Over the Edge: An Alex Delaware Novel (Aex Delaware) [Mass Market Paperback]

Friday, March 23, 2012

Over the Edge: An Alex Delaware Novel (Aex Delaware) [Mass Market Paperback]

Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books (May 25, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 034552148X
ISBN-13: 978-0345521484
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.3 x 7.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

By : Jonathan Kellerman
Price : $9.99

Customer Reviews

Dr. Alex Delaware's world is jolted by a surprise telephone call from a former client. Jamey Cadmus, 17, was part of a pilot project of highly gifted adolescents 5 years earlier and Dr. Delaware was a consultant for that project.
Jamey, disoriented and confused, calls Delaware from a private hospital in the California Canyons. He is kidnapped from his room and it falls to Dr. Delaware to investigate the hospital and Jamey's tangled family tree.
Set in 1987, Dr. Delaware makes numerous references to the university project that accepted Jamey in 1982, when the boy was nearly 13. He uncovers a questionable family history, a web of murders and corrupt developers in the canyons. Jamey, by now found and incarcerated in the County Jail, tries to, in his own incoherent fashion tell Dr. Delaware what he knows about the series of cases.
Robin has a more prominent place in this story. Although I never cared for her, the one thing that annoyed me in this book was one scene where Delaware greeted her, "shushing her with a kiss." To me, the "shushing her with a kiss" was simply a way of shutting her up. That act sounded as if he had no use for her opinions or anything she ever said and smacked of chauvanism. Delaware was plainly far more cerebral than Robin ever was and I felt that single act was to underscore his mental superiority to her, not unlike Jamey's mental superiority prior to his breakdowns. The theme of glass houses is revisited throughout this story.
This is truly an outstanding work. Readers are taken on some very painful, bumpy roads through the seamy, seedy parts of Southern California and encounter some equally seamy, seedy characters. Bikers, corrupt developers, questionable family ties, persons not involved with the cases -- each appears to be a likely suspect. The conclusion is powerful and very satisfying; it makes sense, yet stays several steps ahead of the readers. Each character is richly drawn and believable; each new layer of mysteries interlock believably. Jon Kellerman is truly the Michaelangelo of the Mystery genre.

This is the first novel featuring Alex Delaware, child psychologist and it is a stunner. I don't know why I have resisted reading Jonathan Kellerman for so long, but I sure do regret it. When Dr. Morton Handler and Elena Gutierrez are found mutilated in Handler's apartment, Det. Milo Sturgis recruits Dr. Delaware to help unlock the mind of the only witness, 7 year old Melody Quinn. As Dr. Delaware tries to help this child, he unwittingly unlocks a deeper secret, one that has existed for over 40 years. This novel is a fine debut for Jonathan Kellerman. We now know he goes on to write many more Dr. Delaware novels and I will be reading all of them