Blood Test (Alex Delaware) [Mass Market Paperback]

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Blood Test (Alex Delaware) [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (November 4, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345466616
ISBN-13: 978-0345466617
Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.9 x 6.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Jonathan Kellerman
Price : $7.99

Customer Reviews

Dr. Alex Delaware is still on a high from having successfully solved a series of interlocking mysteries from "As The Bough Breaks." In this installment, set in 1986, Alex must beat the clock to save a 5-year-old boy with treatable cancer.
The boy, Heywood "Woody" Swope appears to be the one normal foil for his reclusive, fruit obsessed parents and hostile 20-year-old sister, Nona. Named for an apple, Annona Blossom Swope is described in almost feral terms.
Matters come to a painful head when Woody is kidnapped from the hospital. The boy's parents and sister also disappear, and Dr. Alex Delaware is immediately in pursuit of this mysterious family.
Dr. Delaware and his long time friend, Officer Milo Sturgis travel down some very seedy and unsavory roads in Southern California. A cult called the Touch is high on the list of suspects. Members of the cult would visit Woody's family in the hospital and were bringing fresh, organic fruits. A doctor who sympathized with the Touch was high on the list of suspects as were a disgruntled male model/escort who worked with Nona at a messenger/escort service.
The clever detective work and the chapters detailing Dr. Delaware's expose of the Touch and their compound, a converted monastery in the fictitious border town of La Vista make for very compelling reading. The theme of bearing fruit is rampant throughout the book and is very effectively used. Dr. Delaware's live in girlfriend, the selfish and tiresome Robin is barely mentioned in this story, which is also good. I never cared for her.
Questions still abound. Where are the Swopes? And what of Woody? How was the Touch involved? And what of the doctors who worked at the hospital where Woody was being treated? A well crafted mystery that will certainly leave a lasting impression.

I'VE READ SEVERAL OF KELLERMAN'S ALEX DELAWARE NOVELS AND HAVE NOT BEEN DISAPPOINTED YET. BLOOD TEST IS NO EXCEPTION. IT GRABS YOUR ATTENTION FROM THE START AND IS DIFFICULT TO PUT DOWN. I DIDN'T WANT IT TO END.