Customer Reviews

Private Eyes (Alex Delaware, No. 6)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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...

I read the "hype" on the book jacket and thought that this book would eventually get better. It didn't. Three quarters of the book draged on and on. Finally the action picked up at the end but I really didn't care at that point. Perhaps if I were into psychiatry I would have found this book more interesting.

This book is gripping, and yet I found it a bit too slow (I know it does not seem to make sense...). A substantial amount of pages go by before anything actually happens and, even though the background is interesting, it stretches a bit too much. The characters are well developed, if somewhat unbelievable. The psychological aspects are also interesting. The relationship between Alex Delaware and Robin irritated me somewhat, and not for the first time. However, I really enjoy the Alex Delaware series, and I am being a bit harsh here mainly because I expect a lot from it and, while this book is definitely an enjoyable read, I have read better from this author. Another author from whom I expect less would have gotten 4 stars for a book such as this.

Well, I never would have guessed the ending in a million years! In this great edition to the Alex Delaware psychologist/mystery solver series, a girl he treated many years ago visits Alex to ask for help for her mother. Gina, the recluse mom, was model-beautiful until someone threw acid on her face, and she never knew why. Get ready to find out why in this gripping thriller.

Kellerman likes to show us that the most ordinary-looking and -acting of people often have a devious, frightening side. Gina doesn't have to look too far from home to find her kidnapper. That's good for her, since she's a recluse!

It's an understatement to say Kellerman is a master at the psychological thriller. He created the genre!

This was the second of many book I have read by Jonathan Kellerman, and is

the best to date. Kellerman shows his expertise in psychology and suspense in this

page turner. I could not put this book down, and
lost a lot of sleep trying to finish

it. You'll learn more about a phobic personality than
you ever thought possible, and

you'll have a great time doing it. Tou may have your
own list of suspects by the end,

but you'll never figure this ending out!!<BR

I liked this book a lot. It had a good amount of relationship issues in here and I enjoy that. I found it interesting to see the relationship between the mother and daughter change and to see the daughter make sense of her mother. Alex Deleware is a great character. Jonathan Kellerman has kicked out another good book! You easily get caught up in the characters lives. Kellerman draws you in. I could barely wait to find out what happens in the next chapter!

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.

Private Eyes was the second book of the Delaware series I read. I thought it started out a little slower then the first book I read (bad love) but it kept me reading. It makes a person realize how much children can know with out an adult realizing it. I enjoyed the book but I was a little dissapointed with the ending. I have realized after reading 4 of the Delaware books, that Kellerman writes in a gradual slope and really catches the reader at the top of the hill and gradually leads them down the other side of the hill, breathless. I thought it was one of Kellerman's easier books to read with the technical lingo. Be prepared to loose sleep getting this one read! It is a non-stop read!

This was the second of many book I have read by Jonathan Kellerman, and is

the best to date. Kellerman shows his expertise in psychology and suspense in this

page turner. I could not put this book down, and
lost a lot of sleep trying to finish

it. You'll learn more about a phobic personality than
you ever thought possible, and

you'll have a great time doing it. Tou may have your
own list of suspects by the end,

but you'll never figure this ending out!!<BR

After eight different tries with Kellerman, I removed him from my "authors to read" list. Then a friend gave me Private Eyes and I thought I'd give him another shot. 525 pages later, I haven't changed my mind. Private Eyes is extremely slow going, and if not for my need to finish every book I start, I would have gladly given the book back without reaching the very disappointing ending.

Alex Delaware is called by a former child patient after nine years. He is drawn into a severly dysfunctional family with secrets galore, a missing person, her former attacker now free from prison, greedy bankers and lawyers, odd-ball psychiatrists - all of whom could be guilty of the possible kidnapping/murder...if there was actually a kidnapping/murder. With his loyal minion Milo Sturgis, Delaware tries to untangle the intricate web Kellerman weaves for the reader. Great premise.

Unfortunately, what I found was more of Kellerman's verbose writing style in which he goes to great length to describe the highways and byways that Delaware takes to go to wherever he's going. I realize in reading other reviews, many readers enjoy Kellerman. Beyond Billy Straight and Survival of the Fittest, I can't say I'm in that same group of fans.