Bones: An Alex Delaware Novel

I just don't know about the direction this series is taking in the last few books. It used to be that Alex was a child psychologist, and occasionally he'd run across something he needed Milo's help on, or Milo would need Alex's take on a crime so that he (Milo) understood it better. Alex's patients were interesting and his cases were interesting.

Now, Alex might as well be a cop. He goes along with Milo on every interview and every meeting, sits by while he does on-line research, and only seems to go home when Milo is going to type his report. Also, in earlier novels only Alex talked like a psychologist (Witness: "I didn't really get what was going on." Alex: "You had a hard time understanding the situation.") In this book, both Milo and Reed talk that way too. Sometimes I had to go back and really figure out who was speaking as they all sounded like Alex.

This book was OK, but I'd like Alex to go back to his career and leave the cop work to Milo.

Have never read Kellerman before. On starting "Bones" & not knowing Delaware is a recurring character I was almost immediately struck by the resemblance between the narration by him and an old Philo Vance book from the 1930s I have here someplace.
In the Vance book, the story is told by (and from the observational viewpoint of) a friend of the great detective. The friend obviously had to tag along with Vance on everything Vance did to be able to chronicle his cases, but the friend contributed nothing to the story, the advancement of the plot, or the solution of the crime. His sole purpose in being there was to tell the reader what Vance was doing throughout the entire book.

Unlike Watson or Captain Hastings who at least interacted with "their" primary detective characters, provided comic relief, and occasionally contributed (even inadvertently) to the solution of the mystery, Delaware as of the first 200 pages I've read so far is largely irrelevant to the story in "Bones". He does little beyond tagging along, his personal life with Robin is devoid of interest or relevance, and he offers no earthshaking bits of wisdom or psychological insight to justify his presence.
Until I got curious, looked for reviews, and discovered Delaware is a long-running character I was actually wondering if Kellerman had deliberately set out to write an updated insider "joke" using the old Philo Vance formula.

Reality aside (this is not the way a genuine consulting police psychologist operates), I keep waiting for an interesting premise to develop more...interestingly, and I'm beginning to skip sections of pointless dialogue.
I'm waiting for Delaware to pay for his ticket to ride along.

For Kellerman fans who find familiar characters in an apparently long-running series, it may be enjoyable. As a stand-alone book it's not doing much yet.

No doubt Kellerman can spin a great yarn. But this one seemed disjointed, with a side-story about biracial brothers at loggerheads that distracted more than it added. Robin seems to have had a lobotomy- since when did she ever support Alex's police forays? I personally liked Allison the therapist as a girlfriend more. Back and forth to a marsh that in reality is a couple of blocks by a couple of blocks in size- just not possible to have been the deserted place described (having lived in LA, I know the area well). Story had a rushed ending that wasn't an ending.

I haven't read many Kellerman mysteries, but I wasn't impressed with this one. I hope it wasn't typical. The plot was kind of absurd and the ending anti climatic at best. I guess the characters are interesting enough, but there were way too many not really explained circumstances related to the killings. I think I'll give this author a break and read some others for awhile. Not recommended.

Typically, I can't wait to read another of Kellerman's books - especially those featuring Milo. I've also enjoyed that Kellerman's Delaware character has become more of a real p-erson as of late, insted of the one dimensional saint he had been in some of the prior books. However, this entry just lost me. There was way too much talking and sloppy, unnecessary details. The plot just became too convoluted to have any real credibility. It is seeming like both Mr. Kellerman and his wife, Faye, are just creating an outline for some other less able writer to flesh out. And, like similar Patterson efforts, it just isn't working. Also, can we please get rid of Robin's very dull nad boring character once and for all. Please, Mr. Kellerman, you were once one of my favorites. This latest effort is just a waste of time.

i usually normally enjoy jonathan kellerman's books, but this is one is such a rehash and reworking of all of his other novels. nothing new or interesting, the repeated description of the indian restuarant almost drove me out of my skull(and i'm indian!!), the abused protagonist, the drugged out crazy killer, the steely eyed female attorney,yada, yada.....................

Much, much better than Compulsion. Whew - I was worried. I've read every Alex D. novel, and this one works whether it's your first or last. It stands on its own and all the characters are crisp and clear. If you're already a fan, it won't disappoint. The addition of a baby detective for Milo to mentor is a great development. If you like murder mysteries, you will love this book. Highly recommended!

