Rage (Alex Delaware)

This was my first reading of a Kellerman novel, though I'd obviously heard about him for years. I can't imagine a read much more painful than this novel. He is the king of what writers call Talking Heads, just pages and pages of dialogue that go nowhere. He also loves convenience, an absolute deal killer in mystery and suspense. The characters Delaware interviews protest for a few sentences then suddenly realize they better help him. And then there are the pages and pages and pages where he and Milo have to have impossibly mundane dialogue so the author can tell you how the mystery is unfolding...because nothing in the material leads to any mystery of merit. It's also amazing that Kellerman is a psychologist and his character is one as well, and yet so often it is other characters pointing out what even amateur phsychologists or observers of human beings would know. If this is, as the jacket says, "one of the world's most popular authors", I need to go in search of the worst sellers.

Psychologist Alex Delaware receives a phone call from Rand, a young man who has recently been released from jail. Alex was involved in the case which sent Rand and his friend to jail for murdering a little girl eight years ago. Rand tells Alex that he wants to talk to him about the case, arranges a rendezvous and never shows up. Alex finds that Rand has been murdered and this pulls him back to the old case. He and his police friend, Milo work to find who killed Rand and in the process they uncover a horrific multiple killer whom few would suspect. This book is written in short chapters which speeds up the action, except when Alex and Milo spend too much time speculating over various scenarios for the murders. The other discordant note is the casual way that Alex seems to react to the women who go in and out of his life. They are treated as interchangable and he never appears to invest much emotion in romances whether they are coming or going.

I always enjoy Jonathan Kellerman's mysteries in his Alex Delaware series. Characters are well developed and defined not only by what they do and say but also by their thoughts. They come across as genuine, not as stereotypes or super heroes. He makes good use of humor.

Segments of this book were absolutely riveting and the plot definitely deserves five stars; yet there were enough discordant notes that I did not enjoy it as much as either THERAPY, the Alex Delaware book published last year or Kellerman's most recent novel TWISTED. After briefly summarizing the plot and the storyline, the remainder of this review will describe the reasons for my ambivalent reaction to this tale of psychological and physical trauma, sadness, wasted lives, despair and the resultant RAGE and outrage which were the ultimate result.

The story begins with Alex expecting to relax given the coincidence of a diminution in his caseload and the fact that his new romantic interest Allison is visiting her grandmother in Connecticut. His plans are irretrievably altered by the end of the first page of this novel when he decides to answer his business phone rather than follow his usual practice of letting his service pick up. He does not recognize the voice which speaks his name, but as soon as the caller identifies himself as "Rand" the realization dawns upon Alex that it is Rand Duchay, a disturbed thirteen year-old whom Alex had last seen eight years ago in connection with the senseless murder of twenty-five month old Kristal Malley. However, Rand now speaks with the "man's baritone' of the twenty-one year old who has just been released after serving eight years of his twelve year sentence in the facilities of the C.Y.A. (California Youth Authority). Rand needs to talk "for real" about Kristal; before Alex can hang up after elicting Rand's location and agreeing to meet him, Rand declares"I am not a bad person", a declaration that will influence Alex's actions repeatedly during the course of this story . The next nine chapters and almost twenty percent of the novel are devoted to an extended and detailed flashback which consists of Alex's recollections of the long forgotten and truly tragic case, his reluctant involvement in it at the request of the presiding judge Tom Laskin, and his impressions of Rand and his sociopathic partner Troy Turner. The flashback concludes with Alex's remembrance of his conversation with Judge Laskin concerning the murder of Troy Turner shortly after he was sentenced as a youthful offender and their conclusion that there may be some problems for which there are no good solutions. Even at this early stage of the story, it is clear that this book will provide a forum for the author to espouse his views regarding youthful criminals, the shortcomings of the Department of Social Services, and the seemingly hopeless and intractable problems which often result from the combination of poverty and childhood neglect.

