The Murder Book

Rating:
Summary: Better, But.........
Review: Proably the best Alex Delaware mystery since..... Well, at least since before the disastorous THE WEB. Kellerman must know he needs to do something, and this one has a new idea -- it features Milo in individual third-person scenes. And truth to tell, Milo comes off a lot better than Alex, who you really see as annoying and hard-headed.

In this one, Alex is sent a book of crime scene photogrpahs. One of them is from Milo's first, still unsolved, case. Milo is still troubled by it. Alex has time on his hands, so they're off on another adventure, involving the old murder, and its massive cover-up by the rich and powerful.

Much of the plot, which goes on at least a hundred pages too long (when did they stop editing Kellerman?) revolves around the paranoia of conspiracy and cover-up. If you believe that the execution-style slaying of an LAPD Internal Affairs officer could be concealed to the extent that the LA TIMES wouldn't even mention it, and that even LA cops wouldn't know about it, than maybe this will be OK with you, but rational minds will have a problem with it.

The chronology is forced and wrong. This is supposed to be a twenty-year old murder, but if Milo was a young detective three years out of Vietnam, it would have to be closer to thirty. and the aging problem of series characters has now taken over this series. Milo and Alex have to be pushing 60. Hard to place Alex as a romantic lead anymore; Milo has got to be well past LAPD retirement age for his grade.

And is this the kind of book that will bring new readership to the series? Will new readers thrill as Alex does a Google search? Will they hold their breath while Milo searches court records and calls DMV? Will they on be edge of their seat while Alex reads microfilmed newspapers in the library? Will they be cringing as Milo pours maple syrup on chocolate chip peanut butter pancakes.

Will please fans more than most recent outings; a great beach book.

Rating:
Summary: Not a must-read
Review: IÂ've long been a fan of Kellerman, and it saddens me to say that I get the feeling that the series is losing most of its zing. What interested me in the earlier books was the connection between mental health and crime and the insight that Alex Delaware was able to bring to complicated cases. In the last few books that element has been perfunctory, more like a check on a checklist than really central to the plot. _The Murder Book_ is more about police conspiracy than about psychology, and is more in the world of Milo than of Alex.

This wouldnÂ't necessarily be a bad thing, but the trouble is that Alex is still very much present as a character. And without a psychological case to profile, heÂ's not a terribly interesting character. In this installment heÂ's almost grating, and his ineptness is difficult to believe. After how many years as a police consultant he still "improvises" in the way portrayed here? Even given his grief about the failed relationship with Robin? Despite a lot of really gifted web searching, Alex doesnÂ't have a whole lot to add to this book, and by the end IÂ've forgotten why the murder book was ever sent to him in the first place.

DonÂ't misunderstand, nothing will make Kellerman a less than gifted writer, but this series needs a real kick in the pants to make it worth reading again.

Rating:
Summary: A comeback novel
Review: In the past few Alex Delaware novels, Jonathan Kellerman has put forth weak efforts and I was questioning whether the series would ever improve. Happily, The Murder Book is Kellerman's best book since Billy Straight and his best Delaware book since...I'm not sure, but it's been a while.

The story itself is an almost overly convoluted tale of a twenty year old murder that Alex's cop buddy Milo had briefly investigated as a rookie and who some mysterious figure wants reopened. As it deals a lot with Milo, the story alternates between Alex's standard first-person narrative and a third-person viewpoint following Milo, and we get a better look at both characters.

That, in fact, is where this book succeeds. In recent novels, Delaware is a boring, virtual non-character. Here, his personality is beginning to redevelop. He's not all that likable, actually, but he is at least human. Milo actually comes off looking better than Alex. Unfortunately, the weakness in the previous novels harms the subplot of Alex's separation from longtime girlfriend Robin. She has spent so much time in previous novels just briefly appearing for an obligatory sex scene that the reader has no real interest in her or their possible breakup.

So this book is far from perfect and is at best a weak four stars, but it is a drastic improvement over Kellerman's other recent works. If you were like me and just barely hanging on to reading this series, you should definitely pick this one up. It's a generally good read and a pleasant surprise from an author breaking out of a quality slump.

