Review – Compulsion
An Alex Delaware Novel
by Jonathan Kellerman
Random House Audio, 2008
Review by Bob Lane, M.A.
May 27th 2008 (Volume 12, Issue 22)
To provide the reader with full disclosure let me assert from the beginning that this is my first Kellerman novel. I read and enjoy Spenser novels, and as a child I was raised on Mickey Spillane books (much to my mother’s horror), but this is my first meeting with Alex Delaware. He seems an OK guy; he doesn’t actually do much in this work, but he has the appropriate credentials as a psychologist to offer a layer of insight into the workings of the warped criminal mind. He serves as foil to LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, also an OK guy, and goes along on the visits to the crime scenes which allows for dialogue to push the plot forward and to reveal details that are required to keep us interested in the action.
I should also reveal that I am a fan of audio books and listen to them all the time while gardening or visiting the gym. This is a great reading by Rubinstein — just the right amount of vocal variance to indicate character changes without trying to take on the persona of each character — just a vocal hint not a false attempt to imitate. Timing, voice quality, variation, richness: all are just right.
The plot: a tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. These and other bizarre acts of cruelty and psychopathology are linked only by the killer’s use of luxury vehicles and a baffling lack of motive.
For those, like me, who don’t know, Alex is an LA psychologist who often works with LAPD detective Milo Sturgis to solve crimes perpetrated by crazed psychopaths. Alex has a perfect somewhat annoying girlfriend, Robin, who is busy throughout the novel constructing musical instruments for some rich client. Kellerman’s clear crisp writing and his knack for describing LA life with accuracy make this an exciting read (or listen).
This time around the two friends have a difficult case. Sturgis’s protégé, Sean Binchy, has been called to investigate a strange incident involving a Bentley that’s been taken on a joyride, and wound up with a bloodstain in it. Binchy senses that there might be more to it than that, and wants to investigate. When Milo does follow through, a murky outline of a killer emerges: a would-be bad Samaritan who helps people by killing off those in their way, and who drives large luxury cars and wears odd disguises. Alex uses Google to help find a pattern of similar cases.
Jonathan Kellerman is a prolific writer and as a result there is a formulaic feel to the work. The dialogue is crisp and clean and the plot, though somewhat fantastic, is easy to follow, and the bad guy is really bad. All sorts of mutilations and other unsavory events are presented to be finally sorted out by this particular dynamic duo of crime fighters.
© 2008 Bob Lane
Bob
tildeb
darkfabric
sextus
sob1989
taersker
andrewtree
paulsayward
chosism
1 response so far ↓
tildeb // May 28, 2008 at 7:42 AM |
I started reading Kellerman nearly 20 years ago. His first books I think are his best (When the Bough Breaks, etc.). They involved not only children and psychiatry/psychology (Kellerman’s specialty) but also this gay detective named Sturgis.
The series of Alex Deleware novels has the two form a professional alliance over time that eventually develops into a friendship and the reader is given insight into what being gay is like in a very heterosexual world of law enforcement as well as given excellent plots that revolve around the welfare and well-being of children. Really interesting and engaging detective novels. I think they would be more satisfying to the reader if they were read in series rather than as stand-alone books.
I just finished reading Obsession, the book previous to this one. Not that great, but still an interesting and engaging psychological thriller.