretty interesting story around Milo who at this point in time is still one of the more interesting characters in this series. Specifically in terms of "Compulsion," a series of three murders (a young sales clerk, a retired teacher, and two hairdressers) takes place. Additionally a sub-plot exists whereas a young boy is missing. Of course, Alex and Milo bring to a close all of the incidences as they put together some far-fetched clues and then the story ends. This reader would sure like to see a story with Milo (and his life partner, Dr. Rick Silverman) in the lead, and maybe JK can send Alex on vacation for a while.

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Too Formulaic

I can't say much about the plot of this book, because it is a who-done-it, and that would be unfair. But there is a murderer who cross-dresses and an African-American teen who disappears while selling magazines. I have read all of Kellerman's work, and while I don't think that this is his best effort, I do feel that he an outstanding author. He is a former clinical psychologist whose protagonist here, Dr. Alex Delaware, is also one. Two things about his work appeal to me: First, he really writes in an engaging way, making people and dialogue and scenes come alive, and second, he is able to bring his previous expertise to character development--both of which make for the real deal. I think his best work is "Butcher's Theater" which takes you fully inside the mind of a psychopath and serial killer. That book is a little long and involved, but if you don't mind that, it is the ultimate crime thriller. But you can never go wrong with Kellerman--he is always a good read.

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Not Bad..

This is my first Alex Delaware novel so I have nothing to compare to. I found the book a little slow to develop, but overall a good mystery. I liked the main characters & would read other Delaware novels if given the chance. The book got better as it got closer to the end & had a satisfying ending.

Once again, the depths of the criminal mind and the darkest side of a glittering city fuel #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman?s brilliant storytelling. And no one conducts a more harrowing and suspenseful manhunt than the modern Sherlock Holmes of the psyche, Dr. Alex Delaware.

A tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the inky black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. These and other bizarre acts of cruelty and psychopathology are linked only by the killer?s use of luxury vehicles and a baffling lack of motive. The ultimate whodunits, these crimes demand the attention of LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his collaborator on the crime beat, psychologist Alex Delaware.

What begins with a solitary bloodstain in a stolen sedan quickly spirals outward in odd and unexpected directions, leading Delaware and Sturgis from the well-heeled center of L.A. society to its desperate edges; across the paths of commodities brokers and transvestite hookers; and as far away as New York City, where the search thaws out a long-cold case and exposes a grotesque homicidal crusade. The killer proves to be a fleeting shape-shifter, defying identification, leaving behind dazed witnesses and death?and compelling Alex and Milo to confront the true face of murderous madness.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

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