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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good break from the Delaware series, 28 Jun 2004
This is a very readable departure from the highly lucrative Alex Delaware series.The main protagonist is - naturally - a psychologist who, lo and behold, is a bit buttoned down, fairly irresitable to women and emotionally distant. You could see John Cusack or Clive Owen in the film. His girlfriend has been brutally slain by a ripper-type killer and he is eased into the CCC - a group of old codgers who may be trying to solve the crime or maybe involved in its perpetration. It's the kind of group that only exists in crime thrillers. He has to piece it all together and save his pretty new doctor girlfriend from a similar fate. It's strengths are the hospital setting - which grounds the thing nicely - and its pacing, which is just about perfect. Not too revelatory early on, drawing you in to various sub-plots, then finishing neatly. Not too many wildly improbably twists that negate all the careful character study of the late 350 pages (are you listening Harlan Coben ???) Weaknesses are the familiarity of the set-up ('The Analyst' by John Katzenbach is pretty similar - psychologist in peril with games-playing opponent as are the Delaware books, though that lode seems played out if the fairly risible 'The Murder Book' is anything to go by)and the inevitably occassional daft plotting. At the end, it is pretty clear to the reader that the hero was not given the run-around because it helped him get to the truth, but so Kellermann could get a full length book out of a relatively thin story. The funniest bits for a British reader were the cuttings from 'British tabloids' on a Kent murder. Mr Kellermann is clearly not very familiar with the prose style of the Sun or Mirror. Quibbles really. What do you want from a crime novel? Diverting puzzles, good writing, engaging read. This book delivers on all.
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by Jonathan Kellerman
by Jonathan Kellerman
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