A review by tuomosuominen
When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman

4.0

I borrowed the paperback of Jonathan Kellerman's first Alex Delaware novel, When the Bough Breaks, from my brother-in-law sometime in the late 1980's. This Kindle edition was an impulse buy a few years ago, when I thought it would be fun to start this series over again from the beginning. I didn't get around to reading it until now that I got a Paperwhite for Christmas. Jonathan Kellerman has averaged one Alex Delaware book a year. This book was published just about 30 years ago, in 1985. The 30th novel in the series will be released tomorrow. I've read all 29 of them up to now and can't wait to start the new one, once it lands on my Kindle. There seems to be a repeating format to the Alex Delaware stories, which surprisingly starts already in this first one. Scenes of the child psychologist's private and professional life in wonderfully depicted LA, a crime is committed, there's a child involved, the child psychologist engaged to help out the LAPD, pieces of a larger and even more sinister plot are gradually revealed, the psychologist and detective duo eventually figure it all out, the criminals are caught in a big action climax, and then return to normal. But the format doesn't disturb me any more than watching Law & Order. There's 1985 all over this book, no computers or cell phones, people smoking cigarettes all over, and so on. And Alex Delaware is seriously training karate. Can't remember that from any of the later novels. The plot is deliciously complicated, but the details are horrible. Altogether an enjoyable return to the beginning of the series.