When we return to the present, Alex leaves for Westwood to meet Rand, who never keeps his appointment with Alex. While subsequently informing series regular Detective Milo Sturgis that he'll be spending a few days with Allison in NYC, Alex decides to discuss Rand's call and the od case with Milo. Then, as Alex prepares to leave, an unidentified body with Alex's telephone number stuffed into the jean's pocket is discovered dumped next to a freeway ramp in Bel Air. When the body is identified as Rand, Alex and Milo sysyematically retrace Rand's steps since his releases and review the eight year old case in typical police procedural fashion. Soon disturbing questions arise concerning the subsequent deaths and disappearances of other individuals involved in the lives of Rand, Troy and Kristal. This is a story filled with strange individuals and twisted and ruined lives lived on the fringes of society. As the investigation proceeds, Alex and Milo continually change their theory of the case. While their confusion at times is understandable given the nature of the evidence and the misdirection provided by some of the individuals involved who are trying to hide old secrets, they often seemed to unnecessarily and prematurely jump to unwarranted conclusions. This became increasingly frustrating and was more reminiscenta deadly earnest version of The Keystone Cops than the usual deliberative police procedural. It also was totally unnecesssary because the combination of a clever plot, interesting characters, enlightening psychological discussions, and obviously heartfelt insights and commentary concerning the foster care system were more than enough to make this a worthwhile read.

In addition to the above observation, my major complaint is the very abrupt conclusion, which left several questions unanswered which unfortunately I cannot discuss without providing spoilers. For some reason, once the mystery of the real murderer had been resolved the author decided to simply conclude the story in a summary and particularly violent manner with no explanation concerning either the means by which the final outcome (which did arguably achiev some measure of rough justice) was accomplished. Neither was there any meaningful o closure for any of the other participants or the reader. This lack of an epilogue seemed very inappropriate given the importance of the psychological development of the characters as a crucial aspect of this story. The insights are developed, the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are finally assembled, and then the reader is never provided any answers to the many of the questions which remain concerning how to view the completed picture.

So, be prepared for a story which embodies many of the elements which have won Kellerman his many fans and which contains perhaps more complexities than usual. Alex and Milo seem to be constantly taking wrong turns and arriving at dead ends, the puzzle representing the case is solved but the satisfactory closure regarding the surviving characters which is present in some of Kellerman's previous books is missing; this fact is compounded by hints that Milo's and Alex's lives may be subject to futher upheaval in the next series installment. In summary, RAGE is recommended for fans of the series who will undoubtedly enjoy the usual suspense and the realistic psychological details which result from the expertise which Kellerman has gained as a clinical psychologist; nevertheless, this troubling story is likely to leave the reader with feelings of both distress and incompleteness.

Tucker Andersen

This book held my attention for the first half or so. Well written, I assumed the primary storyline would stick to the murder of a small child and the evaluation of two young individuals associsted with it. About midway through, additional murders were thrown into the mix that were potentially unrelated entirely and didn't seem to tie into the overarching story at all. The ending had me wanting more, but that's just me. Over all I'm glad I picked this one up.

Years ago, I read everyone of the alex delaware books up up to this one..

This one is an semi-interesting read but by no means a "can't put the book down" type book. Which is unlike most of the alex delaware books as they generally are a 4 to 5 star ordeal. by the end of the book your kinda like.. ok who cares just arrest someone already so I can start the next book. I like that he takes on a controversial subject.. but the characters (other then alex and milo) just felt flat to me. I hope this a fluke and his newer books are better.. But after like 20 excellent books of his.. Im willing to let one slide. On a side note. I hope he brings back Robin.. I dont really care for the allison character.

btw.. would love to see an alex delaware movie.. any one else think Oliver Platt would be perfectly cast for milo? For some reason I must have have saw him in a supporting role somewhere and now I always picture milo as him.

I like John Rubenstein's readings of Kellerman's many crime novels, which have continuity with old and new characters.

I listen to the audio versions on c.d. & cassette, and don't need the printed versions.

It's a pleasure to let Rubinstein do the heavy eye-lid lifting.

These novels tell everything I wanna know about Los Angeles-- more than is necessary but I luv Kellerman's trivia as much as anybody can.

Hey, I'm now an expert on Detroit too, thanks to Loren Estleman's crime novels.

