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When the Bough Breaks

An Alex Delaware Novel

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When the Bough Breaks

Written by: Jonathan Kellerman
Narrated by: Alexander Adams
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About this listen

In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr. Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.

It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past.

This connection is only the beginning, a single link in a 40-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.

©2003 Jonathan Kellerman (P)2012 Random House Genre Fiction Medical & Forensic Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Scary

What the critics say

"An engrossing thriller.... this knockout of an entertainment is the kind of book which establishes a career in one stroke." ( New York Newsday)
"Suspenseful, neatly spun, fascinating." ( Philadelphia Daily News)
"Grab yourself a copy soon." ( Los Angeles Times)
All stars
Most Relevant
It was interesting to go back to a story written in the 1980's. I found the writing style to be overly descriptive in most respects, not bad but it just took from the flow of the story for me. Narration was excellent, story was good, writing style ok.

Ok read...

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I first came across this book in 1990, after a devastating house fire, and it was one of the first books I purchased, as I had lost all my books in the fire. This book engaged my attention, and I was able to immerse myself in the introduction to Dr. Alex Deleware and Milo Sturgiss. The building of a friendship and intellectual partnership between these two characters fascinated me, and started my many years of following Jonathan Kellerman’s writing. I’ve read this book, and have my own well-thumbed copy in my new library, but I have started enjoying audiobooks, and decided to revisit an old favourite. The narration by Alexander Adams is smooth and well characterized.

It’s interesting rereading a boom first published in 1985. Even though Kellerman is, himself, a child psychologist, the language used to describe mental problems and illness is dated. One of the characters, Dr. Towle, refers to people who he considers to be from poor backgrounds as suffering from “PPP”, “Piss Poor Protoplasm”. However, I enjoyed revisiting this work, and found the look into tomes before home computers, cell phones, and the ubiquitous presence of Googling everything to be a lovely little time capsule.

The subject matter of child abuse and the repercussions is still relevant, and (spoiler) the way Milo deals with a judge involved in the pedophile ring still makes me want to shout, “You go, Milo” and give him a high five.

I recommend this.

The first Alex Delaware novel is still relevant

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Overall the story was pretty good and kept me interested until the end. I will admit at times there were some very cringe inducing moments because of the overall theme of the story and some of the terms used at the time the book was written .

Parts don’t age well

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