Breakdown

February 8, 2016
In the backstory of bestseller Kellerman's unconvincing 31st novel featuring L.A. psychologist and crime-solver Alex Delaware (after 2015's Motive), psychiatrist Lou Sherman asks Alex to meet five-year-old Ovid Chase, whose mother, Zelda Chase, a TV sitcom actress, is a patient. Lou wants an assessment to evaluate the effect of Zelda's psychosis on her son. After spending time with Ovid during each of the five days Zelda lives at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Alex judges the boy to be well-adjusted. Five years later, after Lou's death, Alex's brief connection with the Chase family leads the authorities to alert him that Zelda has been arrested for trespassing and taken to a clinic for treatment. When Alex visits her, the mentally unstable Zelda can tell him nothing about Ovid, whose whereabouts and wellbeing are unknown. Alex searches for the boy with the help of his LAPD friend, Milo Sturgis, and eventually winds up investigating multiple murders. A far-fetched storyline, one-dimensional characters, and the choice to delay the mention of any crime make this one of the weaker entries in this popular series.

When Dr. Alex Delaware jumps out of a case involving an actress and her young son, he thinks it's finished. But several years later, it pops up again--and turns into a full-blown investigation. Narrator John Rubinstein guides listeners through a tapestry of characters as the story moves through its twists and turns. After many years of narrating Kellerman's series, Rubinstein fluidly provides different voices for every single character, minor and major. He singlehandedly keeps a complicated plot from getting out of hand, while making every step of Delaware's fact-finding journey more interesting. M.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine