Where the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman


Introduces Dr. Alex Delaware


Dr. Alex Delaware is an adolescent psychologist is in a funk. During the first 1/3 of the book we learn his background - by 24 he has his PhD in child Psychology and has been practicing ever since. In the last few months a child molester is arrested and Alex spends his time helping the children and their families deal with the trauma. Just as everyone seems to be getting better he discovers the body of the molester dead in his office. After weeks of apathy Alex knows he's in trouble, but there is really no one to turn to. He can barely function when cop Milo shows up to question him about the suicide. From his own military experiences Milo recognizes Alex's symptoms and does what he can to help. Talking to Milo about the case sparks Alex's interest and he starts finding his way back into an active life.


Then Milo calls for him for help. He has a grisly double murder to solve and a possible witness is a seven year old girl. Milo wants Alex to question her hoping he can get information without further traumatizing the child. Trying to help the child leads Alex to suspect many more children like her are at risk as he investigates the bazarre past of several well respected men who are linked to the crime.

I have have heard a lot over the years about Kellerman's series featuring Alex Delaware but have never read one before. Since I had to wait over 4 hours for my car to be fixed I had a lot of time to quickly read this book. It had many interesting elements but I found it almost exhausting to get through. I found myself saying "What?!?" when the crazy twist came about 3/4 way through the book as all these people were suddenly tied together and made it a convenient way to end the book. But I did enjoy the interactions between Alex & Milo which I would have enjoyed more of. So I'm thinking down the road to try a more recent one in the series.