Dr. Death (Random House Large Print)

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Delaware is on the Trail of Dr. Death's Killer
Review: Dr. Eldon Mate is the angel of mercy in Los Angeles, or was, because he's found dead in the back of the van, where he had assisted in the suicides of so many, hooked up to his own "Humanitron machine." And just so the police don't think he took his own life, the killer mutilated the body.

Once again Detective Milo Sturges enlists the aid of his old friend Dr. Alex Delaware to consult on a murder case and once again the pair become embroiled in a search for a killer. First off, they ask themselves, who might have had it in for the death doc? Perhaps family members of those he'd assisted into the great beyond. Perhaps the son he'd abandoned as a small child.

And to make matters more interesting, Alex is counseling Stacy and Eric Doss, the children of Joanne Doss, one of the death doctor's assisted suicides. Alex is a child psychologist, after all. Will this potential conflict of interest come between Alex and Milo? And did Doctor Death really do in Joanne, or had she been done by her hubby in a copycat killing?

As usual Kellerman had me glued to his words as I eagerly read on, dying to see what the next page had in store for me in this intriguing book that kept the suspense high right up until the surprise twist at the end.

Rating:
Summary: NOT HIS BEST!
Review: Dr. Eldon Mate, better known as Dr. Death, helps with the aid of killing terminally ill people, but when he is found butchered in his DEATH van, Milo Sturgis and Alex Delaware are called onto the case to find out who killed the killer.

As Delaware and Sturgis begin looking into the dark corners of the late Dr. Death's life they find any number of suspects...from relatives of those he killed, to his own family members.

"Dr. Death" is a disappointment from this bestselling author; the novel has too many characters, and drags on SLOWLY in too many spots. Fans of the previous novels in this series will be bored with this new book.

Jonathan Kellerman has been the leading practioner of the pyschological thriller, but with his last few novels he is losing steam...his novels are no longer the page-turners they once were, instead they are slowly paced character studies with some suspense thrown in.

Nick Gonnella

Rating:
Summary: AN EMOTIONALLY INTENSE READING
Review: Tony Award-winner John Rubinstein has read the audio book versions of each of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware novels. "Performed" might be a more appropriate word than "read" as his deliveries are riveting. (Need we say that Kellerman, a master of the psychological thriller, writes can't-put-down tales?)

There's a diabolical twist in this story as the man some have described as a killer is killed - Dr. Eldon Mate, a proponent of euthanasia, is murdered in the back of his own vehicle, attached to the mechanism he has used to assist others in ending their lives.

Of course, the LAPD seeks assistance from Dr. Alex Delaware who has a few qualms of his own regarding the case.

Rife with menacing characters and psychological detail, "Dr. Death" is Kellerman at the peak of his authorial prowess. In the case of the audiobook Rubinstein's emotionally intense voice is frosting on this devil's food cake.