The gifted writer cleverly weaves in clues and plot developments via conversations in

coffee shops, utilizing personalities of waitresses, defenses/offenses/justifications of psychological theories, the conceits of academia, human-being cops, advantages/defects of state-city-county governmental administrations & bureaucracies, harsh realisms of ordinary real life, morgues, urban sub-cultures, human-being shrinks, delicious mundane steak-houses, Delaware's 1970ish Seville, street driving in L.A., and, heckfire, it's overall entertaining fodder.

I couldn't do it as well; while fortunately the novels are usually not beyond comprehension.

Because, RAGE keeps my attention, as twisted and complicated as it gets, while nevertheless compulsive fun.

So RAGE is my latest rage, and

others should enjoy it.

This was a very good and complex story. As always Alex and Milo team up to unravel a twisted and unreal tale. Alex is facing some of his own dilemma and moral choices. This story shows the human side of our heroes. A great read.

Anyone liking mystery, psychological assessment, intrigue, etc., will enjoy the book. Hooked from early in the book to the end, the author weaves a shocking tale of murder, sexual mistreatment, and convulsed relationships. Enjoy.

I think Jonathan Kellerman is an underrated writer. He's been writing thrillers for over twenty years, and I still enjoy his novels and his writing style. RAGE is his nineteenth novel featuring his primary hero, Dr. Alex Delaware. I found the book enjoyable, but minor.

This novel is essentially a murder mystery involving the death of a young child, and the repercussions that follow. The first third of RAGE is actually pretty stellar, a first-rate whodunit. Kellerman does a good job describing the initial crime and Delaware's role in the subsequent court proceeding. As always, the dialogue and characterization is well done.

Unfortunately, the novel goes downhill after the first 100 or so pages. The remainder of the book consists of Alex and his cop friend Milo investigating a series of grisly new murders that are potentially related to the child's death. This leads to an increasingly convoluted storyline that I eventually found confusing.

Furthermore, there is too much boring dialogue between Alex and Milo speculating about about who committed the crime. Most of this dialogue only serves to slow down the narrative pace of the book. Also, when the killer's identity is finally revealed, his motive for the crime is absurd -- pure over-the-top insanity. No rational explanation is given for such psychotic behavior. To me, this is just lazy plotting on the part of Kellerman.

To make matters worse, the ending of this novel is surprisingly weak and open-ended, and left me heavily dissatisfied. Given the rather horrid behavior detailed in this novel, I was hoping for an ending that supplied more closure.

This book is a decent mystery novel, but if you're new to Kellerman, my advice is to skip this novel and begin with his earlier work, such as WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS.

I have read all of Jonathan Kellerman's novels. This one definitely was not one of his best for several reasons. The book seemed to end very suddenly with a lot of loose ends. There were a lot of unaswered questions and no definitive answers from either Delaware or Sturgis. Did Daney actually have his 2 year old daughter killed and why did he wait until she was 2? Did he kill Lara and why? It was never established that Daney was doing all this because he was a serial killer; and the theory that he was a serial killer of unborn babies seemed ludicrous to me. He was having the fetuses aborted because he eventually wanted to get a kickback from the doctor for his referrals. The book started out really exciting, because who killed Rand was the theme at the beginning, but then the whole Rand thing falls by the wayside and I don't think why he got killed was definitively answered. What did he know and how did he find out? I know at the end they find blood evidence in Daney's Jeep but they don't say who it belonged to. Alex and Milo just keep positing a bunch of theories and what-ifs. Was Cherish aware that her husband was sexually molesting their foster daughters, and why didn't she do something about it? Who knows, we never get the answer. It is implied, but it didn't placate me.

Also, what is it with Kellerman trying to turn Allison into a cold, hard, unforgiving character. He has a disagreement with Allison, and before his relationship with her is even finished, he daydreams about calling Robin (who has now coincidentally broken up with Tim and is back from Seattle) with the dying Spike as an excuse. I found that beyond cold. Was he never really "into" the relationship with Allison to begin with? I don't like Robin as his love interest. I was much more entertained when he had a more like-minded individual (Allison) as his girlfriend. Finally, someone Alex could talk to about his work. Robin and Alex broke up in the first place because she didn't like his line of work. Alex likes what he does, so why would Kellerman conceive of a storyline where he and Robin get back together if they really have nothing in common. I didn't like the pat story line of he and Allison breaking up at the same time as Robin happens to leave Tim. Too contrived and I was disappointed that he wasn't sadder about the problem he and Allison were having. It made his character Alex seem heartless and calculating.

