Rating: 
Summary: Milo's Story
Review: A book of old crime scene photos is delivered to Dr. Alex Delaware. He shows it to his good friend Milo Sturgis who freaks when he sees page 43, photos from an unsolved homicide he worked as a rookie. Flashbacks to Milo's early life: grew up in Gary, masters from Indiana U., stint as a medic in Nam, discovers his homosewuality and struggles as an LAPD rookie. He becomes a savvy, tenacious cop who knows when something is out of whack and digs to find out why, but he'll always live outside of the in crowd enduring their subtle slurs. Kellerman is at his best when he finds the words that reflect Milo's perceptive eye and hardened attitude as he describes the array of characters he's up against.As a rookie cop Milo was partnered with Pierce Schwinn, a hard-core reprobate but solid detective. When the mutilated body of Janie Ingalls was discovered twenty years before, Milo started probing into a kids party at a mansion in Bel Air and got hauled in by two arrogant IAD guys, one of whom was John G. Broussard now the despised Chief of Police. Pierce abruptly retired, Milo was transferred to West LA and the Ingalls case was never pursued. Alex and Milo pursue the cold case, and the plot gets more than a little convoluted. It's a real stretch to find so many people who have perfect recall of twenty-year-old events when confronted by Milo and/or Alex. At one point Milo tails a guy who hassled him earlier and discovers its Craig Bosc, a fast track LAPD detective who now works for Chief Broussard. Their confrontation literally made me think I was listening to a Harry Bosch story for a while. While you know the two different paths Milo and Alex are following will ultimately converge, the way they connect is beyond plausibility. Ironically, their efforts to solve the Ingalls case uncovers or precipitates a dozen or more deaths, none of which are investigated as homicides. Despite a few "turn off your brain" plot twists, "The Murder Book" was fast paced, well written and superbly delivered by audiobook reader John Rubenstein.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: Another Alex Delaware book, and that series continues to be
interesting and thought-provoking.
This time, a detailed book of gruesome photos shows up in Alex's
mailbox, and he is shocked to see such detailed crime-scene
photos, some stretching back many years, while others seem
recent. He puzzles over why anyone would send him such a book,
so he has to show it to his detective-friend, who suddenly recognizes one of the photos of his very first murder-victim.
And Milo has to admit that case was never solved, and he tells
about how he and his partner were transferred off the case very
soon, and how that case seemed to disappear from police concern.
Since that case is 20 yrs old, both men have a difficult time
figuring out what they are supposed to do, but both start thinking and questioning, and the further back they go trying to
unravel the mystery, the worse it becomes.
Milo's police career suddenly seems threatened, and both men are
warned off further investigation of the case of the young girl
who was murdered in brutal circumstances.
But they key to the mystery is far back in time, and they keep
uncovering some bizarre connections with moneyed businessmen
and their spoiled-brat children, and they can't quite drop their
inquiries.
Very entertaining, and the only bump in the minds of some readers will be the very liberal, always-forgiving nature of
these men, when some of their forgiveness seems so unlikely.
Real cops and real investigators of the truth would have a much
more difficult time forgiving and forgetting than Alex and Milo
do, so that attitude calls for some extra open-mindedness.
Rating: 
Summary: Milo is in, Spike and Robin out.
Review: I enjoyed this Delaware story more than most of them, maybe because I'd quit reading them for a while. With Robin and Spike out of the picture, and the added focus on Milo Sturgis' early years as a police officer, The Murder Book offers new insight to this series. The mystery itself is engaging --- a violent unsolved case, one of Milo's first homicide investigations, comes back to haunt the detective via The Murder Book. It all ends with a lot of drama and secrets revealed, just like a great book should.
Rating:
Summary: Milo is in, Spike and Robin out.
Review: I enjoyed this Delaware story more than most of them, maybe because I'd quit reading them for a while. With Robin and Spike out of the picture, and the added focus on Milo Sturgis' early years as a police officer, The Murder Book offers new insight to this series. The mystery itself is engaging --- a violent unsolved case, one of Milo's first homicide investigations, comes back to haunt the detective via The Murder Book. It all ends with a lot of drama and secrets revealed, just like a great book should.
Rating:
Summary: NICE ADDITION TO A GOOD SERIES
Review: I liked this one. I do agree with a couple of the other reviewers in that this one may have lost some of the zip...do you suppose it might be time to go on to another series??? Anyway, the plot was good, nice twists and turns and the same good character developement was present. I do recommend you read this one, if for not other reason, ya just sort of hate to quit a series once you get into it.
