Jonathan Kellerman: When the Bough Breaks

In the first in a series, a child psychologist who may hold the key to solving everything:

Rerited (in his 30s) Child Psychologist Alex Delaware was enjoying his retirement, when he receives a knock on his door from Det. Milo Sturgis who needs Alex's help. Alex retired early and he grapples with the decision to help him, but if there is a child involved Alex knows he cannot say no. Melody Quinn, is a girl that has not had a great life and seems to be over medicated if you ask Alex, but now she is a possible witness to a murder and Alex needs to help find what is buried in her mind to solve the case. But there are those who want to keep what Melody saw buried and will stop at nothing to achieve that and other sinister secrets that have been hidden for over 40 years. Alex finds himself danger but there is no way he would turn his back on a little girl who needs his help.

This is the first book that I have read by Kellerman and it is an older one as it was published in 1985, but might as well start a series at the beginning. The question for this book is really does it stand the test of time which can be hard for crime books as technology changes. For the most part I will say that it does. Alex Delaware does investigative work and that is what I want in a crime book. I want him to follow his gut, the evidence that he is able to uncover. I don't need all the fancy gadgets to do this or get things done on brain power. Now there are things that didn't age as well but it was mainly technology based, like only having a land line and answering machine but those are minor things and don't take away from the story as a whole. Just reminds us how overly connected we are now.

I liked Alex as a main character. He is living his life in retirement but even though he seems to be enjoying it at the beginning you can tell that he is missing something in his life. I think that is why he agrees to help Milo pretty quickly without much convincing. It felt like was coming out of his shell in the book and becoming a different person, or the person he should be with the investigative side of thing. Things get a bit dark for him at times in the book especially nearing the end, but I think he makes the right choices

This book was ahead of its time when Kellerman decided that his main secondary character  is black gay detective. I don’t think this was heard of at this time in mainstream fiction and I applaud Kellerman for taking this route. I also like Milo as a character, he is dedicated to his job but also who he is as a person and he does not apologize for it.

I was able to figure out what was going on fairly early into the book but I enjoyed seeing how Kellerman put everything together. So maybe not as twisted as a crime book as I have read now a days with the advancement of technology but there is enough there to keep me interested and wanting read on in the series.

If you are looking for a crime series that is older and lots of books to keep you busy, then I suggest you check this one out.

Enjoy!!!

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