Product Description

Jonathan Kellerman has made the psychological thriller his own gripping province with his bestselling series of Alex Delaware novels. Now, Delaware’s new adventure leads the sleuthing psychologist on a harrowing exploration into the realm he knows best: the human psyche, in all its complexity, mystery, and terrifying propensity for darkness.

“Been a while since I had me a nice little whodunit,” homicide detective Milo Sturgis tells Alex Delaware. But there’s definitely nothing nice about the brutal tableau behind the yellow crime-scene tape. On a lonely lover’s lane in the hills of Los Angeles, a young couple lies murdered in a car. Each bears a single gunshot wound to the head. The female victim has also been impaled by a metal spike. And that savage stroke of psychopathic fury tells Milo this case will call for more than standard police procedure. As he explains to Delaware, “Now we’re veering into your territory.”

It is dark territory, indeed. The dead woman remains unidentified and seemingly unknown to everyone. But her companion has a name: Gavin Quick—and his troubled past eventually landed him on a therapist’s couch. It’s there, on familiar turf, that Delaware hopes to find vital clues. And that means going head-to-head with Dr. Mary Lou Koppel, a popular celebrity psychologist who fiercely guards the privacy of her clients . . . dead or alive.

But when there’s another gruesomely familiar murder, Delaware surmises that his investigation has struck a nerve. As he trolls the twisted wreckage of Quick’s tormented last days, what he finds isn’t madness, but the cold-blooded method behind it. And as he follows a chain of greed, corruption, and betrayal snaking hideously through the profession he thought he knew, he’ll discover territory where even he never dreamed of treading.

As provocative as it is suspenseful, Therapy is premier Kellerman that finds the award-winning author firing on all creative cylinders—and carrying readers on an electrifying ride to a place only he can take them, for an experience they won’t soon forget.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #197602 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-29
• Released on: 2005-03-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 512 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345452603
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Kellerman returns to series hero Alex Delaware after last year's gripping stand-alone, The Conspiracy Club. The success of the long-running Delaware series is testament to both the author's skills and the reading public's hunger for mysteries featuring compassionate, intelligent protagonists, interesting secondary characters (including complex villains), strong plot lines and clear, unpretentious writing. Kellerman delivers all these once again in a tale that opens with Alex at dinner with his best friend, L.A. police lieutenant Milo Sturgis, when the sound of a police siren calls them to a nearby double homicide. The two victims are found in a Mustang convertible; the young man's zipper is open, the young woman's pants are down and each has a bullet in the brain. The man is identified as Gavin Quick, but little is known about the woman other than she's wearing Armani perfume and Jimmy Choo shoes. Milo and Alex interview Gavin Quick's nutty mother, Sheila, and his father, Jerry, a metals dealer and all-around shady character, as well as Gavin's therapist, Mary Lou Koppel. From there, the list of characters branches into an ever-widening delta of suspects and dead bodies. The investigation marches relentlessly on as Milo and Alex run each new lead to ground, slowly constructing an intricate motive that includes abusive boyfriends, eccentric ex-husbands, Medi-Cal fraud, a bent parole officer and Rwandan genocide. This one's more methodical than suspenseful and the final shoot-out and revelations feel tacked on, but fans won't mind as Alex and Milo eventually wrap everything up nicely, and Kellerman provides intriguing details of Alex's new love interest, Allison Gwynn.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
"Sometimes anxiety and fear make me feel alive." That's psychologist Alex Delaware's take on life and, by extension, his rationale for assisting his LAPD pal Milo Sturgis with the various criminal investigations that come across his desk. Lucky for fans of this long-running and wildly successful series, that's pretty often. This time the crime, the murder of a couple of twentysomethings parked in a secluded spot, is exceptionally vicious. When Delaware and Sturgis investigate, they discover one of the victims was associated with a celebrity psychologist. Therapy emerges as the key to the mystery after the psychologist and another of her patients turn up dead, but there's a tangled mess to unravel before it's clear precisely how it plays a part. As the investigation widens, numerous gritty secrets come to light and a deliciously complicated solution unfolds. As in most Delaware novels, it's the manipulation of circumstance that drives the story, and though the plot here shoots off in some unexpected directions, Kellerman shrewdly manages to bring everything together by the end; there's even a nifty surprise. And, of course, it's all neatly delivered in Delaware's urbane yet casual voice. Thumbs up yet again for the ever-popular Kellerman. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
'Therapy is a fine thriller' Independent on Sunday, 18/4/04 -- Independent on Sunday 20040418