Rating:
Summary: yawn!
Review: I'm actually not sure what happened in a lot of this book. I lost track halfway through, but read the rest because I like to finish things. Too many characters, no clue how they're all connected, too convoluted.. don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: Give It a Decent Burial
Review: I have in the past enjoyed the Alex Delaware novels but not so much for the last several books in the series. This one however, I did not even finish. I tried. I thought the beginning was very good, it started slowing down about 1/4 through, started seriously dragging about halfway, and when he spent a full page describing how he and Milo got lost and finally found the street they were looking for, I started asking myself did I really care who did it anymore. The story was so long and drawn out that I lost track of the clues and the direction. This was not entirely my fault as the book lost track of its direction a long time before I did.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely one of his better recent books
Review: Having read just about every book in the series, I picked this one up... with apprehension. A few of the prior books had begun seeming too fomulaic and even seemed to be boring the author, himself. What a pleasant surprise this one turned out to be! For the first time in years, Kellerman has really started fleshing out the characters, in particular Milo and Alex. The latter has always seemed far too noble, even for a hero, and the former, far too much of a cardboard character. The reader gets some excellent background detail into what has shaped both men's lives. Alex finally admits to his craving for risk and gives us clues as to how his early life shaped that. Milo is no longer the token gay police detective using a swaggering macho bravado to cover his insecurities. The plot, though implausible at times, keeps you riveted throughout. I think Kellerman, who has always been a good writer, is mellowing with age. In his case, ..., it is to the readers' benefit.

Rating:
Summary: Enough is Enough
Review: This book is the end all for Alex, Milo, & the rest of the gang. It was so boring & frustrating, that it took me two weeks to skim through it & read the last page. The characters have run their course & it is time to say good-bye. I donated my book to the local library & was told that they have too many copies. Is this just a coincidence-I guess not. I will stick by his textbooks, but this book ended my reading relationship with these characters.

Rating:
Summary: Make room for Milo
Review: Alex Delaware, psychologist and consultant to the LAPD, has just taken his longtime girlfriend, Robin, to Paris to try to repair past ills. Instead of falling back in love with him, she's gone off on an extended music tour. He's alone in Los Angeles when the official blue album shows up at his door, filled with hideous and seemingly unrelated crime scene shots and titled "The Murder Book." He promptly calls his friend Milo Sturgis, an LAPD detective. Turns out one of the victims in the book, a badly mutilated teenage girl, was Milo's first unsolved homicide -- a homicide he might have closed if he hadn't been mysteriously shut down from within his own department. The two men's determination to discover who sent the book quickly grows into a need to resolve once and for all an atrocity that has been closely guarded by the rich and powerful for over twenty years.

If half of THE MURDER BOOK wasn't written from Milo's third-person perspective, it would have bombed badly. As it is, this novel just barely scrapes along on four stars. Yes, THE MURDER BOOK reads like vintage Kellerman, but that's not neccessarily a good thing. How many times can Alex search for information by web or phone? How many times can he take witnesses out to lunch in places painfully well described? How many times can he uncover a vast conspiracy that involves a confusing number of characters and is never quite plausible? How many times can he nearly get killed in the process? True, supposedly now we have some tension between Robin and Alex, but Robin wasn't solid to begin with and I can't say I missed her. What I did miss was any attempt on Alex's part to truly mend the relationship. But then, he's a series detective, what did I expect?

In this, the 16th installment in the series, Alex's thought patterns put me to sleep and only Kellerman's overuse of the phrase-not-sentence technique jarred me back awake. Except in Milo's chapters. Those were great. He's mysterious, persistent, a tad grouchy, big hearted -- I was very happy in his company. I almost wished the whole book had been his.

THE MURDER BOOK in short? Alex, move over. Milo's here.

Anna Klein

Rating:
Summary: The Murder Book
Review: I looked forward to getting Kellerman's new book. I've enjoyed his previous books. What a disappointment this one is! I'm just sorry I bought the darn thing instead of getting it from the library. I never got beyond the second chapter. The book was so full of swearing etc. that it turned me right off. I started skipping parts to see if the story was worth it - I had to skip pages! With so many wonderful reads out there, I tossed this one. It wasn't worth my time. Come on Jonathan - let's cut out the trash and get back to writing a good story.

Rating:
Summary: Bored to the point of frustration!
Review: I believe Kellerman is suffering from attention deficit disorder. He goes off on far too many tangents, in excruciating detail. The sub plots have sub plots, until we forget where Kellerman was trying to take us in the first place! And in the end, we find many were pointless, or else we just simply don't care anymore.
In the end, I found myself resentful of the time wasted on the ramblings of someone who likes to 'listen to himself talk.'
Kellerman uses far too many words! There is one word he does need to familarize himself with--SUCCINT!
This was my third Kellerman book, in my opinion, strike three, he's out!