Perhaps a little slow at times, and the twists became a little too twisty, but in the end Kellerman pulled it all back together like he always does. His characters are richly variable, which adds to the story line. Alex was tougher and more central to the story than I recall in other books. An entertaining read.

As always with Kellerman, a complex and convoluted plot, well woven and well told, but minus 1 star because of his tiresome detailed descriptions of driving routes taken while Dr. Delaware is unraveling the clues and solving the crimes.

I love it when they take something sweet and charming and reveal it as macabre. In this case, it's a lovely little wetlands-restoration. As the book progresses, the premise gets less and less believable, but it remains fun due to the author's always-wonderful ensemble. Milo, in particular, really shines in this one, and displays his ongoing evolution.

When I got my Kindle (finally) Bones was the first book I purchased. I have been a fan of this author and have tried to get to all of them. I did enjoy the book, but it did not have the "snap" of the earlier ones. I think what is missing is the multiple plots that were in previous books. While he is working with Milo, Alex always had other psyc cases going and it was intriguing how he would pick up on nuances in speech and body language to interpret what was really behind answers. In my personal life I became aware of how much can be learned by being really observant in this regard. It is almost absent in this book and it makes the story too much a 1 horse show.

Jonathan Kellerman's books have been up and down for me in the last few years. It seems that once Robin left, the storylines left with her.

However, in Bones, Kellerman's newest book, I finally found the "old" Alex. Witty, genuine, interesting. The story of murder of prostitutes and of a music prodigy is the center plot, but for me, what worked best in this novel was the strength of the Alex character (something that had been missing in the last few books) he felt present in this storyline.

Of course, Milo is back and the banter and relationship between these two is always priceless.

The story moves at a rapid pace and was intriguing enough to keep me reading throughout with an ending that was a tad predictable, but nonetheless satisfying.

Finally, Alex is back.

I always look forward to the Alex Delaware novels. I'm glad Robin is back but it hasn't helped the convoluted plot. You would have to believe the premise that the perpetrator(s) started killing people well over a year before killing the intended target to cover their true intentions, and they left a key individual alive at the end which made no sense. A lot of the book didn't ring true. Kellerman has been mediocre in the last few years -- maybe he is just out of creative ideas!

I thought the story really dragged, especially the second half. There was very little action after the first couple chapters and it was hard for me to keep an interest in the story. No surprise at the end! This was my first Jonathan Kellerman book and it may be a while before I read another.

The premise is intriguing, the execution is flat and pedantic. The ending is rushed. The character development is virtually non-existent. The detectives key in on one person way too soon. There aren't any good red herrings. There's no intricacy in the plot. It's basically sophomoric. Alex Delaware is just along for the ride. He says "I don't know" more than I would, and I'm not some hot shot psychologist. The book just isn't any good. Kellerman is riding on his reputation on this one.

Normally when I read a mystery the last 100 pages are the fun. Iwant to see what happened and how it ends. In this case I kept checking to see how many pages I had left. I did not care about the characters. None of them were interesting.

Also I am getting very tired of long descriptions of how much Milo can eat. I will continue to read Jeffrey out of habit but I sure hope the next entry is better.

While each story is different, Kellerman makes the most of limited plots with often too troubled characters, yet his mysteries remain distinctive novel by novel. You don't have to like the characters around the prime actor, but there will be some good and bad and neither leaves you indifferent. I enjoyed Bones and look forward to the next Kellerman novel.

Not finished reading, but enjoying the weaving of Paris pre 1929 crash into a mystery novel. The writing is not sophomoric nor do I need to use the Kindle dictionary to learn new words. Would recommend.

I have always loved Jonathan Kellerman's books since the first one I received as a Christmas gift many years ago, Bad Love, since then I have read almost all of them and then saw I hadn't read this one so I had to read it. Glad I did.

As a Patterson Cornwell Reichs fan, Kellerman characters were interesting and I will try another. I see that many state the 'older' series is better so I look forward to starting the series from the beginning.

Jonathan Kellerman fans will enjoy this book. Packed full of twist and turns, suspense and new characters to enjoy. I'm a die hard Delaware fan and this book takes you on a different kind of adventure with Alex and Milo. A must read for every Kellerman fan!

