Self-Defense (Alex Delaware)
by Jonathan Kellerman
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jonathan KellermanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-10-01
ISBN: 0345458834
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product features:
- The New York Times Bestseller
- Author of The Murder Book
Book Reviews of Self-Defense (Alex Delaware)
Book Review: Ambling Thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
Psychologist Alex Delaware takes on a new patient when a policeman friend refers him to a young woman who served on the jury of a serial murderer's trial. Lucy Lowell has been having a recurring dream wherein she is four years old, in the woods, watching three men carry a young woman who appears to be sleeping. When Lucy also starts sleepwalking, she goes to visit Dr. Delaware, who begins investigating the events in the dream.
Lucy's father is M. Bayard Lowell, a celebrated author turned recluse when his well of talent dried up. Once, his books were required reading in high schools, but his last published piece was a critically savaged flop. He found a patron and started an artists and writers' retreat called Sanctum, where the spirit of free love reigned supreme in the 1970s. Now, it is rundown and all but abandoned, and the once Great Man is a shriveled, incontinent cripple. Lucy denies ever having been to Sanctum, but her older half brother Ken remembers a summer when all four of Lowell's children from both of his marriages were there.
Dr. Delaware starts investigating missing young women from the same summer Lucy was at Sanctum and uncovers one missing Karen Best, who had been working as a waitress at a restaurant only a few miles from Sanctum. Delaware realizes he's raising old ghosts from his investigation and a lot more than one body has piled up over the years. People disappear when they get involved in the disappearance of Karen Best. Dr. Delaware uncovers an intricate web of betrayal and deceit that could very well take him down with it.
Though it moved at a methodical, plodding pace, the story was intriguing enough to hold my interest. I wanted to know what happened to Karen Best. In the end, her disappearance wound up having unexpected circumstances that got a bit muddled in the convoluted ending. Another detraction was the smug arrogance of Dr. Delaware, who apparently believes he alone knows how Lucy should deal with the hand life dealt her, and her only way of going on is under his care. He also seems rather offhand with the woman in his own life and their dog, which did not make me warm to him any further. It is, however, possible to ignore these details, and some prefer a slow-paced mystery to savor. I could be persuaded to read another Alex Delaware novel, but I won't strain myself to do so.
Summary of Self-Defense (Alex Delaware)
Dr. Alex Delaware doesn t see many private patients anymore, but the young woman called Lucy is an exception. So is her dream. Lucy Lowell is referred to Alex by Los Angeles police detective Milo Sturgis. A juror at the agonizing trial of a serial killer, Lucy survived the trauma only to be tormented by a recurring nightmare: a young child in the forest at night, watching a strange and furtive act.Now Lucy s dream is starting to disrupt her waking life, and Alex is concerned. The power of the dream, its grip on Lucy s emotions, suggests to him that it may be more than a nightmare. It may be the repressed childhood memory of something very real. Something like murder.
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