I am always amazed at how a degreed PhD psychologist can write so masterfully. Lawyers deal with the world of words, so a novel by one of them isn't a total surprise. I enjoy the repartee between Dr. D and Milo. Also, Kellerman's frequent use of similes to describe a look, a feeling, etc.

This book starts off well and has interesting characters, but for reasons I can't put my thumb on I almost lost interest towards the end. It was almost a little too long, or anticlimactic. Maybe it's the fact htat a psychologist was acting more like a sherif or cowboy then an 'assistant' to the cops. Either way check it out and see what you think. Much better than anything I've read by Patterson, but nowhere near Brad Mettzer!!!

I found this book by Jonathan Kellerman had an excellent plot, but the solution of the mystery seemed to be based on a great deal of conjecture between Alex and Milo. I felt the conclusions they came to were not based on finding clues so much as discussions between the two. I prefer stories with more action and discovery based on hunting for clues, rather than basing so much of the solution on discussion between two clever friends.

I like Jonathan's writing and story telling having read about 5 of his books. But this is really, real;y bad. Characters are poorly portrayed and totally uninteresting. Way to many characters and all unsympathetic. This is a page turner in that you want to be done with it already. In conclusion, awful and if I could give it zero or negative stars I would.

Three stars or four? I couldn't decide about Rage, my first Kellerman novel. I liked the spare, heavy-on-dialogue writing, which probably comes easily to a man whose profession, prior to becoming a bestselling author, was about listening to people talk. I also liked the characters of Delaware and Milo, but because this is a series, I often felt as if I had wandered into a room filled with people I didn't know much about. I liked Allison less, perhaps, because I wasn't convinced Delaware liked her all that much either; clearly, it seemed, he still has feelings for the unknown (to me) Robin. All the characters seemed rather cold to me, but maybe you have to get to know them; it's possible Kellerman has made them warmer and more appealing in previous books.

As others have mentioned, the mystery in Rage is complicated, a Gordian knot of damaged characters and senseless acts of betrayal. Structured like a police procedural, the narrative was entertaining enough to keep me reading, though flawed by the ending, which felt abrupt and unfinished. Too, the killer's motives and actions seemed improbable, as did Delaware and Milo's uncanny deductions, and the convenient evidence of proof at the end.

Then there were the two mistakes that took me right out of the story. One occurred early in the book: Delaware, seeing a victim's sleeping quarters, describes it as "....an eight foot windowless space...." Later, another character tells Delaware that the victim had been alarmed the night before because he thought he "heard someone moving around outside his window." The non-existent window?

The second involved important plot points centering around a sexually-transmitted disease and holes punched in condoms. What Delaware learns from an unfaithful wife--that she not only was always careful to use condoms which she bought herself, but that she had caught her lover in the act of sabotage--should have been proof that she could not, then, have given her husband the disease. Why have the husband enraged because his wife had given him gonorrhea, only to make it impossible, or at least improbable, to have done so? Because a) Kellerman needed a reason for the husband to be furious and vengeful at his wife, and b) he apparently forgot the reason he invented. Errors such as these make me wonder if writers ever actually read their own final drafts, or if editors and publishers do.

Rage is readable, entertaining, and flawed, and so I decided on three instead of four.

I love reading mystery murder novels. This was my first janathan keller book I've read. A friend insisted I read it and advertised it well. However, I wasn't pleased at the conclusion of the book. It could have been lengthened and brought out more about the killer's reasoning of murdering those characters. I mean, from the beginning to the middle, I was intrigued with finding out who the murderer could actually be. But when I finally got to the end, I was like "that's it"? Not to tell you the story but even with the part of Milo and Alex sitting in a restuarant after they found Drew Daney...and then not caring about the whereabouts of Barnett or Cherish? I mean, wtf???? I felt that the ending could have been put together a whole lot better. I don't like being left still asking questions about everything else, ya know? I was confused to be honest. It was a great book, but I've read better that had an ending that had you like "wow".

