Customer Reviews

Rage

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I think Jonathan Kellerman is an underrated writer. He's been writing thrillers for over twenty years, and I still enjoy his novels and his writing style. RAGE is his nineteenth novel featuring his primary hero, Dr. Alex Delaware. I found the book enjoyable, but minor.

This novel is essentially a murder mystery involving the death of a young child, and the repercussions that follow. The first third of RAGE is actually pretty stellar, a first-rate whodunit. Kellerman does a good job describing the initial crime and Delaware's role in the subsequent court proceeding. As always, the dialogue and characterization is well done.

Unfortunately, the novel goes downhill after the first 100 or so pages. The remainder of the book consists of Alex and his cop friend Milo investigating a series of grisly new murders that are potentially related to the child's death. This leads to an increasingly convoluted storyline that I eventually found confusing.

Furthermore, there is too much boring dialogue between Alex and Milo speculating about about who committed the crime. Most of this dialogue only serves to slow down the narrative pace of the book. Also, when the killer's identity is finally revealed, his motive for the crime is absurd -- pure over-the-top insanity. No rational explanation is given for such psychotic behavior. To me, this is just lazy plotting on the part of Kellerman.

To make matters worse, the ending of this novel is surprisingly weak and open-ended, and left me heavily dissatisfied. Given the rather horrid behavior detailed in this novel, I was hoping for an ending that supplied more closure.

This book is a decent mystery novel, but if you're new to Kellerman, my advice is to skip this novel and begin with his earlier work, such as WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS.

I look forward to all the alex delaware books, but some are better than others, and this one is very good. Other reviewers have described the plot; I will just say that it was pleasurably twisty. About a third of the way through the book I thought the solution was obvious, and I was disappointed, but I was wrong!

A minor flaw is that the book ended too abruptly. It needed a little more of a wind-down.

SPOILER ALERT!

There is a hint toward the end of the book that Alex and Allison may be heading for a split and Robin may reappear...Mr Kellerman, if you read these reviews, DON'T DO IT. While one criticism I would level at all of the Alex D. books is that the two female love interests do not have very well-developed characters, as far as they go, Allison is preferable. Robin is kind on whiney.

A good crime novel needs to be well tethered in time and place, as well as steadily developing its central characters.

I'm not sure that Jonathon Kellerman is any longer doing this. His Los Angeles is only cursorily sketched in this latest novel, and there's next to nothing which locates it in the early 21st Century rather than, say, ten years earlier. A half hearted sub-plot strongly hints at a change in Alex's love life, but like the plot as a whole this depends on excessive co-incidence.

I don't think the plot convinces on other levels. Rather too much flash back, an inordinate amount of speculative dialogue between Milo and Alex, and the precipitate conclusion all diminish satisfaction. The minor characters are not established as effectively as in early novels, partly because they take less part in the narrative, which is chiefly propelled by the dialogue between the two main protagonists.

Kellerman writes well, as usual, with only an occasional over-straining after effect. He continues obsessively to describe every item of clothing worn by every character, which is wearing, and one has to wonder at the memories of Alex and some other characters.

All in all, I was disappointed. The fruit is rotting on the vine.

I've been a fan of Kellerman's for some time now and have read all of his books; I particularly enjoy the Alex Delaware series, especially since I'm a psychologist myself. However, like many other reviewers, I've felt that Kellerman had started to lose his touch in some of the most recent Dr. Delaware books; it seemed that he was recycling similar themes or incorporating ideas that were so far-fetched as to go beyond the boundaries of poetic license. Happily, RAGE is an improvement, and it gets back to the heart of what makes these books so engaging: the suspense-ladden storyline combined with the relationship between Alex and his police detective (now lieutenant) friend, Milo Sturges.

Here, Alex and Milo are trying to solve the murder of a mentally challenged young man who himself was accused of murder eight years before, a case in which Alex acted as a consultant. As always, the process of solving this mystery leads Alex and Milo to speculate about other connections and links to the crime. Unlike in some of the previous Dr. Delaware novels, however, the conjectures seem to follow from the evidence at hand, making the plot more believable. On the other hand, I was a bit disappointed in the book's ending, as the conclusion did not provide definitive answers to many of the questions raised throughout the story. Still, I enjoyed this book and look forward to finding out where Alex's adventures might take him next, including in terms of his love life.

I found this book by Jonathan Kellerman had an excellent plot, but the solution of the mystery seemed to be based on a great deal of conjecture between Alex and Milo. I felt the conclusions they came to were not based on finding clues so much as discussions between the two. I prefer stories with more action and discovery based on hunting for clues, rather than basing so much of the solution on discussion between two clever friends.

