Bad Love

January 3, 1994
The latest Dr. Alex Delaware novel, after Devil's Waltz , follows the child psychologist on an intricately plotted, murder-strewn course that started 20 years earlier when he was on staff at a Los Angeles children's hospital. Recently, Alex has become the target of ominous threats: weird laughter over the phone, a fish from his pond cruelly skewered, a tape of a child's voice repeating the words ``bad love . '' Initially he ties the threats to his work with two young sisters whose father, in prison for the murder of their mother, is claiming visitation rights. But Alex also remembers the phrase ``bad love'' was used by a child psychiatrist honored at a 1979 symposium he cosponsored at the hospital. A file search by his LAPD pal Milo Sturgis connects the phrase to two LA murders five and three years ago; inquiries by Alex reveal a surprisingly high death rate among speakers at the symposium. After more murders and harsher threats, the trails converge in a confrontation with a psychotic killer. Kellerman constructs his plot as adeptly as Robin Castagna, Alex's live-in lover, builds her prized guitars, but the decades-past motivation, the tangled connections among victims and Alex's peripheral association with the murderer foster a clinical detachment from the story's events. BOMC selection.

October 15, 1993
Spine-chilling screams, followed by a childlike chant that includes the words "bad love, bad love," appear on a tape sent anonymously to Alex Delaware, the financially independent, Los Angeles-based child psychologist and amateur sleuth who has starred in seven previous Kellerman novels, beginning with When the Bough Breaks ( LJ 3/1/85). Delaware's pal, LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, recalls that recently a man shouted "bad love" after killing his therapist in a clinic. After some research, the psychologist remembers that he was coerced into serving as cochair of a less-than-successful 1979 conference honoring analyst Andres de Bosch, who espoused a theory of maternal good love/bad love. Starting from these seemingly unrelated past events, the two men pursue one tenuous lead after another to a surprising conclusion. The prolific best-selling author keeps the reader involved through some rather fantastic plot turns. Delaware fans will be looking for this title. BOMC main selection.-- V. Louise Saylor, Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., Cheney

Copyright 1993 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 1993
The prolific Kellerman is in fine fettle with yet another likely best-seller that's just macabre enough to induce nightmares in the most sensible readers. Kiddie psychologist Alex Delaware receives a terrifying audiotape full of bloodcurdling screams and a disjointed voice chanting, "Bad love, bad love." Alex can't connect the tape with anything, but when he begins to get threatening phone calls, and someone brutally harpoons one of his beloved koi fish, he realizes he could be in danger. With the help of his friend, Detective Milo Sturgis, Delaware begins to unravel the complex, multilayered plot that seems to be linked to a conference he chaired 20 years ago. Delaware finally discovers he's being pursued by a tormented, relentless, deranged killer who'll burn, destroy, and torture to avenge the wrongs he suffered so long ago. As usual, Kellerman combines gripping intensity and taut psychological suspense with plenty of high-powered action, a few doses of graphic violence, and--thank heaven!--the comforting presence of the beloved, sensible, calm Dr. Delaware, who can make all the nightmares go away. Anticipate huge demand for this Book-of-the-Month Club main selection. ((Reviewed Oct. 15, 1993))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1993, American Library Association.)