Editorial Reviews
Product Description:With scores of millions of books in print, translation into two dozen languages, and one of the most popular heroes in contemporary fiction to his name, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman is the unequivocal “master of the psychological thriller” (People). In his newest novel Kellerman delivers a tour de force–poignant, dark, and chilling–that illuminates a shadowy world where impulse rules.
Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, she still seems older than her years–but her problems go beyond hyper-maturity. Patty Bigelow, Tanya’s aunt and adoptive mother, has made a deathbed confession of murder and urged the young woman to seek Delaware’s help. The doctor recalls Patty as a selfless E.R. nurse struggling to raise a child on her own–a woman seemingly incapable of the “terrible thing” she has admitted. But for Tanya’s peace of mind, Delaware agrees to investigate, and he enlists LAPD detective Milo Sturgis in the search for the phantom victim of a crime that may never have occurred.
Armed with only the vaguest details, psychologist and cop follow a trail twisting from L.A.’s sleaziest low-rent districts to its overblown mansions, retracing Patty and Tanya’s nomadic and increasingly puzzling life to the doorsteps of a sullen heroin addict; a randy real-estate broker; and a brilliant, enigmatic physics student. Suddenly a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets–and bodies–are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death–a legacy of evil that refuses to die.
Dramatic, action-packed, and filled with the psychological detail that only Jonathan Kellerman can provide, Obsession is a whodunit, a whydunit–and something unique: a did-it-even-happen? This is Kellerman at his heart-racing best.
From the Hardcover edition.Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review
My first and last Kellerman read, November 8, 2008
By
Joanne Tarantino Wilson (key west)
I needed something to read. This had been given to me and sat on the shelf for several months. I finaly grabbed it. Wish I had not.What a bore. It was also uncredible with the dying mother saying she had done something so terrible. The police launch a full investigation (yeah sure). Multiple bad guys keep getting invented at random. I thought I was going to indulge myself into some fun pulp fiction entertainment. No entertainment here at ALL!
Satisfied, October 28, 2008
By
Maureen Farrell (St. Louis, MO)
Service was quick and the book was as promised. I would definitely buy again.
Too Unbelievable, October 27, 2008
By
Elena (YUMA, AZ)
This book was not up to the usual Kellerman/Alex Delaware standards. I think maybe JK has run out of ideas and is stretching a bit too much. There were way too many characters who were not well developed confusing the reader. And what PD has the time to spend on a crime which never was reported? I know we have to suspend belief when reading fiction, but, come on, Milo and Alex solved a series of murders from nothing more than a few words from a dying woman???
I only kept reading to see if anything interesting was happening in the private lives of Alex & Robin and Milo & Rick!
JK, please don't just keep churning out books.
Glad Kellerman is not a psychotherapist..., October 27, 2008
By
Linda Hardestyanymore, anyway. His world is divided into white and black - all right for pulp fiction, not for psychology. I wouldn't want him to try to make his characters any deeper, either. Even though Alex Delaware might recommend a patient take medication, Jonathan Kellerman thinks less of human beings who do. His "good" characters (victim/heroes), are too strong and good to succumb to needing medication. Hollywood = bad people. One of the worst villains in the book is named Robert Fisk, and likes healthy food.
But it's not a terrible read. I did lose some of the threads in the middle, like others. Milo and Rick's relationship is great to have highlighted, and there are some vivid scenes. I'll probably read more of Kellerman's books.
Short But Sweet: I'm Over Alex Delaware, September 20, 2008
By
JT (Tampa Bay, FL United States)
The latest in the series is pedestrian and maddeningly slow moving. I just finished it yesterday and I can't tell you the plot; not a great reflection on the story telling involved.
Maybe it is time for Kellerman to abandon the Delaware character and spend some time on books featuring Milo Sturgis? Originally a throw-away part of the Alex Delaware contributing cast, he is a far more interesting character these days.