Eight years before Rage begins, two boys brutally murdered an abducted two-year-old girl in a park. Kellerman masterfully opens Rage with a background of the murder and we will all naturally wonder what made the boys tick. Unfortunately for our curiosity, both boys are now dead. One of the two, Rand was released from a juvenile facility where he had been sent for his part. The other member of the duo, Troy, who appears to have been the brains and sociopath of the two, was murdered in another detention facility many years before. Delaware analyzed Rand for the court shortly after the killing and found him to be borderline retarded and easily manipulated. The night of his murder, Delaware was called out of the Blue by Rand to set up a meeting. He ended the conversation with "I am not a bad person." Rand never shows up and is later found dead. Delaware and Sturgis now find themselves back on the trail of another demented sociopath. Their investigation leads them through a series of lowlifes, good Samaritans, troubled teenagers, cops, lawyers, and family members of Troy, Rand, and the little girl. Suspicions soon develop that at least one evil adult may have guided the boys' actions and is responsible for many other murders and other despicable acts too. The setup and chase are where Kellerman excels. The combination of the Psychologist Delaware and Detective Sturgis brings both the psychological thriller and police procedural characteristics to his novels. Delaware's personal life with his new love interest, Allison, has few scenes, but there is one surprising and coincidental twist (perhaps too coincidental for a city the size of Los Angeles). Personally, I hope Delaware does not go back to Robin. Sturgis' private life as always, except for a few references to his sexual preference, is mostly in the shadows. Kellerman should be given credit for successfully portraying a buddy, crime-fighting relationship between a straight and gay man. Sturgis's personality and personal habits breaks all the stereotypes. Rage does have several deficiencies. The storyline, although interesting, becomes somewhat convoluted and over the top while the ending is abrupt and not very satisfying. However, as I write this review I find myself liking Rage more and more. My original intention was to give it four stars, but to note that is barely reached that level. I now put Rage at a solid four stars.

Lots of plots and subplots. Kept my interest and was a page turner.
Lots of peeling back of layers as the picture came in and out of focus. Characters were as real as today' perverts on reported on the e evening news.

All throughtout this book Alex Delaware and his police friend Milo never stop ruminating over every new fact they uncover. They have endless discussions on how a new tidbit might fit into the overall picture. The reader longs for the pair to actually do something. In the end the author walks away without even tying up all the main strings. That is really dirty pool after making the reader wade through all the yakking. I read and enjoyed several of the early Alex Delaware books and then quit looking for new ones, now I know why.

I kept waiting for some action, and instead, kept meeting new characters and fashion statements. The book is entirely conversation. I rarely won't finish a book, but I managed to hang in there awaiting some resolution only by placing it in the bathroom and catching two or three pages at a time. And this Allison: What an annoying character! I doubt that I have ever read a crime novel where the action consisted of nothing more gripping than doughnut munching. Then the story just broke off! If I had read these valuable reviews I would have saved some frustration.

One of the first things young writers are taught is that you don't tell your reader...you show the reader through action. This book continues the tiresome trend of having Dr. Delaware detail what happened, or at least his assumptions of what happened to Detective Milo...not once but through out the novel.

While I admire novels that focus on the psychological profiling and forensic data gathering in crime fighting, I don't expect them to be presented as long winded narratives.

There are just better writers out there and I think I'll pass on Kellerman, unless all that's left to read is a James Patterson book.

Not bad,,,,not great.
Just something to read to pass the time.
Some of the same characters, some of the
same dialogue. Same driving all around
the L.A. area. Pretty much a lot of the same!!

I have read almost all of the Alex Delaware books, and they seem to be on a downhill trend. As another reviewer wrote, this book had a lot of legwork where Kellerman seemed to be establishing his usual tightly-knit plot, and then it all just fell apart at the end. Recently when I see a new Alex Delaware novel I have been getting my hopes up that Kellerman will return to his well written, exciting stories, and have been disappointed each time. I think this is a case of an author who is getting paid to churn out a new book every so often and isn't held to the more rigorous standards that less established authors are held to.

RAGE is a terrific Dr. Delaware thriller that grips the audience when Alex recalls (in a flashback) the heinous crime and the reactions of the two teens who committed the murder. Alex is great in this novel especially his asides such as fearing Rand will find another dominant personality to coax him along for a deadly ride. The who-done-it is well designed so that readers know that everyone involved just about believe Duchay deserved death including to a degree Milo and Alex, but they overcome their personal disgust while seeking the killer. Fans of the series will be elated with this Jonathan Kellerman's tale. I give this book five stars not three.

Kellerman is consistant in his ability to tap into the all too real and disturbing issues of society. All the while, enabling the reader to see the human side of Alex (and Milo-the police lieutenant) desire to understand, if not explain the depravity of societies sickest individuals.

The ending was a bit of a surprise in terms of resolution, but the intonation that his relationship with Robin will be reignited leaves me anxiously awaiting his next novel.

Save your money, folks! This book is not worth the paper it's printed on. I don't know what has happened to Kellerman, but he seems to have lost his touch. Where are the classic twists and turns, the surprises, that used to define the earlier Kellerman? This book has no climax, no intrigue, no surprises! All Milo and Alex do is talk, talk, talk, and eat donuts - donuts that are described down to their very last detail. That's the book in a nutshell. That, and a host of characters you can't keep straight because there are too many of them! But most of them all end up dead, so who cares, right? And like another reviewer mentioned on here, you can pretty much figure out "whodunit" in the first 20 or so pages. I think the author himself didn't even know how to tie up this monstrosity, so he simply cuts it off, and doesn't bother to answer the questions he poses on the final page! What a weak ending. If this book had a pulse it would have been dead by page 35. Time to find a new author because, sadly, this one seems to have lost his touch.

Grew up where Mr. Kellerman's stories take place and he captures the spirit of LA perfectly. Reading about gruesome unsolved crimes being investigated has never been so fun! Can't wait for the next adventure.

A complex case for the doctor, but it gets resolved for the most part. A bit too much speculating on various scenarios and false-directing the reader towards various suspects. A decent read, but not my favorite.

Alex Delaware is a psychiatrist that accepts to work for the police. The case he is on is very bleak and sordid. It all turns around a psychopath who can perfectly cover up his tracks and last a very long time and thus enjoy his crimes just as long. His crime is to impregnate women especially kids in foster care under his responsibility and his wife's and under age, and then make them abort. Create and destroy. The typical game of so many kids who build up a tower of wooden blocks and then push it down enjoying both the building and the tearing down. What's original in this novel is that we follow Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and Doctor Delaware in their slow discovery of the crime. They will never have real evidence, only their psychological thinking, deducting and rebuilding. The novel leads us on a wrong trail and then on the right one, which could be wrong too. We do not know really. What they cogitate is logical. It fits but they have no evidence. The chase will end up with a piece of frontier justice and Lieutenant Milo Sturgis will pass the baby over to standard police services and seems to be willing to close his eyes on those who have played wild west justice. The novel though has a flaw. The murderer's wife has known all along, or at least has had the opportunity to know and has had to know some of the crimes all along and she never turned authorities against him though they made a living overusing their position of foster family and homeschooling facility and that institution of theirs was the criminal turf of the husband. It is a shortcoming because the wife is supposed to be a good Christian who nearly made it as a minister though she dropped out because her husband was kicked out of the seminary and she followed him. It is amazing that the husband could have raped under-age girls for years and the wife would have known nothing about it, including the abortions, and that all these girls would have said nothing to her in any way. Suspend your disbelief. It is probably why so many crimes succeed, but generally they succeed only for a short while not for a long long while. But it is interesting to follow the mind of this psychiatrist and his lieutenant friend, though we wonder after some pages of their cogitations if they are not just as perverted as the criminals they are tracking.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Universit? Paris Dauphine, Universit? Paris I Panth?on Sorbonne

A blurb on the cover of RAGE states, "Kellerman keeps the creepiness coming until the big-twist finish." Well, the creepiness part is certainly true, but if there's a big-twist finish, I must've missed it. Anybody who reads a lot of mysteries will be able to spot the killer within the first twenty pages.

