Helpful Score: 6
This book was an interesting experience. I am accustomed to the Alex Delaware series, which I do not adore, but find to be interesting enough to read at about one a year. This is a bit different, but you can certainly tell it's still Jonathan Kellerman at the helm.
Here we have a hospital staff psychologist, Jeremy Carrier, somewhat of a loner, whose hot girlfriend nurse is killed. Of course, suspicion falls on Dr. Carrier, and a big clod of a police detective makes no bones about his suspicions.
Then, slowly, carefully, things begin to happen. Jeremy is befriended for no apparent reason by an elderly retired pathologist who still works part-time. Anonymous medical journal articles and old news clippings start appearing in his interoffice mail. He's invited to a sedately bizarre dinner with a small club of elderly, highly intelligent, very successful retirees. Never do we know why this is happening or even exactly what is happening.
It's all very mysterious--as befits a mystery, eh?
Other reviewers mostly used the word "slow" to describe the plot. A few perhaps pace-sensing-challenged reviewers said it went really fast. Fast like a lightning-fast turtle, maybe; not much faster. (It's a testament to Kellerman's talent that he can make a turtle's pace seem fast to some.)
Stick with it. All will be revealed. Well, almost all. I never did really understand why the person who was behind all the anonymous tips felt it necessary to slowly lead Dr. Carrier to the solution of the mystery rather than just calling the police and telling them. While the good-guy mastermind was messing with Dr. Carrier's mind, a couple of extra people were killed by the bad guy, which seemed to go unnoticed in the explanations at the end.
Anyway, if you're a Kellerman junkie, read this, but know going in that it will be different, it will be slow, and it will be a bit frustrating and puzzling. But it will be rewarding.
Here we have a hospital staff psychologist, Jeremy Carrier, somewhat of a loner, whose hot girlfriend nurse is killed. Of course, suspicion falls on Dr. Carrier, and a big clod of a police detective makes no bones about his suspicions.
Then, slowly, carefully, things begin to happen. Jeremy is befriended for no apparent reason by an elderly retired pathologist who still works part-time. Anonymous medical journal articles and old news clippings start appearing in his interoffice mail. He's invited to a sedately bizarre dinner with a small club of elderly, highly intelligent, very successful retirees. Never do we know why this is happening or even exactly what is happening.
It's all very mysterious--as befits a mystery, eh?
Other reviewers mostly used the word "slow" to describe the plot. A few perhaps pace-sensing-challenged reviewers said it went really fast. Fast like a lightning-fast turtle, maybe; not much faster. (It's a testament to Kellerman's talent that he can make a turtle's pace seem fast to some.)
Stick with it. All will be revealed. Well, almost all. I never did really understand why the person who was behind all the anonymous tips felt it necessary to slowly lead Dr. Carrier to the solution of the mystery rather than just calling the police and telling them. While the good-guy mastermind was messing with Dr. Carrier's mind, a couple of extra people were killed by the bad guy, which seemed to go unnoticed in the explanations at the end.
Anyway, if you're a Kellerman junkie, read this, but know going in that it will be different, it will be slow, and it will be a bit frustrating and puzzling. But it will be rewarding.
Helpful Score: 4
Anyone who has read one of Johathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware mysteries knows a treat is in store between the pages of any novel bearing his name. In The Conspiracy Club we are introduced to another doctor, Jeremy Carrier. Unlike Delaware, Carrier is a loner who seems to work 'against' the police rather than with them; and in this novel more than any of his other books I've read there is an almost ploding pace established from chapter one. On I read, frequently muttering "Let's get on with it!", and yet on I read...Kellerman is such a masterful writer that one can hardly put him down, whatever the pace. And of course, in the end he does not disappoint. I've not offered any details of the story, have I? I don't plan to. This is a book one should go into without even reading the back cover...let Kellerman weave his cloth around you, let the details come at you at HIS pace, and (in my humble opinion) enjoy this book all the more. A very satisfying read.
Helpful Score: 3
This excellent book introduces a new, young psychologist, Dr. Jeremy Carrier. (One of the few Kellerman books that does not use Alex Delaware) Dr. Carrier had a brief affair with a nurse, Jocelyn Banks, which ended abruptly by her kidnapping and subsequent murder. The boyfriend is always the first suspect! This is true for Carrier When another woman is murdered in a similar fashion, the police detective again looks at Carrier. During the investigation an eccentric physician, Dr. Arthur Chess, takes an interest in Carrier. He invites him to a late-night supper attended by four other guests, all of whom have mysterious backgrounds. Carrier gets the impression that he is there to be observed and evaluated. Following the supper a series of strange messages and seemingly unconnected articles begin arriving for Carrier on the hospital message system. Carrier is a empathetic psychologist, a master at sharing emotion with his patients, but he is no detective; however, to clear himself of suspicion before the true murderer strikes another woman close to him, he must solve the crime. Kellerman, a master of suspence, has done it again. We will surely see Dr. Carrier in future Kelleman novels.
