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


From Publishers Weekly
In top form in his latest mystery featuring L.A. forensic psychologist Alex Delaware (who had a bit part in the author's previous novel, Billy Straight), Kellerman devises a deviously twisted, contemporary tale that draws pulsing suspense from the ageless relationship between madness and evil. Delaware teams up with his pal Milo Sturgis, of LAPD Homicide, to track the murderer of Claire Argent, a young doctor who worked at Starkweather Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Argent's badly mutilated body connects her death to the unsolved murder of a young, aspiring actor whose body had been sawed in half. Kellerman masterfully strews the trail of the investigation with crumbs, challenging his heroes (and readers) to distinguish promising clues from red herrings. Argent, who recently left a prime research job to work at Starkweather, led an extremely isolated life that had nothing in common with that of the murdered actor. The Starkweather staff is reticent and unhelpful until a young aide reveals that the doctor had been spending time with an inmate known as the Monster, a mentally deficient man who had been convicted of murdering and mutilating a young family 15 years earlier. Kellerman focuses on Delaware and Sturgis as they probe the hospital's milieu, the Monster's crime, the doctor's troubled and puzzling history and additional murders. A tense climax in the hills above L.A. brings together all the tautly woven threads as Kellerman delivers another chilling look into the dark corners of the human psyche. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and Mystery Guild main selections. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Yet more madmen: When a psychotic at the Starkweather Hospital for the Criminally Insane starts predicting murders, Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis must turn to him for clues. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
...a gory thriller of surprising psychological substance.


From AudioFile
Kellerman has written a series of psycho-horror stories featuring shrink Alec Delaware and his friend, Detective Milo Sturgis. Here the two try to solve a series of grisly killings predicted by a confined mass murderer who himself has butchered an entire family. But did he? Rubinstein wisely doesn't overdramatize the narrative and reads both investigators in a normal tone-two voices of reason in a sea of insanity. His portrayals of minor characters-a gibbering inmate and a grossly overweight man-are wonderful. Well-timed pauses and sentence fragments heighten tension, which builds to a scary climax. The abridgment makes perfect sense. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
A psychologist hunts the killer of a psychologist when Dr. Alex Delaware returns after a hiatus that perhaps should have extended beyond one book (Billy Straight, 1999). It's just that Alex seems so detached now, so distanced. Oh, sure, when LAPD Det. Milo Sturgis summons him, he responds the way a good consulting psychologist should, but gone is that joy of sleuthing once his hallmark (The Clinic, 1997, etc.). On the one hand, who could love visiting the Starkweather State Hospital for the Criminally Insane? On the other, reclusive, self- involved Dr. Claire Argent was a Starkweather staff psychologist until someone slit her throat and cut her eyes out, so it's there, Sturgis feels, the investigation should begin. Not that he likes any of the inmates for his perp. They all have ironclad alibis, since what Starkweather is famous for is secure incarceration. Once inmates get locked up, locked up they stay, and it happens that Dr. Argent was nowhere near the hospital when she met her gory end. Okay, but how, Alex wonders, do you ignore mass murderer Ardis Peake? A nonfunctional psychotic who almost never leaves his room, almost never speaks, but who has, in fact, suddenly spoken: ``Dr. A. Bad eyes in a boxwords supposedly muttered the day before Claire Argent was mutilated. Moreover, Alex discovers, there were connections between monstrous Ardis and quiet Claire that go way back. And so, ... la Ross Macdonald, the search is launched, and like Lew Archer and a bevy of wannabes, Alex finds his new mysteries shrouded by old ones. Because he's so much the observer here, Alex amounts to a nonplayer. And no one else in the cast has substance enough to make a long book seem shorter. (Literary Guild Main/Mystery Guild Selection) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
“[A] SURPRISING AND COMPLEX STORY OF EVIL . . . STUNNINGLY DRAMATIC.”
—People (Page-turner of the Week)

“UNSETTLING AND THRILLING . . . RIGHT FROM THE START OF MONSTER, JONATHAN KELLERMAN DOES EVERYTHING RIGHT.”
—The Baltimore Sun

“KELLERMAN DELIVERS . . . GET READY TO SLEEP WITH THE LIGHTS ON. . . . GET READY TO BE HORRIFIED . . . AND PERVERSELY INTRIGUED.”
—Rocky Mountain News

“Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller.”
—People

“Riveting . . . Kellerman’s latest shiver-producing, hair-raising, shocking, suspenseful thriller [is] definitely his best yet. . . . The tension is palpable, the plot filled with devilish convolutions, and the sense of impending danger heart-stoppingly tense. . . . Dr. Alex Delaware is at his brilliantly analytical zenith.”
—Booklist (starred and boxed review)

Kellerman “has shaped the psychological mystery novel into an art form.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Often, mystery writers can either plot like devils or create believable characters. Kellerman stands out because he can do both. Masterfully.”
—USA Today

“Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.”
—Detroit Free Press

“In top form in his latest mystery featuring L.A. forensic psychologist Alex Delaware, Kellerman devises a deviously twisted, contemporary tale that draws pulsing suspense from the ageless relationship between madness and evil. . . . A tense climax in the hills above L.A. brings together all the tautly woven threads as Kellerman delivers another chilling look into the dark corners of the human psyche.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Nobody evokes Los Angeles better than Kellerman.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Monster, a furiously paced mind-bender, contains enough mystery to hold readers spellbound.”
—BookPage

“Kellerman is an ace at spinning a story that holds the reader’s interest, plausible but unpredictable until the final page.”
—The Denver Post

“Recommended . . . Intelligent, well-drawn characters and the kind of plot twists that make the best mysteries fun to read.”
—Library Journal



Review
?[A] SURPRISING AND COMPLEX STORY OF EVIL . . . STUNNINGLY DRAMATIC.?
?People (Page-turner of the Week)

?UNSETTLING AND THRILLING . . . RIGHT FROM THE START OF MONSTER, JONATHAN KELLERMAN DOES EVERYTHING RIGHT.?
?The Baltimore Sun

?KELLERMAN DELIVERS . . . GET READY TO SLEEP WITH THE LIGHTS ON. . . . GET READY TO BE HORRIFIED . . . AND PERVERSELY INTRIGUED.?
?Rocky Mountain News

?Jonathan Kellerman has justly earned his reputation as a master of the psychological thriller.?
?People

?Riveting . . . Kellerman?s latest shiver-producing, hair-raising, shocking, suspenseful thriller [is] definitely his best yet. . . . The tension is palpable, the plot filled with devilish convolutions, and the sense of impending danger heart-stoppingly tense. . . . Dr. Alex Delaware is at his brilliantly analytical zenith.?
?Booklist (starred and boxed review)

Kellerman ?has shaped the psychological mystery novel into an art form.?
?Los Angeles Times Book Review

?Often, mystery writers can either plot like devils or create believable characters. Kellerman stands out because he can do both. Masterfully.?
?USA Today

?Kellerman doesn?t just write psychological thrillers?he owns the genre.?
?Detroit Free Press

?In top form in his latest mystery featuring L.A. forensic psychologist Alex Delaware, Kellerman devises a deviously twisted, contemporary tale that draws pulsing suspense from the ageless relationship between madness and evil. . . . A tense climax in the hills above L.A. brings together all the tautly woven threads as Kellerman delivers another chilling look into the dark corners of the human psyche.?
?Publishers Weekly (starred review)

?Nobody evokes Los Angeles better than Kellerman.?
?Los Angeles Times

?Monster, a furiously paced mind-bender, contains enough mystery to hold readers spellbound.?
?BookPage

?Kellerman is an ace at spinning a story that holds the reader?s interest, plausible but unpredictable until the final page.?
?The Denver Post

?Recommended . . . Intelligent, well-drawn characters and the kind of plot twists that make the best mysteries fun to read.?
?Library Journal



Book 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. . . .




From the Inside Flap
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. . . .

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
In 1998, Jonathan Kellerman took a brief detour from the main line of his career and published an excellent, non-series novel called Billy Straight. This month, he returns to familiar fictional territory with Monster, his 15th novel in 15 years and the 13th to feature child psychologist Alex Delaware.

Delaware, who first appeared in 1984's Edgar Award-winning When the Bough Breaks, has, over time, become more and more disengaged from his primary profession. These days, he offers counseling and therapy to a limited number of individuals (one of whom is that eponymous runaway Billy Straight), and continues to serve as an expert witness in child custody cases. Mostly, though, his time and energy are taken up by his role as consulting psychologist to the Los Angeles Police Department. By now, he has virtually been partnered with the LAPD's controversial, openly gay homicide detective, Milo Sturgis.

In Monster, Milo solicits Alex's help on a brutal, particularly frustrating case. Claire Argent, a 39-year-old psychologist, has been murdered, mutilated, and dumped in the trunk of her Buick Regal. There were no witnesses to the killing, and there are currently no suspects. In the months prior to her death, Claire had worked at the aptly named Starkweather Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Attempts to connect Claire's murder to her place of employment prove futile for a couple of reasons. First, her death occurred in the "outside world," beyond the reach of Starkweather's inmates. Second, her death bore striking similarities to an earlier murder, which was manifestly unconnected to Starkweather Hospital and its inhabitants.

Just as Milo and Alex turn their attention away from Starkweather, an inexplicable event takes place. Heidi Ott, a staff technician and former associate of Claire Argent's, recounts a bizarre "conversation" with imprisoned mass murderer Ardis Peake, a man who was nicknamed "Monster" by the tabloid press and who had been a particular source of interest to Claire Argent. According to Heidi Ott, Ardis, who is severely schizophrenic, has recently spoken for the first time in years, uttering cryptic phrases that seem to allude both to Claire's murder and to the subsequent murders of a pair of homeless derelicts. In the face of this questionable "evidence," Starkweather Hospital once again becomes the focus of intense police scrutiny.

