Rating: 
Summary: A Good Start
Review: The Conspiracy Club started slowly, but kept my interest and turned into a page-turner through an exciting and surprising ending. Kellerman takes a break from familiar characters and the L.A. scene to introduce a new protaganist, who is a psychologist on the staff of a hospital in an unidentified city. There is a lot of potential for a new series here. Many times I felt as if I was reading a tale of a young Alex Delaware. However, I found the lack of real city with familiar streets and landmarks very disorienting. Secondly, Conspiracy Club, reminds me of a new house that has not developed any character. Kellerman's writing style seemed distant and shallow (like a lesser writer) particularly in the first half of the book. Basically, the protaganist has to analyze a series of clues, provided by a shadowy character who leaves the scene early in the book, in order to solve the puzzle of the identity of a serial killer. This is very interesting, but the number of hoops he has to go through seems very far-fetched and silly at times. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book and recommend it to others. At the end of the day, Kellerman has written a solid mystery that would have been a great first effort by a new writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Early writing?
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Can He Catch the Killer? That is the Question.
Review: It has been six months since Psychologist Jeremy Carrier's girlfriend, nurse Jocelyn Banks, had been brutally murdered. Police officer Bob Doresh, who suspects Jeremy, has used the words Humpty Dumpty with respect to her murder and Jeremy, who has never seen the body, takes that to mean she was dismembered and couldn't be put back together again.Aging Dr. Arthur Chess, a retired pathologist, intrudes into Jeremy's grief, not once but several times, finally inviting him out for a drink, then to a gathering of his friends, who turn out to be elder intellectuals who gather on occasion to drink and discuss world events. Jeremy, much younger than the group, doesn't see where he fits in, but when the conversation turns to the psychology of evil and murder, he listens. Another Humpty Dumpty type murder, only this time a black prostitute has Doresh again at the hospital questioning Jeremy. Then Jeremy starts to get strange mail. First a copy about laser cutting, but eventually the mail turns to clues about a couple of similar murders in England, and maybe Norway. Jeremy believes Chess is sending the letters and he suspects Chess of the crimes. However clues start to point elsewhere. Jeremy knows the police suspect him and he can feel the net closing. Also he suspects the killer is going to go after the new woman in his life. Can he expose the killer before the killer strikes again or before the police arrest him? That is the question and it was one I was up all night trying to find out the answer to in this five star story that I couldn't put down. Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Rating:
Summary: A New Series for Kellerman? I Hope So.
Review: Psychologist Jeremy Carrier's life fell apart when the love of his life was brutally murdered and though six months have gone by, he is still shattered by her death, and the fact that he was a suspect in his girlfriend's murder made his ordeal infinitely worse. Now Homicide detective Bob Doresh is back at the hospital with more questions. A forty-five year old prostitute named Tyrene Mazursky has been murdered in the same fashion and Doresh wants to know if Jeremy has an alibi. Then another prostitute is murdered. Dr. Arthur Chess, sort of a professor emeritus at the hospital where Jeremy works, befriends him and invites him to a get together with several other oldsters who have irregular meetings to discuss whatever catches their fancy and now it looks like conspiracy, serial killers and unsolved murders have caught their interest. Slowly Chess feeds Jeremy clues as he feels the pressure of the police closing in and the urgency of having to solve the murder before the killer strikes again or the police arrest him and throw away the key. Kellerman has introduced a new protagonist and though he's not the Alex Delaware we've come to know and love, I suspect we'll be seen more of Dr. Carrier in the next couple of years and I for one wouldn't mind that at all. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
Rating:
Summary: OK
Review: There's no such thing as percocet IV Mr. Kellerman
Rating: 
Summary: Kellerman takes a break from Alex Delaware.
