Customer Reviews

The conspiracy club

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

 

 

The first Jonathan Kellerman book I ever read did not feature Alex Delaware. It was a novel titled THE BUTCHER'S THEATER, and though I read it almost 15 years ago, I can still remember passages of that book as if I had read them yesterday. I've read almost all of Kellerman's fiction since that time, including every Delaware novel, so I approached THE CONSPIRACY CLUB with some mixed feelings. I was slightly disappointed that this was not going to be another Delaware novel. But Kellerman's work, whether it involves Delaware or not, is so uniformly excellent that a deviation from his normal characterization would almost certainly be interesting.

Now, having spent a day or so reading THE CONSPIRACY CLUB, I can tell those of you who are diehard Delaware fans that, if you skip this excellent novel because Alex Delaware is not in it, you are cheating yourself. And if you're not already a fan of Kellerman, THE CONSPIRACY CLUB is the key to becoming one. Notwithstanding my familiarity with Kellerman's work, I felt as if I was discovering a debut novel by a new author who had studied at the feet of the masters and was channeling them.

The book is excellent in every way. The characters are unforgettable, the dialogue is witty when it should be and dark when appropriate. The plotting is so intelligent yet straightforward that you'll walk away from this great novel feeling smarter than you did when you first picked it up.

THE CONSPIRACY CLUB introduces Dr. Jeremy Carrier, a young staff psychologist at City Central Hospital in an unnamed Midwest city. Carrier is carrying around a boatload of grief since his passionate but all-too brief affair with a nurse named Jocelyn Banks was abruptly ended by her kidnapping and brutal murder. Carrier was initially a suspect in Banks's unsolved slaying, and Detective Bob Doresh has a disconcerting habit of popping into the hospital at odd times to ask Carrier off-kilter questions, just to let Carrier know that he's still under the magnifying glass. When another woman is murdered in an eerily and similarly grisly fashion, Doresh seems to be taking more than a polite interest in Carrier, a circumstance that creates even more sorrow and confusion for him. This is counterbalanced --- barely --- by Carrier's slowly developing relationship with Angela Rios, a hospital resident whose slow but sure emotional succor seems to put him on the road to recovery.

At the same time, an elderly, somewhat eccentric physician named Dr. Arthur Chess begins to take a gently incessant interest in Carrier. This interest culminates with Chess inviting Carrier to a mysterious late night formal supper. Chess and the other four guests, all individuals of wildly disparate backgrounds, treat Carrier well. He cannot help but feel, however, that he is there more to be observed and evaluated than anything else.

Almost simultaneously Carrier begins to receive a mysterious series of seemingly unconnected articles and messages through the hospital mailing system, correspondences that seem to be aiming him toward the identity of the true murderer of Banks and the other women. Kellerman, already a master of the suspense novel, takes the genre to new places here. Carrier is an empathetic psychologist, a master at sharing emotion with his patients, but he is not a detective. He lurches, in fits and starts, toward the true identity of the murderer, who is set to strike someone close to Carrier once again.

Carrier is a highly believable character. He is capable of giving comfort to his patients, even to those who seem unreachable, but is slow to accept and receive such comfort himself. Kellerman's account of Carrier's initial encounters with Rios is absolutely first-rate. What is even more remarkable, however, is Kellerman's ability to infuse his novels, and particularly this one, with realistic minor characters, who sometimes enter and exit within the space of a single page. One such character is a woman whom Carrier encounters while she is sweeping out a vacated bookstore in a building that is scheduled for demolition. The dialogue between the two characters goes on but for a few sentences, yet the woman's portrayal, primarily conveyed through her comments regarding her own behavior, is perfect. A character like this is not the stuff of literature so much as she is the essence of life. Even if her actions make no logical sense to her, the reader understands them immediately.

Carrier certainly has the potential to be an ongoing, sustaining character. He is too good a character to limit to one novel, even one as fine as THE CONSPIRACY CLUB.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Kellerman is best known for his Alex Delaware novels, and rightfully so. When an author wants to break from a popular character, there's always the possibility of scepticism from the readers. Some authors are able to make this work (Jeffrey Deaver, for example). Others fall flat, as Mr. Kellerman has on this one. I honestly don't know what happened here. This is perhaps the slowest paced novel I've ever read from a veteran author. How this ever got past his agent or editor I'll never know. You are well over halfway through the book before anything happens, and I'm not exaggerating here in the least. It's almost like following someone's boring life with morbid curiousity for a while, waiting for something to go wrong. The ending, when it mercifully comes, isn't worth the build up. The Conspiracy Club from the book's title really doesn't do anything that a single character couldn't have done. It's like this is a novel he'd written years ago but put away and suddenly he had a deadline and had to grab it. The potential for a great story was here, but it would have meant losing the first half of the book and starting from there. I look forward to his next novel, but I hope it'll be back to his old standard of great storytelling.