Ultimately, in a manner deliberately reminiscent of classic psychoanalysis, Alex finds the answers to a complex puzzle in the distant, unresolved past. In Claire Argent's case, the past contains a traumatic secret: an act of family violence that provides essential clues to her character, her aspirations, her intense fascination with Ardis Peake, and his homicidal history. Ardis, of course, is inextricably bound to his own past, to a single night of violence in which he earned his nickname by butchering an entire family. As Alex investigates that long-forgotten massacre, he begins to discern the outline of another, hidden figure, a figure who may have played a role in those earlier killings, and who just might provide the link between past and present events. The search for that elusive figure eventually becomes the dramatic centerpiece of this intricately constructed novel.

Monster, incidentally, is dedicated "To the Memory of Kenneth Millar," who was better known to mystery readers as Ross Macdonald, creator of the classic Lew Archer series, books which were themselves heavily influenced by psychoanalysis, and in which the unresolved past invariably leaves its mark on the present. In his own, very different fashion, Kellerman takes the Macdonald tradition and carries it forward, giving us, in Monster, an absorbing mystery that has much to say about the human capacity for cruelty, and about the fundamental importance of discovering -- and confronting -- the demons of the past.

As always, Kellerman brings his own clinical experience to bear on the subject at hand, and the result -- in addition to its many other virtues -- is a compelling portrait of the harsh realities of mental illness. The scenes in Starkweather Hospital -- with its sad, shuffling population of damaged, overmedicated zombies -- are simultaneously moving and frightening. Through an uncommon combination of empathy and narrative expertise, Kellerman shows us the visible face of madness, and it's not a pretty sight. But it is a powerful one, and it gives this book an added dimension, a level of reality that very few novels -- in or out of the mystery genre -- ever manage to achieve.

--Bill Sheehan

FROM THE PUBLISHER

How can a nonfunctional psychotic locked up in a supposedly secure institution for homicidal madmen predict brutal murders in the outside world? This is the enigma that Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis must penetrate in order to stop these horrific killings. First, a marginal actor is found dead in a car trunk, sawn in half. Months later, a psychologist at Starkweather Hospital for the Criminally Insane is discovered murdered and mutilated in a tantalizingly similar way. Dr. Claire Argent had been working caringly with Ardis Peake, a subnormal mental patient locked up for decades after annihilating his mother and the ranching family that rescued him from homelessness. When reports of Peake's incoherent rambling begin to make frightening sense as predictions of yet more murders, Alex and Milo are drawn into a web of family secrets, vengeance, and manipulation--both inside Starkweather and on the L.A. streets, where death, drugs, and sex are marketed as commodities. The climactic discovery they make as they race to save new victims gives fresh and terrifying meaning to the concept of true monstrosity.

SYNOPSIS

Alex Delaware is back!—with a riveting and devilishly ingenious story about an asylum inmate who seems able to predict grisly slayings in the outside world.

FROM THE CRITICS

Pam Lambert - People

Monsteris a surprising and complex story of festering evil...a tale that snakes its way to a stunningly dramatic conclusion.

Rocky Mountain News

Kellerman delivers....Get ready to sleep with the lights on....Get ready to be horrified...and perversely intrigued.

Baltimore Sun

Unsettling and thrilling...Right from the start of Monster, Jonathan Kellerman does everything right.

Publishers Weekly

In top form in his latest mystery featuring L.A. forensic psychologist Alex Delaware (who had a bit part in the author's previous novel, Billy Straight), Kellerman devises a deviously twisted, contemporary tale that draws pulsing suspense from the ageless relationship between madness and evil. Delaware teams up with his pal Milo Sturgis, of LAPD Homicide, to track the murderer of Claire Argent, a young doctor who worked at Starkweather Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Argent's badly mutilated body connects her death to the unsolved murder of a young, aspiring actor whose body had been sawed in half. Kellerman masterfully strews the trail of the investigation with crumbs, challenging his heroes (and readers) to distinguish promising clues from red herrings. Argent, who recently left a prime research job to work at Starkweather, led an extremely isolated life that had nothing in common with that of the murdered actor. The Starkweather staff is reticent and unhelpful until a young aide reveals that the doctor had been spending time with an inmate known as the Monster, a mentally deficient man who had been convicted of murdering and mutilating a young family 15 years earlier. Kellerman focuses on Delaware and Sturgis as they probe the hospital's milieu, the Monster's crime, the doctor's troubled and puzzling history and additional murders. A tense climax in the hills above L.A. brings together all the tautly woven threads as Kellerman delivers another chilling look into the dark corners of the human psyche. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal