Breakdown: An Alex Delaware Novel Paperback – December 27, 2016

I am currently in the process of rereading the entire series. I am enjoying it very much. The series is great. I love these books characters, both the repeat and the new ones. I will admit I occasionally have to look up an adjective. His descriptions are great and really fill out the characters. I recommend the entire series to anyone who likes mysteries, especially psychologic mysteries.

Breakdown is a solid outing for Alex Delaware. It rewards expectations and will satisfy Kellerman fans. It has very little of Robin (a good thing), a little bit of Blanche (a good thing), some good moments with Milo and a focus on human psychology. I find that many of the strongest of the Delaware novels are those in which Alex actually gets to use his chops as a doctor and I like the realism that pervades these scenes. It’s not always clear what a patient is suffering from; nor is it clear that the patient can be helped or that the medications prescribed will contribute in any positive way. Medicine, including psychiatric medicine, is an art as much as a science. The story includes a great deal of procedural detail, which is always interesting.The premise: Zelda Chase is a B-list actress in a cancelled television series. She is mentally ill. She becomes homeless and she turns up in the backyards of Bel Air, churning up the earth and crying about the loss of her mother. Years earlier, Alex treated her son, Ovid. When Zelda’s body is found Alex teams up with Milo to find her killer and to find her lost son. This takes him through the safety net/support systems of Los Angeles and affords us the opportunity to hear his insights on the relationship between homelessness and mental illness. Alex and Milo’s investigation culminates in a dark, out-of-the-past vision which reinforces the old observation that families are where we learn to love and where we learn to hate. Stir in big dollars and those lessons are magnified.The principal plot arc is a linear investigation: talk to people, talk to other people, go back and talk to the same people, connect the dots, look into the abyss. The story includes (as noted above) some nice procedural elements and includes one of the patented, Jonathan Kellerman 50-page endings. I enjoyed the book very much, found the central story to be just a bit more complex and convoluted than usual (but not confusing or unintelligible). The story was obviously planned in great detail and the nature of the story (which I won’t spoil) was one which required a long list of dramatis personae.Four and a half stars.

This is another interesting page-turner from Jonathan Kellerman. Sturgis and Delaware have such canny thought processes, it's amazing to watch what happens next. Honest detective work that truly brings justice to survivors. Surprise ending!

Early in this novel, a woman and her husband are awakened by something bumping. The bumping changed to a wail, then to a high-pitched cry. The woman (Tina) bounded out of bed and looked out the window and saw something crouched in the left-hand corner of the garden with it's head down, gasping and crying out. Then it screamed, and Tina also started screaming.Moving on to Chapter 2, Dr. (Alex) Delaware receives a call, and is told by a woman that she is calling about a patient of his, Zelda Chase. He tells the woman the she's not his patient. The woman responds that she was, five years ago. He responds that five years ago he had evaluated her son ---. The woman interrupts him, stating, "Ovid Chase. There is no record of official termination."To summarize the following lengthy conversation, Alex had consulted with Dr. Lou Sherman, who is now deceased, but had released Zelda's file to Ravenswood Hospital, where Zelda had been involuntarily committed for 72 hours for trespassing in someone's (Tina's ) back yard. Alex responds, asking "what would you like me to do?" The woman responds, saying "See your patient, Doctor". Alex responds the he doesn't treat adults, only children. The woman responds that the patient (Zelda) had requested him.The remainder of the novel would have been extremely interesting to read, and still is, replete with murders by poisons, shootings, much skullduggery, and a surprise ending. Unfortunately, things devolve for much of the remainder of the novel, such as long instances of extended descriptions of mundane activities and events that require much skimming to find content.With the above detrimental factors, this novel is just an O K read.

I've been a huge Jk/Alex Delaware fan for years. In the beginning, I was able to feed my need to read his works simply by "playing catch-up" as he already had a large body of work when I started reading the series. Once caught up to the current date, I have to wait. Breakdown was well worth that wait! All of the elements of Kellerman are at their best: the tenacity of Delaware, introspection, attention to detail, Robin (although out of the spotlight in much of this book) and, of course, Milo. The interplay, humor and banter between the two key characters keeps the novel moving at all times. Add in a compelling, sinister plot and you have a recipe for a delicious read which Kellerman serves masterfully -- with a little extra "dessert" at the very end.I have to finish reviewing this book now as I beed to check Amazon to see when the next Alex Delaware novel will be ready!