Customer Reviews

Disappointed
Psychologist and Police Consultant, Alex Delaware is back to help Homicide Detective, Milo Sturgis investigate the killing of two young adults murdered in a Lover's Lane type setting. The fact that a metal spike, along with a gunshot wound, impaled the woman indicates more than a routine killing. The woman remains unidentified, but the young man turns out to have had a personality change due to a recent car accident. He was seeing noted celebrity psychologist, Dr. Mary Lou Koppel, for his problems. Through the investigation, another similarly murdered patient of Dr. Koppel's comes to light. Before long, Dr. Koppel herself is found murdered. The killings seem to be linked; and Alex and Milo work to find what how.

I usually love the Alex Delaware series and this one started out well enough, but about half way through the book, it turned deadly dull. The characters were not likable and I could just not care what happened to any of them. It was bad enough that the plot was uninteresting, but it turned ridiculous as well. Alex Delaware's personal story was hardly explored at all. First time Alex Delaware readers will be at a loss to know anything about his backstory even though his girlfriend and ex-girlfriend both make an appearance in the story.

First half of the book was perhaps 4 stars and the second half 2 stars for an average of 3 even though it pains me to rate one of my favorite authors so low.

Not his best
THERAPY by Jonathan Kellerman
August 24, 2004

THERAPY is Jonathan Kellerman's latest Alex Delaware novel. In this novel, Alex and Milo Sturgis are on a mission to figure out the connection between a murder that has just occurred in Beverly Hills, and one that happened previously and left unsolved. The victims of the first murder are a man and a woman, found shot and stabbed in a car parked outside a Beverly Hills home. It almost appears to be a sexually motivated murder, judging by the positions the couple was left in at the murder scene. The male victim was seeing a therapist, Mary Lou Koppel, and that is where the investigation begins. The previously murdered woman was also found in a sexual position, and is later found to have been going to therapy as well.

The connection between the two is rather flimsy until Dr Koppel herself gets murdered. There is definitely a link between all three, and it is up to Alex and Milo to find out the connection.

I've only read a handful of Alex Delaware novels, and I have enjoyed them all, but this one was the least favorite so far. I found myself losing interest during parts of the novel, which were filled with a lot of political rhetoric. I didn't think there was a need to go into that much detail in a novel such as this. A few paragraphs would have sufficed. I also was not happy with the ending, feeling that there were some unanswered questions that could have been resolved. All in all, however, I do recommend THERAPY but for new fans of Jonathan Kellerman, I suggest starting with one of his older novels.

Disappointing
I love Jonathan Kellerman's stories about Alex Delaware and his friend Milo Sturgis, but this one, like Mr. Kellerman's last book "Conspiracy Club," was not up to par.

The plot got bogged down in the intricacies of government funding and Medi-Cal billing. The average citizen dislikes dealing with insurance in real life, so why would they want to read about it in their spare time? Too many characters contributed to this problem. I found it hard to care about Gavin Quick, and it was even harder to figure out whether he was a bad guy or a good guy. Ditto for his father, aunt, and ex-girlfriend. And why the long ramble about the girl who was found in the car with him? Background is one thing, Mr. Kellerman, but superfluous writing is quite another.

Go back to psychology and murder, and leave the California insurance business alone, Mr. Kellerman. Your books are much more enjoyable that way.