Helpful Score: 3
This book was an interesting experience. I am accustomed to the Alex Delaware series, which I do not adore, but find to be interesting enough to read at about one a year. This is a bit different, but you can certainly tell it's still Jonathan Kellerman at the helm.
Here we have a hospital staff psychologist, Jeremy Carrier, somewhat of a loner, whose hot girlfriend nurse is killed. Of course, suspicion falls on Dr. Carrier, and a big clod of a police detective makes no bones about his suspicions.
Then, slowly, carefully, things begin to happen. Jeremy is befriended for no apparent reason by an elderly retired pathologist who still works part-time. Anonymous medical journal articles and old news clippings start appearing in his interoffice mail. He's invited to a sedately bizarre dinner with a small club of elderly, highly intelligent, very successful retirees. Never do we know why this is happening or even exactly what is happening.
It's all very mysterious--as befits a mystery, eh?
Other reviewers mostly used the word "slow" to describe the plot. A few perhaps pace-sensing-challenged reviewers said it went really fast. Fast like a lightning-fast turtle, maybe; not much faster. (It's a testament to Kellerman's talent that he can make a turtle's pace seem fast to some.)
Stick with it. All will be revealed. Well, almost all. I never did really understand why the person who was behind all the anonymous tips felt it necessary to slowly lead Dr. Carrier to the solution of the mystery rather than just calling the police and telling them. While the good-guy mastermind was messing with Dr. Carrier's mind, a couple of extra people were killed by the bad guy, which seemed to go unnoticed in the explanations at the end.
Anyway, if you're a Kellerman junkie, read this, but know going in that it will be different, it will be slow, and it will be a bit frustrating and puzzling. But it will be rewarding.
Here we have a hospital staff psychologist, Jeremy Carrier, somewhat of a loner, whose hot girlfriend nurse is killed. Of course, suspicion falls on Dr. Carrier, and a big clod of a police detective makes no bones about his suspicions.
Then, slowly, carefully, things begin to happen. Jeremy is befriended for no apparent reason by an elderly retired pathologist who still works part-time. Anonymous medical journal articles and old news clippings start appearing in his interoffice mail. He's invited to a sedately bizarre dinner with a small club of elderly, highly intelligent, very successful retirees. Never do we know why this is happening or even exactly what is happening.
It's all very mysterious--as befits a mystery, eh?
Other reviewers mostly used the word "slow" to describe the plot. A few perhaps pace-sensing-challenged reviewers said it went really fast. Fast like a lightning-fast turtle, maybe; not much faster. (It's a testament to Kellerman's talent that he can make a turtle's pace seem fast to some.)
Stick with it. All will be revealed. Well, almost all. I never did really understand why the person who was behind all the anonymous tips felt it necessary to slowly lead Dr. Carrier to the solution of the mystery rather than just calling the police and telling them. While the good-guy mastermind was messing with Dr. Carrier's mind, a couple of extra people were killed by the bad guy, which seemed to go unnoticed in the explanations at the end.
Anyway, if you're a Kellerman junkie, read this, but know going in that it will be different, it will be slow, and it will be a bit frustrating and puzzling. But it will be rewarding.
Helpful Score: 2
A psychologist at City Central Hospital, Jeremy Carrier, is attempting to put his life back together after the brutal murder of his girlfriend, Jocelyn, when he is approached by elderly Dr. Arthur Chess with an offer of friendship. Jeremy, still too traumatized by Jocelyn's death to attempt even the most casual of relationships, initially rejects Chess's solicitation. After further conversation, he accepts an invitation to an elegant dinner at a very private club with Chess and five other older men and women of high intellectual and social rank, all of whom have an extreme interest in crime and the nature of evil. Just as a halting, tentative rapport with fellow doctor Angela Rios begins to develop, Jeremy receives the first in a series of mysterious, anonymous messages. By piecing these messages together with other clues from Dr. Chess, he comes to understand that someone is trying to point him toward the killer of his beloved Jocelyn and a number of other local women.
