When the Bough Breaks (Alex Delaware #1) by Jonathan Kellerman - July 2019

[Jenny]

Hello, fellow Crime, Mystery, and Thriller readers! This discussion is about When the Bough Breaks (Alex Delaware #1) your discussion leader is Jenny.
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Summary

In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn. It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past. This connection is only the beginning, a single link in a forty-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.

[Jenny]

I finished this book today. I am pleased to be going back to the beginning of this fantastic series to find out how Jonathan Kellerman described the main two characters. What do other people think about this book?

[Linda]

This was my second read through and it was just as good as I remembered.

[Aditya]

Finished it, fun read though not a lot of depth. Kellerman was a psychologist himself so he should have known people are seldom as innately noble as Delaware or despicably evil like the villains. He could have added more depth to his characters. I still liked it, it is well written for a debut though it could have used another edit. I liked the first part where Delaware was doing a lot of old fashioned investigating consisting of talking to witnesses and running down clues compared to the end where he became an action hero. Will probably read the next one too but might not go beyond that.

My Review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Bruce]

I agree with Aditya. He has at the very least questionable views for a psychologist, from what one can gather in his novels. The third is slightly better than the first two, but not by much. The second is better than the first, but just as or more disturbing. As I’ve remarked elsewhere, the Kellermans’ novels fall into the category of rape and murder porn. I like noirish pov style, but Delaware is the kind of psychologist I’d avoid like the plague. I’ve had one or two psychiatrists who remind of Delaware in their contempt of older disabled people, like Delaware has. He’s the kind that has compassion for younger patients (most of the time - see the third book), but could care less about poorer, non stable, older people, and loves to see people punished, although he does go after rich people as well.

[Aditya]

Yeah Delaware is too judgmental for a shrink. Kellerman's depiction of crime reminds me of another best seller Michael Connelly, both write about gruesome sexual violence in a sanitized way and never explore the victim's perspective. Maybe that's why they are bestsellers, most readers would probably be turned off if things get too real.

[Bruce]

Yeah. Like I said, they’re rape and murder porn - they’re meant to turn people on.

[Jenny]

Bruce and Aditya, you both, have a fascinating perspective of Johnathon Kellerman books. I always thought that Alex Delaware was a little bit eccentric.