There is nothing really wrong with Rage, an Alex Delaware mystery by Jonathan Kellerman, but there's nothing really right with it either. If anything, the entire book gives an aura of going through the motions as Delaware and Milo Sturgis investigate the murder of a young man newly released from incarceration after participating in the murder of a toddler. The ups and downs of the book trace the history of the toddler's family after the little girl was killed, and a couple of seminary students who take in foster kids who also have a disturbing tendency to end up dead.

Alex Delaware is still in the funk that he has been in ever since Robin left him however many years ago that was. Unfortunately, that funk seems to extend over into the novels as they just don't generate the excitement that they once did. It appears, in this book, as those the bloom may be wearing off the rebound romance between Alex and Allison, but Robin may be making a comeback.

The identity of the actual killer will come as no surprise, although the motivation for the killings is very contrived and fantastical.

Since Kellerman is so clearly going through the motions on this series, I wish he would put Delaware aside for a while and focus on some of the other fine characters he has developed. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for Alex and Milo to take a very long vacation before they tackle another mystery.

All throughtout this book Alex Delaware and his police friend Milo never stop ruminating over every new fact they uncover. They have endless discussions on how a new tidbit might fit into the overall picture. The reader longs for the pair to actually do something. In the end the author walks away without even tying up all the main strings. That is really dirty pool after making the reader wade through all the yakking. I read and enjoyed several of the early Alex Delaware books and then quit looking for new ones, now I know why.

Over my summer break I ventured to read a book called Rage by Jonathon Kellerman. Although I had never read a Jonathan Kellerman novel, this title caught my eye. Just as I suspected, it started off as an interesting book, but at times it didn't seem to make sense.

It started off by introducing Alex Dalaware, a psychologist. Alex was home watching a Knicks game and his girlfriend, Allison, was at her grandmother's house. Then, unexpectedly his phone began to ring. On the other line was a 21 year old man named Rand Duchey who he hadn't heard from in 8 years. As it was known to Alex, Rand Duchey was sentenced 8 years to a juvenile rehab at C.Y.A for committing a murder. Now Rand was calling on Alex to speak about the situation but for some reason not over the phone. Although Alex found this strange in some way, he was a Dr. so agreed to meet with Rand.

They decided to meet at a pizza place but when Alex showed Rand was not there. Dalaware later found out from a detective, Milo Sturgis, that Rand was murdered that evening. With suspicion, Alex wondered why he was murdered and why he wanted to talk. Alex then finally convinced Milo Sturgis to investigate this case. As the investigation goes along there are unsuspected twists and turns.

In this book there are parts I liked and disliked. A few times in the book I felt like I had to reread a section two or three times because it was hard to follow along. I felt as though the relationship between Alex and Allison and how Alex may still have feelings for his previous love, Robin, was distracting and didn't fit with the storyline. The one thing that I absolutely loved about the book was how the author was descriptive in his writing.

I don't think I would ever take back reading this book. It was a good story and it was really appealing to me. Even though I am the type of person that prefers fantasy type books like Harry Potter, I still enjoyed it. I think I will be reading more of Jonathon Kellerman's books. If you like murder mysteries with tons of twist and turns this is the book to read.

I like John Rubenstein's readings of Kellerman's many crime novels, which have continuity with old and new characters.

I listen to the audio versions on c.d. & cassette, and don't need the printed versions.

It's a pleasure to let Rubinstein do the heavy eye-lid lifting.

These novels tell everything I wanna know about Los Angeles-- more than is necessary but I luv Kellerman's trivia as much as anybody can.

Hey, I'm now an expert on Detroit too, thanks to Loren Estleman's crime novels.

The gifted writer cleverly weaves in clues and plot developments via conversations in

coffee shops, utilizing personalities of waitresses, defenses/offenses/justifications of psychological theories, the conceits of academia, human-being cops, advantages/defects of state-city-county governmental administrations & bureaucracies, harsh realisms of ordinary real life, morgues, urban sub-cultures, human-being shrinks, delicious mundane steak-houses, Delaware's 1970ish Seville, street driving in L.A., and, heckfire, it's overall entertaining fodder.

I couldn't do it as well; while fortunately the novels are usually not beyond comprehension.

Because, RAGE keeps my attention, as twisted and complicated as it gets, while nevertheless compulsive fun.

So RAGE is my latest rage, and

others should enjoy it.

I use to be a big fan of the Alex Delaware series.

Rage is the newest entry. As you can see, I rated it 3 stars. This book just did not connect with me at all. While all the familiar characters are there, I felt as though there was very little connection between them. The conversations between Alex and Milo felt forced and the main storyline dragged alot.

I have been having issues with Kellerman's last few books and this one sealed it for me. He has lost, for me, the ability to entertain me. His characters are stiff and I miss the old "chemistry" they had.

No more Kellerman for me.