Private Eyes: An Alex Delaware Novel

I stumbled onto Jonathan Kellerman peripherally, since I enjoy his wife's novels. Although I have read Private Eyes out of order of the Alex Delaware series, I didn't have any trouble accepting it as a stand-alone novel, nor did I feel there was something missing by not having read the earlier novels. The book had a bit of the feel of an adventure or mystery computer game, where you just keep going back and forth to non-player characters to get new information, go complete a little side quest to unlock more information, and then go back to the same NPCs to get different conversations. However, the characters were an interesting and varied bunch of suspicious and neurotic people. During my reading of the book, there wasn't a single person other than Dr. Delaware himself who didn't come under suspicion, however briefly. Alex Delaware is contacted by Melissa Dickinson, a patient he hasn't seen in nine years. She is now graduating high school and wants to go off to Harvard, but she's worried about her severely agoraphobic mother and needs Delaware's advice. When Melissa's mother turns up missing, Delaware, as Melissa's therapist, joins the investigation to find her. Any more twists and turns and surprise sub-plots, and I'd suggest that Kellerman should open his own pretzel factory, but it made for fascinating reading and I enjoyed it immensely. I'll look for more Delaware stories by Mr. Kellerman.

This one starts with Dr. Alex Delaware getting a call from a young woman he treated years ago. Eleven years ago, Melissa Dickenson was a bright, precocious 7 year old girl afraid of everything - a result of growing up with a severely agoraphobic mother. Her mother Gina had been a beautiful actress when a heinous attack left her permanently disfigured and scared of the world - she hasn't left her house since. Little Melissa had to grow up fast to help care for her mother, but she grew up in a loving home none-the-less. Now, nine years after leaving treatment, she's a beautiful young woman herself, about to embark on her own life's adventure, except her mother's attacker is out of prison and back in town. She is desperate for help and Alex can't say no. Detective Milo Sturgis is about half way through a six month suspension from the LAPD and he's going stir crazy. That's why he really can't resist when his pal Alex pleads for assistance. The free-lancing detective work is good for Milo - he makes some good contacts and gets to flex his deductive muscles, gets to step on some PD toes (always fun). But Gina vanishes and as Milo and Alex dig, they discover a trail of other disappearances as well as several possible deaths. Everyone has a possible motive and yet, no one has a possible motive - it's a real mystery. Linda, the school principal, is back in Texas caring for her ailing father, leaving Alex to fend for himself. He reconnects with Robin - as friends - will they get back together? And the fish get some action too! Another great book with plenty of Milo this time. There's a scene in which Alex kind of ticks off Milo. The big guy gets genuinely angry and Alex is surprised to find himself scared. After all these years, he is actually afraid of his good friend - comments that he now knows how a suspect feels. Yeah, and of course Alex walks into a dangerous situation - again - almost gets himself killed - again. The climax is a bit of a surprise, though - bet you won't figure it out.

Nine years ago, Alex Delaware successfully treated Melissa Dickinson, a tormented and phobic young girl, irrationally scared of almost everything. After two years of treatment, Melissa seems almost totally recovered, so her need for Dr Delaware ceases, and she becomes one of his most spectacular triumphs. Now, Melissa contacts Alex again, this time seeking advice concerning her mother. Gina Dickinson is a recluse, an ex-actress hiding away from the world ever since a vicious acid attack that left her scarred for life, even after extensive and traumatic plastic surgery. Even though Gina is now seeing, with some effect, a psychiatrist of her own, Melissa wants to know if Alex feels her mother could cope if she went away, accepting her place Harvard. Then, one day, Gina inexplicably climbs into her car, and drives off into thin air, leaving a tangled mystery to be unravelled in her wake. I had started to think that this series was in danger of going stale. The prose is adequate and easy to read, but hardly full of spirit and at times seems a little perfunctory, and Alex Delaware has also remained a rather static - if very likeable - character. But now, after reading Kellerman's excellent standalone "The Butcher's Theatre", I returned to the series with "Private Eyes", and found it a wonderfully invigorating experience. This may be his lone of his longest Delaware books to date, but every word is fascinating, and there seems to me to be fresh fire in the writing. The characters are all very well developed, and although Kellerman never really takes any risks with his well-structured plot, it's a complex and clever book that really kicks the brain into gear, and presents one or two nice surprises along the way. The psychology is dead-on, the relationships are all fascinating, the characterisation is acute, and the resolution is exciting, well-done, and satisfying. This may well turn out to be the rock of the Delaware series. To find out, i shall have to read on...

This books is a great read, it is a wonderful mistery novel that keeps you reading. I have not yet read any Kellerman book that I did not feel this way about.

This story is set in 1989, eleven years after Dr. Delaware treats 7-year-old Melissa Dickinson, a child living a nightmare. Bright and highly resourceful, Melissa calls Dr. Delaware describing her seemingly irrational fears. Her biggest fear is that of her mother's safety. In 1969, Melissa's mother, then a young model was attacked by a man who threw acid in her face, thus disfiguring her.Dr. Delaware once again comes into contact with Melissa, by now grown and entering college. He works with her in uncovering the identity and motives of not only her mother's attacker, but those involved with the man. This is truly a taut, gripping story. The characters are richly drawn so that one gets a pyschological as well as a physical impression of them. The mysteries neatly overlap; there is no extraneous material here. To make a good thing even better, Robin is more or less ushered out the door. I hoped that she would be because I never really cared for her in the first place. Her main role in this book was to leave readers with the question of whether or not she and Dr. Delaware reconnect.