Customer Reviews

Trouble

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Within a short time, Jesse Kellerman --- the son of bestselling authors Jonathan and Faye Kellerman --- has established a solid reputation for quality and unpredictability. His debut novel, SUNSTROKE, was an enigmatic tale played out mostly in rural Mexico. TROUBLE, his sophomore effort, is even more disturbing than its predecessor, an accessible work that treads uneasily across dangerous if familiar ground.

The book takes place primarily in New York City, though the locus of the events that propel it could occur in any large or medium-sized city. Jonah Stem is a medical student who has just begun a surgical rotation; he is so exhausted that he barely can keep one foot moving in front of the other. He's in the middle of a late-night errand when he encounters a woman being attacked on the street; his intervention is impulsive, reactive and successful. The victim is saved, and the attacker somehow winds up dead. Stem gets his 15 minutes of fame, and life goes on --- but suddenly it becomes very different for him.

Eve Gones, the young lady Stem rescues, shows up to thank him. Her gratitude takes on a more intimate form, and there are layers to her that Stem cannot imagine. As she begins to reveal herself, he decides that he wants no part of her. Unfortunately for Stem, Gones will not go away so easily. She begins insinuating herself deeper and deeper into his life, and the more Stem finds out about her, the more he realizes that he's in a situation that can only end badly. The family of Gones's attacker wants their pound of flesh as well, and when Stem discovers the terrible truth about everything that's happening, he is convinced that his future --- if indeed he has one --- is in jeopardy.

Kellerman's narrative is unnerving and haunting. While his pacing falters just a bit in spots, the quiet, disturbing unreeling of Stem's life leaves the reader unsettled from practically the first page to the last. And, as bad as Gones is, Stem isn't wound too tight either. Soon enough we learn that there is something about him that isn't quite right --- something in his personality makeup that draws disturbed women to him like a moth to a flame.

The trappings that Kellerman provides Stem with --- the loving but quiet father, the somewhat overbearing mother, the trustafarian roommate --- make him all the more realistic and the horrors he encounters all too possible. The result is a novel that is nothing short of mesmerizing. Recommended with caution, due to graphic descriptions of violence and sexual situations.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.

Jesse Kellerman's wonderful second novel, "Trouble," is graphic, edgy, chilling, and fully absorbing -- even more so than his fine debut Sunstroke. In a sense, Trouble picks up one of Sunstroke's more unsettling themes and runs like hell with it: namely, how little we really know about the people who inhabit our lives. In the case of Trouble's hero, a third-year med student named Jonah Stem, the beautiful, sexually insatiable woman who appears abruptly in his life may not be exactly who & what she represents herself to be. Kellerman pulled rug-after-rug out from under me and never let my feet touch the ground. A tight, gripping thriller right through the end.

Kellerman constructs a contemporary urban psychological suspense novel, featuring overtired Jonah Stern. He's totally plausible: a nice young man who's so deeply immersed in his studies, he's naive about life and love. As another reviewer suggests, he may have personality quirks that draw disturbed women to him.

Stern meets Eve Gones when he hears her screaming for help on a deserted street. Judgment impaired by fatigue, he rushes to help her and learns all too well the meaning of, "No good deed goes unpunished."

Readers will sense Eve is trouble long before Jonah. But once he catches on, we realize he's caught in a nightmare with no escape. It's a sub-genre of suspense: a hero finds himself in the grip of an evil person who's determined to destroy him.

What sets Trouble apart are the three-dimensional characters, the scenes from Jonah's life as a medical student, and the juxtaposition of bizarre horror with everyday urban life. We're encouraged to think about the power of accusations.

I didn't find any of the scenes implausible. Unlikely, perhaps, and definitely bizarre. But they could happen.

If this book gets popular, I'd be tempted to buy stock in a background checking service. Eve could be anybody.

There are two problems with this novel. The first is Kellerman's writing style. He may be the son of Jonathon and Faye Kellerman, but he writes like he is the offspring of Dean "I never met an adverb I didn't like" Koontz. Kellerman's writing `tries too hard'. He writes sentences that are loaded with adjectives, adverbs, awkward similes and obscure references. Kellerman's bloated writing bogs his story down.

The predictable ending to this novel is made even more anti-climactic when Kellerman jumps forward in time, out of the action and into an epilogue where he explains what happened `after the fact'. What little suspense he had managed to build is completely lost.

The second problem with this novel are the characters, particularly Eve Gones, Jonah's psycho girlfriend. Good suspense novels require a good villain and while Eve is indeed sinister, unfortunately she is also tedious, pretentious, and annoying.

This is a problem. The villain can be a lot of things (creepy, disturbing, cruel, demented, evil) but most of all, they need to interesting, not irritating. Eve's lengthy, self-indulgent, and painfully trite monologues are nothing short of torture to read. And Jonah's complete inability to deal with Eve's increasingly bizarre behavior is just as frustrating for the reader.

Reading this novel is like banging your head against a wall.

The book is fast-paced and keeps you turning the pages. The entire time I read it I felt on-edge and couldn't stop reading. I recommend this for anyone who likes mystery and psychological drama. I think Jesse is even better than his parents, and I love their books.

Other reviewers have done a fine job of describing the plot of this book, so I won't rehash it here. Having read these other reviews, it appears that I am in the minority regarding its plot/premise -- I did not find the book or its ending as predictable as many others did. In the "big picture" sense, I think it's obvious how this book will end...very few books written in this vein end any other way. That said, I was surprised by the path the author took to reach the end of the story.

My real disappointment with this book was in its failure to explore and explain why the "villian" behaved in the manner that she did. She was over the top and really "out there" and the author took pains to depict some of her actions and behaviors quite graphically. Lacking an explanation of her past, her psyche, etc., however, the character ultimately seemed more caricature than character and, in the end, I felt like I'd just read a book that was missing a few chapters.

A 3rd year medical student intervenes in a street attack on a young woman and in the process causes the death of the attacker. In the aftermath, he becomes involved in an intense physical relationship with the young woman he rescued, only to find he is being drawn into a psycho drama whose dimensions and depth he only dimly perceives. As his situation becomes crazier so does his mental state as he tries to cope with the stress of his medical school demands and his awareness of the increasingly dangerous psycho/sexual game he's being drawn into by a highly intelligent but twisted manipulator.

First, while it may not be fair to young Kellerman to allude to his famous parents, let me just say "the kid has chops". Treading the line between thriller and Steven Kingesque weirdness, Jesse has an inventive style, and his plumbing of disturbing psychology reminds me of some of his father's earlier works around The Butcher's Theatre era. But, if I hadn't known his parentage, I would still find his work impressive (this being only his 2nd novel). This is a creepy read about contemporary perversity. Not for everyone, but worthwhile.

Third-year medical student Jonah Stem, finally escaped from the hospital after some 18 hours on the floor, forgoes going home to sleep in order to buy himself a new pair of shoes. Three A.M. finds him squishing wetly through Times Square on his quest, his sodden Rockport Walkers irretrievably soiled by spillage from a patient's burst peritoneum. And so it is that he finds himself in the right place to hear a young woman screaming. He bursts on the scene to save her from a knife-wielding attacker, surprising himself, surprising her even more.

Jonah is a good guy suffering under considerable stress at the outset of Jesse Kellerman's Trouble. The demands of med school--sleep deprivation, malevolent residents poised to humiliate him--are coupled with the obligation he feels toward his former fiancée, now chronically ill. Saving the life of a pretty woman in the middle of the night, it turns out, makes things much, much worse for him.

The storyline of Kellerman's book is a good one: what happens when a good Samaritan finds that the damsel in distress for whom he acted as hero isn't quite what she seemed? And Kellerman does a decent job of making us worry about Jonah as the danger into which he's stumbled slowly manifests itself. His story leads inexorably toward a denouement which, if predictable (Kellerman would in fact have been remiss if he hadn't brought his characters together as he did for a final showdown), is yet satisfyingly tense. Also, his principal characters are interesting: Jonah himself is likeable and more than two-dimensional; Eve Gones--the would-be victim--and Jonah's roommate are both defined by their unusual dialogue; and George, the father of Jonah's former fiancée, is an interesting, multi-dimensional character, despite that he only plays a small role in the story.

There are a couple of problems with the book, however: a Yale connection doesn't fulfill its promise, and the occasional scene doesn't quite make sense. (Why did Jonah punch his roommate in the stomach?) But the big problem is one of credibility. Two pivotal scenes--in chapters 14 and 25--are so ridiculous that one simply cannot suspend disbelief. Which is disappointing, because Kellerman's Trouble has a lot going for it.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

This is an annoying book with a blatantly flawed premise!

Basic problem is that the author clearly has absolutely no idea about privacy laws - and assumes none of us do either. Basically, laws in most every state are quite restrictive when it comes to making unwanted or harassing phone calls. Generally, it takes no more than 3 calls for you to get the phone company to permanently block a caller. And not much more for the police to issue citations and misdemeanor charges.

The idea that someone can call you dozens of times a day for weeks with no recourse is completely ridiculous - especially since the protaganist is well educated, he has a 'smart' lawyer, and the police are involved.

And the fuzzy notion that you're SOL because the caller blocks their Caller ID is beyond stupid.

Not to mention the breaking and entering, and the physical assault. Geez!

Mysteries often rely on a favorable confluence of circumstances, but this is ridiculous.

I don't have a lot to add in terms of analysis, but I was amazed to see how many poor reviews this book received.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! I thought the characters were great and the plot kept me hooked. I enjoyed the book so much that I read it again a few days after I finished it the first time. Even though I knew what would happen, I found the story fascinating.

To those who say this story is not believable, I say - you have never know a truly brilliant, psychotic, sociopathic woman. I have, and I have had to deal with the fallout from a similar type of behavior. Unfortunately, and I speak from experience, the character of "Eve" is right on the money.