Combine an unhappy psychologist, a rolie-polie police investigator, urban runaways, wealthy dysfunctional siblings, robot acting students, a festering home boy, fazed girlfriends, a chambermaid ex, pocketbook lawyers, a vexatious psychologist, murders, decapitation, programmed sex, taxidermy, money tree, Los Angeles and a few other disconnected deprecations and you have a pestiferous horizontal story, which looses the readers interest.

I'm the author of the psychological drama KISSING FREUD, the action adventure DUBROVNIK, and the newly published IT'S ALL MAKE BELIEVE, ISN'T IT? *Marilyn Monroe Returns*. You can preview and purchase my books here on the store.com or my secure site at [...]

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Chance is Chance Brandt, a teenager who redefines the word 'obnoxious'. BONES opens with Chance and what an opener it is. After that, things get a little more conventional. The story, ultimately, concerns the death of a family, in multiple senses of that phrase. The form, of course, is police procedural with a dash of psychological thriller, not Greek tragedy, but there is blood enough (as well as bone fragments) for most readers. The linear investigation eventually breaks down and we reach a definitive conclusion that is satisfying if not always completely plausible. The plot is a bit convoluted in the second and third acts as Milo and Alex peel away layers of family history and the list of dramatis personae begins to proliferate. Still, this is a good read and Chance is worth the price of admission. Let's hope he returns in a future book with a more central role. It's interesting that there is an S/M subplot in the novel, since Chance is both a very great pleasure and an enormous pain in the backside. He is the uber-slacker.

The plot of this thriller, the whole thriller actually is seen through the eyes of a psychologist or maybe psychiatrist, or any level in-between, who is associated to a team of criminal investigators. So we always have that distantiation that is typical of the specialists in psychology. The thriller takes a situation that is complex in all possible ways and that mixes various approaches.

On one side a top social family, very rich, but also with a history from little to big, with previous phases of social disparagement (first marriage marked with drug abuse or other psychological disorders) and a daughter from that first marriage that inherits the family history and develops her own handicaps. Then some highly gifted people, a child and an adult, a boy and a woman, in music, those who do not study music but create music, even when five or six. They are in a way explored, but the woman has social problems too and she gets mixed up in some strange sexual activities that will lead her to her own end.

Then we are in Los Angeles and the whole plot revolves around a protected marshy area in the city and the man who is taking care of that protected area. He is a marginal person who can only live on the side of society. He is a political and social misfit in this society and he cannot imagine himself in the main stream of social life. He is in connection with a woman who used to be a university professor and finds herself in her older adulthood also marginalized and making do with it. The psychology of these two people is explored and it shows how they can get involved in criminal activities in a way just when these activities are disguised as socially marginal, and in this case environmentally marginal.

You add to that the exploration of the police force, with a seasoned inspector, a rookie detective and an ex-cop turned private eye, all of them seen through the eyes of the psychologists. You also have the exploration of lawyers, with a do-gooder woman who is more or less taking care of some social cases she defended when she was young, then a law firm in the hands of a completely crooked and berserk lawyer who wants to recuperate the tremendous fortune of the rich family he is managing, and a few other lawyers who are less important, and then you have a microcosm of the American society in its most ugly segments and least savory attitudes and dealings.

Then you just have to add a "natural victim" who was the victim of bullying and social rejection as soon as grade school, thus turned into a "social reject", and you can build a particularly ugly plot. Kellerman makes a pretty good job of it and the slow rhythm represents the psychologist's vision and at the same time the real rhythm or flow of life which can accelerate at times but that is most of the time slow, like in slow motion, pulled back. At times some elements are poignant, particularly at the end. The epiphany of the "social reject" who was used by the murderers as their cover-up scapegoat is refreshing.

Even the worst "social reject" can find an epiphany, even from the police itself, provided the right explanation is given to them, which is of course the difficult condition to fulfill and a condition that the socially rejected person cannot fulfill on his own since he has developed some kind of morbid self-vision if not self-hatred. The most poignant part is of course the retrieval of the very young music-genius who was traumatized by the situation. His salvation is an admirable moment though Kellerman does not go as far as making the salvaged "social reject" meet the retrieved young musician, though he had insisted a couple of times on the privileged communication they had before the drama. Quite a page-turner because of that social content.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU