Compulsion (Alex Delaware, No. 22) (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Kellerman serves up all the elements his fans have come to love in the 22nd entry in his Alex Delaware series (Obsession, etc.), including an intriguing plot, likable regular characters supported by an interesting secondary cast, diabolical villains, witty dialogue and a sense of humanity and justice. Alex and his LAPD detective partner, Milo Sturgis, are investigating several murders that, at first, appear to have only one thing in common: the perpetrator's use of expensive black automobiles while committing his crimes. Kellerman sticks to his usual modus, the patient and sometimes painfully slow accumulation of detail, as Alex and Milo build their case. A subplot involves a missing child last seen selling magazine subscriptions in a tony neighborhood 16 years earlier. On the domestic front, Alex is again living with his girlfriend, Robin, with whom he has broken up several times over the course of the series. In the end, a nice twist reminds Robin and Alex to be more careful in the future about drawing assumptions in their private life before all the facts have come to light. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

L.A. psychologist Alex Delaware’s insights into human behavior once again prove invaluable to his friend, Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. In the duo’s twenty-first crime outing, narrated as usual by Delaware, a stolen black luxury car provides the two with the first link in a case of brutal murders that ultimately leads to one of Kellerman’s most warped villains. When Sturgis is called in by a young officer to consult on a bloodstain found in a recovered Bentley, Delaware rides along, as he does later when Sturgis hurries to the scene of the brutal stabbing of an elderly woman, which took place in broad daylight. The perpetrator of this second crime was identified as an elderly man driving a pricey black car. Add to this the mystery of a missing thirtysomething party girl, and there’s plenty to occupy investigators. Though their path to success seems less grounded than usual, the comfortable banter that has helped make Delaware and Sturgis such durable crime-story heroes is as rapid-fire, keen, and wryly funny as ever, and the mystery they aim to solve is certainly not routine. Enhanced by an assortment of quirky supporting characters cut from vintage Kellerman cloth, this is a genuine page-turner sure to please the author’s legion of devoted fans. --Stephanie Zvirin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1st edition (March 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034546527X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345465276
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #262,127 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 22 in The Jonathan Kellerman: Alex Delaware Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 2008 Installment in the Alex Delaware Crime Series, March 25, 2008

By	Susan Y. Schoonover (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It's early spring, time for Jonathan Kellerman's latest addition to his Alex Delaware crime novel series. For those who don't know Alex is an LA psychologists who often works with LAPD detective Milo Sturgis to solve crimes perpetrated by crazed psychopaths. The strength of these novels is Kellerman's clear crisp writing and his knack for describing LA life (in this latest novel Alex also makes a quick trip to Manhattan) for the poor, the mighty and those in between. The weakness is the preposterous elements of some of his latest plots though this years COMPULSION is actually better than last years really unlikely OBSESSION. Another weakness in many of the latest books in the series is Alex's ever annoying, "perfect", girlfriend, Robin, but thankfully she is off stage for most of this outing. Milo, Alex's gay detective sidekick is a much more interesting and sympathetic character.

The plot of COMPULSION involves a series of disparate murders and the victims include a twenty something shop clerk, a retired school teacher and two beauty salon workers. All these crimes seem to have in common is the murderer arrived in a large dark luxury car and the murders were especially brutal. Will Alex and Milo be able to tie the cases together and solve them with one suspect? Well, what do you think? There is also a subplot about a young boy who has been missing for years and of course our heroes are able to tie that crime up too. COMPULSION is a fast paced very readable novel and Kellerman is a good enough writer that this reader forgives his increasing "by the numbers" approach to plotting.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre outing -- even JK seems tired of our buddy Alex!, April 13, 2008

By	Gerald M. Bull "Jerry Bull" (Fairview, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Compulsion (Alex Delaware, No. 22) (Paperback)

We've read every single Alex Delaware novel, so are big fans, well-informed about this series. What started out great - the child psychologist by profession who consults with the police; specifically Milo Sturgis, a gay, very interesting, and persistent homicide cop; on murders where the police feel they need a consultant's help - has resolved into little more than two detective buddies, one paid, the other an amateur hardly more skillful than we at surfing the web, chasing clues until typical procedure dissolves into dénouement. Alex joins Milo seemingly whenever he wants (presumably being paid at premium consultants' rates), often as little more than a pastime, not because his skills are pertinent, which is pretty far-fetched in terms of the state of most public budgets! His relationship with live-in girlfriend Robin, always an on-again, off-again, "affair", barely gets a nod herein, with a silly custom musical instrument buyer paying too much attention to her a lame attempt at stalker suspense, resolved equally poorly in our opinion. Meanwhile, the excuse for the plot, a serious of murders involving luxury autos, barely holds our attention, and while we plodded along to see whodunit, we hardly cared by the time we got there.

To us, the series has run its course. While Milo per se is one of the more interesting police characters to come along over the last couple of decades, and while the original premise of Delaware's involvement was novel, there's virtually nothing left to excite or entertain us. It seems to us we're at that deadly state of an author not knowing what to do or where to go except to the bank, as he churns out contract-fulfilling installments of mediocrity. Sorry `bout that!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Compulsion, March 28, 2008

By	Stephen Morange (California, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have enjoyed all of Jonathan Kellerman's novel, particularly the ones featuring his Alex Delaware character. Unfortunately, this latest effort stretches the reader's imagination with some particularly convoluted plot logic. We are expected to accept the fact that an internet search for crimes committed with the perpetrator using a large black luxury car should readily yield a common denominator who is then found and brought to justice. No matter that years and continents have separated the victims and the circumstances. I've had many comfortable hours with Jonathan Kellerman's characters and I've been able to excuse most of the plot excesses in the past, but I'm afraid this one is just too much of a stretch.