Review: In his new novel, the second published in 2003, author Jonathan Kellerman starts fresh and creates an enigmatic plot surrounding a brutal serial killer. Kellerman is familiar to many mystery buffs for his psychologist hero, Alex Delaware, who works as a police consultant in a 17-book series. He's tried different threads before, most notably in 1988. Kellerman's strong ties to Judaism sometimes shine through in his novels, but are not featured, as is the case in wife Faye Kellerman's writings. Religious faith does not play a role in this newest book, but Kellerman keeps it rooted in something he knows much about, psychology. Jeremy Carrier is a hospital psychologist. He's still trying to find his way back into the life he once led, after his girlfriend, nurse Jocelyn Banks, has been brutally murdered. While stumbling through his days, he is befriended by well-known Dr. Arthur Chess, a pathologist old enough to have retired from the hospital, who is sort of an emeritus on hospital committees. Jeremy's initially puzzled by Chess' interest in him. Chess is Jeremy's entree into a secret society of oldsters who are all stars in their own professions, and retired. It takes most of the book for Jeremy to determine what ties them together in "conspiracy" and how he fits it the scheme of things. When Chess goes traveling, a series of enigmatic clues to other murders, similar to Jocelyn's, begin to disturb Jeremy's days. He can't help but wonder what role Chess plays in the mystery. In a parallel plot, Jeremy meets an interesting new love in resident Angela Rios. Between his relationship with her, and his willingness to be drawn into the murder mystery, Jeremy finds himself putting his own life on the line. In addition to an engrossing plot, Kellerman has created a young practitioner with feeling towards his patients and signifcant skill in making a difference. Some Kellerman-like touches (Carrier drives an old Nova; shades of Delaware's vintage Cadillac! Carrier, instead of being enlisted by police detectives to help solve the murders, is actually a viable suspect, but ends up assisting the police.)are present, and you have a nice, tight tale of homicide with a surprise villain and the possiblity of a new series. In particular, the colorful members of the "Conspiracy Club" could be utilized in future books. It seems as though, judging from other reviews, that many of Kellerman's loyalists disagree with my rating. Most probably it is because they just wanted another instalment in Delaware's continuing saga, since the last three books in the series ("Flesh and Blood", the excellent "The Murder Book" and "A Cold Heart") have revived the series from the total drek that Kellerman created in books 10-14. I think many readers gave up on him during that spate. By contrast, I'm intrigued by the fact that he's given the reader a viable alternative to his older series, and hope he continues to revisit Jeremy Carrier in future work. Nice work!
Rating: 
Summary: So who cares?
Review: The main characters were all people, if I met them in actual life, I would do my best to avoid if I had a choice--either boring or worse. When Jeremy first observed the elegant dining club located in the strangely abandoned warehouse district, I thought I was in some King/horror clone. The story just never got moving, either in plot or character development. Maybe Jonathan needs some advise from his wife Faye.
Rating:
Summary: I just can't believe he actually wrote this
Review: I am a huge Jonathan Kellerman fan - have read everything but this new book is just incredibly boring. The language is very self indulgent and where plot shoud be, there are just endless descriptions of people or events that don't really relate to the story. The only thing worse is the reader of the audio - flat, dull, the story may be putting him to sleep and his "female" character voice is just terrible. I was also offended by the need to use stereo type descriptions of Asian characters in the book. Very unusual and I'm so disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I love J Kellerman's books, and couldn't wait to get my hands on the latest one. I didn't mind that it is not part of the Ales Delaware "series" - I very much enjoyed Butcher's Theatre, and Billy Straight. But this latest book is so incredibly longwinded and boring! I cannot get into it, I do not care for any of the characters, and I am now on page 278, and still haven't found anything interesting in this book. I will finish it (sometime), just because it is by Jonathan Kellerman. But I think it will go to the 2nd hand bookshop straight away - and I still have all his previous novels, and reread them again and again. PLEASE - no more Dr Carrier!!
Rating:
Summary: An unexpected pleasure
Review: I love the Delaware books, but was pleasantly surprised by this change of character. It was intellectually stimulating, and once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. Kellerman really seemed to be writing about subject matter he is obviously well-versed in, without making it too banal or over my head. I cannot understand some of the negative reviews, but to each his own. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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