RAGE starts with a young man calling Delaware on a pay phone. He's one of two "thrill-killing" teenagers who abducted a two-year-old girl, got her drunk, then murdered her when she threw up and started to cry. The young man has just been released from prison and wants to prove to Delaware, a consultant on the original case, that he's a "good person."

Delaware and his police-lieutenant buddy, Milo Sturgis, team up to investigate when this young man turns up murdered. They soon realize the original abduction of the toddler may have been a "contract slaying" and an adult or adults may have been involved.

So far so good, but then we are subjected to Delaware and Sturgis's "speculation" about what really happened. This discussion gets so convoluted, I had to read it over several times to figure out what they were saying. The original "red herring" is the little girl's father. Delaware and Sturgis discover the little girl had brown eyes; whereas her parents' eyes were both blue, a definite motive. Delaware and Sturgis further speculate that the toddler's parents and another suspect couple may have been involved in wife-swapping, which is why the father waited eight years to kill the second of the thrill killers (the first was murdered in prison). If you think this is over-the-top, wait until you hear the real killer's motivation. It's hard to believe that a clinical psychologist would expect anybody to believe this dreck. If he's working from a real case study, he doesn't acknowledge it.

Another bothersome aspect is Kellerman's metrosexual tendencies. He over-emphasizes what people are wearing, what cars they're driving, and what their homes look like. There's a scene where the characters eat doughnuts, two actually, where he describes practically every sprinkle on a chocolate doughnut. Certainly all writers do some of this, but they usually paint with deliberate strokes, emphasizing mood. Kellerman does it, seemingly, with evem minor characters.

Early Kellerman was really good. Kellerman used real psychological case studies, such as one using Munchausen by proxy. But the man seems to have run out of ideas or motivation in respect to Delaware. His last effort, TWISTED, in which Delaware only appeared referentially, was much better.

Like many other reviewers, I felt that the book was going along great until the abrupt ending. It seems to me that Milo and Alex just don't care anymore. Alex seems almost sociopathic in this book, which was very upsetting to me. Also, I agree that Spike has much more appeal that either Robin or Alison, but of the two women I prefer Alison. She doesn't whine or complain and she is capable of taking care of herself and others (remember when she saved Robins whiny butt?). Anyway, I hope Mr Kellerman reverts back to his previous form of excellent plots and great character development.

Having read all of Kellerman's books, I feel this one - and the others he's written over the past 3 or 4 years - are not nearly of the same quality of the earlier ones. RAGE started out OK and moved along for about the 1st half ... then was bogged down with all the characters / alternative theories. I'd lost interest by the last 100 pages. Ending was a dud. I wouldn't recommend it.

I am a Jonathan Kellerman fan and have read many of his books. Sad to say, I think that RAGE was not up to his usual standards. The plot was endlessly repetitive. Once you read 30 or 40 pages it repeated itself with only a change of the characters' names. It was mostly conversation and little action.The denouement was disappointing and left, in my mind, several unanswered questions

I have read every Alex Delware novel, this one was well written until the end, it seems Kellerman must have run out of time writing the book and was unable to finish it. The story does not resolve itself, it just stops and most questions remain unanswered.

I just finished listening to "Rage" on CD. Love Jonathan Kellerman and his works but the ending for this one ticked me off. It was all based on speculation; so many questions unanswered. The only positive was bringing Robin back; that Alison was too whiney.

Initially, this book was thrilling, exciting and " unputdownable". About 120 pages in, it started to draw out, I found this book amazingly boring. I had to close it and leave it closed once I got to about page 220. This book is SNORE material. Cannot believe it was an international bestseller. I do not recommend this book to those who want a thrilling, page turning book. One advantage of this book, it sent me into a snoring comer every night that i read it.

No buildup and no action. The story just kept droning on and on. The ending left me throwing my arms up, saying "wha'?" Also, too many fragmented sentences. I think readers will find that annoying, unless some of you have an intense dislike for the word "and".

How awful was this book. I had more questions than answers. Talk about speculations, and what ending. I wrote the author because I was hoping he could help me clear up some questions I had. He did respond - "I don't discuss my books". Therefore, I will no longer buy and/or read his books. That is my own RAGE.