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner, TERRIFIC plotted whodoneit
Review: I sat up all night and read this one in a single 'sitting'. Could not put it down. Very well written. I am new to Mr. Kellerman's work, and have also read Cold Heart which I read in two sittings (had work to do -- smile), and am buying more of his work. As good as the Raymond Chandler and P.D. James books for sure. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner, TERRIFIC plotted whodoneit
Review: I sat up all night and read this one in a single 'sitting'. Could not put it down. Very well written. I am new to Mr. Kellerman's work, and have also read Cold Heart which I read in two sittings (had work to do -- smile), and am buying more of his work. As good as the Raymond Chandler and P.D. James books for sure. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: One of Jonathan's best!
Review: It begins when Alex recieves something odd in the mail. When he opens it, he finds a elaborate album filled with qrotesque pictures taken at various crime scence's, a terrible scrapbook neatly entitled THE MURDER BOOK.
Alex immediately calls Milo, who is puzzled at first until he notices one of the pictures are familar. A young woman who was brutally tortured and dumped in muddy ditch by a freeway.
It was the eighth case Milo had worked on as a rookie detective, with his first partner, Pierce Schwinn. It had been a difficult case, but just as they had began to work it out, he and Pierce were taken off, because Pierce had upset some very important people in the precinct.
Now years later, someone wants to bring up the past. As Alex and Milo try to figure out who killed the girl years ago, they find that there might be more to it than one single murder. THE MURDER BOOK was a great read. In this novel, Kellerman took a diffrent twist, and gave some of the book from Milo's point-of-view. It was interesting to see what really went on inside Milo's head. And how he really feels about Alex sometimes. Anyway, you really need to pick this book up. It's a great treat.
Rating:
Summary: Better than other recent releases, but...
Review: Kellerman's Dr. Alex Delaware and Det. Milo Sturgis have been favorite heroes of mine over the past few years. Now, in THE MURDER BOOK, in what many readers may call an "it's about time" moment, Delaware is left on his own when his seemingly long-suffering "significant other" Robin leaves him to travel with a music group on tour. Their relationship seems to be coming to a long-overdue end, and we get to see how truly shallow and pathetic Alex can be. In the meantime, there arrives in Alex's mail a collection of crime scene photographs, "The Murder Book" of the title, a puzzle that leads him to contact his friend Milo. The LAPD detective's reaction to the book is one that Alex doesn't expect and it appears that a can of worms has been opened that will carry both the detective and the psychologist back in time and up through the highest echelon of the police department ranks. I found the story engaging and quick to read, with a very satisfying conclusion. However, the almost chapter-by-chapter switch between first-person and third-person narrative quickly became annoying and distracting. I felt that the author had cheated by using this artifice. One of the limitations an author accepts when he chooses to base his main character around a first-person point of view is that sometimes that main character can't see or know about events until he's been there or been told about them. But, in this case, I felt that the author took a short-cut by switching to third-person perspective to delve deeper into Milo's life away from Alex. It filled pages, but felt, somehow, "not right". I would still recommend the book and think all of Kellerman's fans will find it enjoyable and one of the better stories to come from the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible Book
Review: Let me start by saying that if you like the Alex Delaware series, you're going to like this book. All the elements are there: observant Alex, spinning his theories; the psychologists'-eye view of the universe; adult characters warped by childhood traumas. In addition, the book takes the series onto new ground. More than ever, we see Alex's weaknesses, both through his own eyes as he surveys the damage he's wrought to his relationship with Robin, his long-term love, and through those of his detective friend Milo, who serves as an alternative viewpoint character. We also see Alex contrasted to a superbly caring older psychologist named Bert-a colorful character who sees only magenta, black, and white, and who's appeared in at least one prior book. But I can't give this book five stars, even though I myself am a professional fiction writer who owes a debt to Kellerman. There are two moderately large problems. The first of the large ones is the decision to use Milo as an alternative viewpoint character. A book told entirely from Milo's viewpoint would be very interesting. But this one alternates Alex's first-person point of view with Milo's third-person viewpoint. It's an interesting experiment but inherently doomed. First-person POV weds the reader solidly to a single character. However interesting Milo's POV is (and he's a great viewpoint character), the switch from Alex is jarring. Kellerman is boldly attempting to break free of the mold he's cast for himself, but the mold is too strong. The second problem is the Murder Book of the title. Other reviews have explained what it is, so I won't repeat. Suffice it to say that it's an extremely indirect attempt to communicate a message to Milo, via Alex. But it always felt like artificial-too much like a story in which a dying character, instead of naming his killer directly, reveals it in code. Kellerman needed to make me believe that the book's author had no option but to speak so indirectly. I didn't buy it. Still, Kellerman is always a good read. He's an astute observer of culture, behavioral quirks, and the dark side of contemporary LA. Ultimately, it didn't matter that much that I didn't care about the villain's identity. In a book like this, it's the trip that matters, not the destination, and the trip wasn't bad at all. Four stars.
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