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Monster (An Alex Delaware Novel)
by Jonathan Kellerman
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Ballantine Books (2000-09-05)
ISBN: 0345413873
EAN: 9780345413871
Dewey Decimal #: 813.54
Binding/Media: Mass Market Paperback - 416 pages
Release Date: 2000-09-05
SKU: 70915756
Condition: Used: Like New
Comments: Sold with pride. Gently read copy in like new condition.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A second-rate actor is found mutilated in a car trunk. Then a psychologist at a Los Angeles hospital for the criminally insane is murdered in a similar grisly fashion. Suddenly the incoherent ramblings of an inmate at the presumably secure institution begin to make chilling sense--they are, in fact, horrifying predictions. Yet how can a barely functional psychotic locked behind asylum walls possibly know such vivid details of crimes committed in the outside world? Drawn into a labyrinth of secrets, revenge, sex, and manipulation, Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis set out to unlock this enigma and put an end to the brutal killings--before the madman predicts their own demise. . . .
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Amazon.com Review
Consulting psychologist Alex Delaware has a novel approach to crime-solving: he uses his training to unlock the secrets in the minds of the victims and jiggles the clues he finds there until the right scenario emerges. So when Alex's LAPD buddy Milo finds the hacked-up body of a woman psychologist named Claire Argent in an abandoned car trunk--the second such murder in eight months--Alex heads for her place of employment: the Starkweather State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. One of Argent's patients at Starkweather is Ardis "Monster" Peake, imprisoned for the unbelievably brutal murders of his mother and the family she worked for, including a small child and a baby. There's at least one eerie similarity between the mutilation of their bodies and Argent's: in all the bodies, the eyes were taken or destroyed. But Peake, diagnosed as schizophrenic and psychotic, is a well-behaved vegetable due to a steady diet of Thorazine, and he hasn't left the hospital since his incarceration 15 years before. How is it, then, that Claire Argent's assistant, Heidi Ott, swears she heard Peake say, "Dr. A. Bad eyes in a box" soon after he hears only the bare fact of her death? And why does Alex find Peake so empathetic, in spite of his violent past and chillingly vacant mind? When other mutilated bodies turn up, Alex and Milo begin to suspect that the real monster is very much at large. Like Kellerman's 12 previous Alex Delaware mysteries, Monster builds to a big, teeth-clenching bang and ends with some very satisfying surprises. --Barrie Trinkle
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Customer Reviews
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Predictions
Rating  (3)
Date: 2009-09-05
A madman institutionalized in a secured hospital for the criminally insane is predicting the most gruesome murders. The horror of it is that these heinous murders are taking place. Alex Delaware is called to find out how this man can predict these crimes. Milo Sturgis and Alex work against time to stop the monstrous slayings. Beware this is a book that will keep you up at night. Read at your own risk. By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River."
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Powerful
Rating  (4)
Date: 2009-08-24
It may take 8-9 chapters to get into this book, but then it gets rolling, with just about as much gore and blood as one can take. There are probably more twists and turns than any book I have ever read. And just when you think all is figured out and the story comes to a close, you are thrown another curve, that is just amazing. One of the best Kellerman books I have read even though it was a bit shaky in the beginning. Gonna be haunted by this one for a long, long time. You may think you know how to figure this one out, but be careful, because I was sure, only to be fooled in the end. Still love the Delaware and Milo characters. They get along so well and the dialogue between them lends a tad of humor. This one is a sicky.
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Good ride
Rating (4)
Date: 2009-06-19
I plowed through this book in 3 days because I couldn't put it down. Kellerman is a master storyteller. He doesn't disappoint with this novel--creepy, gruesome, and a lot of twists and turns. Alex Delaware at his finest.
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Disappointment
Rating  (1)
Date: 2009-03-18
I have read most of Kellerman's books and enjoyed them. This book is non-stop gore. Do you enjoy children being slashed to death? Do you enjoy young women having their eyes gouged out? I can't believe he wrote it, it is so unlike any of his other books. I hope he never writes a book like it again.
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A slow-moving Delaware novel
Rating  (2)
Date: 2008-12-29
I've read most of the Alex Delaware novels, but it's been awhile since I've done it. Unfortuneately, I was disappointed by Monster. I generally like Milo's and Alex's adventures, but this one just didn't seem to get its foot until halfway through the book. I felt confident Kellerman would tie all the loose ends and story threads together by the end of the book, but it took too long for things to start to come together and then it all came in a rush that seemed to require some fairly big logic jumps.
The story also did nothing to advance the characters. So you could safely skip the Delaware novel and not miss anything in an otherwise great series.
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