As tired as I've gotten of Alex and Robin's love trials, I couldn't help but miss that dysfunctional and self-important duo while reading "Conspiracy Club." This book's main character, Jeremy Carrier, never comes to life and his adventures sound like Kellerman is phoning it in. . On the plus side, Kellerman's writing is as always a cut above the usual and he has good control over detail and pacing. Unfortunately, the women in this book make even stick figures like Robin seem complex. The scenes in the conspiracy club are cartoonish and about as menacing as an afternoon in a nursing home rec room. Bring back Alex and his rich boy, can't commit melodramas! As much as he gets on my nerves, at least he got a bit more to him than a "tragic secret."

I am about to bail. Its the lavish meal that did it. That's a first for me in a Kellerman book. I came to these reviews convinced "The Conspiracy Club" was Kellerman's first manuscript, written thirty or more years ago, rejected, and surfacing now to give readers a glimpse of how much he had developed. Boffo stylized cartoon characters, unconnected, very 50's.

I've been a long-time fan of Jonathan Kellerman and have noticed his books steadily declining regarding plot, interest, and entertainment value. I was hoping "The Conspiracy Club" would bring him out of the rut he seems to have fallen into, but for me, this book only proves he has run out of motivation or has become bored with writing.

I am beginning to wonder when the publishing world will grow tired of continually feeding to the reading world mundane works from formerly best-selling authors (i.e. Cornwell, Patterson, Clancy, Kellerman, et.)and instead focus on more talented, unknown authors. Come on, New York, listen to the readers who are expressing their opinions!

Dr. Jeremy Carrier is a psychologist at City Central Hospital. Jeremy spends all his time at the hospital, mostly to forget the painful memories of his relationship to nurse Jocelyn Banks. Jocelyn and Jeremy didn't break up, Jocelyn was murdered and her killer still roams free.

As Jeremy is struggling to get on with his life a new string of murders rocks the hospital...murders committed in the same fashion as that of Jocelyn, and Jeremy is the prime suspect.

Trying to clear his name and catch a killer, Jeremy begins his own investigation which leads him to a dark secret being kept within the hospital's walls, and as more information is found out he is drawn into a game of cat and mouse with a diabolical killer.

`The Conspiracy Club' starts off slow and picks up speed about half way through. The first half of the novel is a character development study with some medical drama thrown in for good measure. The second half kicks in with the murders and the action that leads up to a satisfactory climax. This novel is well written and easy to read, as you would expect from Jonathan Kellerman, but the thriller aspects come into play a little too late into the novel to compare it to some of his best work.

Jonathan Kellerman has introduced a new character (Jeremy Carrier) in a novel that could have been explosive...the plot is very interesting, the characters are all likable and the plot twists do surprise, but...Kellerman takes too long to get things cookin and when they do the novel ends.

Fans of Jonathan Kellerman and his Alex Delaware series will welcome the introduction of the new character but will only be mildly satisfied with this new novel.

Nick Gonnella

This is BY FAR the worst Jonathan Kellerman book ever. I have been reading JK for over 10 years and have read almost every book of his. This book moved SO slow and he spent too much time building up characters that were not integral to the plot or at least not the murder mystery plot part. He spent more time building a love relationship between the main character and his girlfriend than he did solving the crime.

1 word: BORING! If you are a fan of JK, don't buy this one. It has strayed too far from his main type of storyline.

As an avid Kellerman fan I was very disappointed in this book. ... The Conspiracy Club was slow and boring, the characters are one-dimensional and did not engage me. If Kellerman had not been the author I would have not finished the book, I kept hoping it would be better. I actually felt ripped-off after reading it. It seemed like the plot for a poor TV movie.

I have been a devoted reader of all things Kellerman (Jonathan and Faye) for a dozen or so years. I was thrilled to learn there was a new book by Jonathan that was not an Alex Delaware story. I very much enjoy series books and getting to know and like (or hate) the "regulars". Sort of a soap opera behind the current plot thing. I was very excited to get to know the new characters in this book. It typically takes me about 2-3 days to finish a Kellerman novel (his or hers) I worked on reading this book for about two weeks. I made it about half way through this book. When I realized I dreaded reading anymore of it and really wasn't caring what was going to happen next I gave up. I tried skimming the second half reading a sentence here and there so I could find out the ending. I still couldn't figure out what was going on. It didn't matter though, by this point I really did not care how the book ended. I hope this will be a stand alone book and the characters will not continue on in another book. All in all this book was a major disappointment. Not at all of the calibar I have come to expect from Mr. Kellerman.

When I saw a new Kellerman book, I snapped it right up and went right home to read it. I kept waiting for something to HAPPEN!! Guess what? When I finished it--still nothing. And Jeffrey was not even an interesting character. Why do authors who have great books and great characters have to leave them behind and do something DIFFERENT? Bah Humbug!!!