Survival of the fittest : [an Alex Delaware novel

Amazon.com Review Legendary L.A. psychologist-turned-novelist Kellerman raids real life when inventing the adventures of his psychologist sleuth, Dr. Alex Delaware, and some of the scariest parts of Survival of the Fittest are historical. Eugenicists lurk behind a murder spree Alex must solve, and he notes that the eugenics movement involved one elite U.S. college professor who advocated castration of ethnically lesser men, a forced sterilization ordered by Supreme Court Justice Holmes that Hitler used as a precedent to sterilize millions, and the pre-Holocaust coinage of the phrase ''final solution.'' Besides a truly horrifying theme, Survival of the Fittest boasts sharp but not arch dialogue; savvy psychological insights into stressed-out cops, suicides' loved ones, and malevolent therapists; and a sense of place so vivid that the Los Angeles Times has rated Kellerman the most evocative L.A. author since Raymond Chandler. The plot's as twisty as a canyon road, and it's great fun to ride along with Dr. Alex and his sidekick, the burly, gay LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, as they dodge large red herrings and strive to find out why mildly handicapped kids are suffering ''gentle strangulation'' by killers who sign their handiwork with the mysterious letters DVLL , and what the devil this has to do with the high-IQ group Meta. Bonus for Kellerman fans: his Israeli serial killer catcher, Daniel Sharavi, star of his 1988 bestseller The Butcher's Theater , joins the sleuth team. But in the gory finale, Dr. Alex faces absolute evil all alone. --Tim Appelo From Library Journal Readers will find this latest installment in the Alex Delaware series (e.g., The Clinic, LJ 10/15/96) entertaining despite the author's tendency to overdescribe settings at the expense of character development. The psychologist again helps his friend, detective Milo Sturgis, solve a cold case: a deaf and mildly retarded Israeli girl, the daughter of a diplomat, is strangled in a park, and the letters ''D-V-L-L'' are found on a scrap of paper in her pocket. Authorities have failed to come up with a suspect or any leads, so the victim's father brings in a detective of his own, the great Daniel Sharavi, from Kellerman's The Butcher's Theater (Bantam, 1988). Over 200 pages later, Delaware finally goes undercover to infiltrate a sinister MENSA-like organization, and the ends of this plot, filled with psychopathic cops and pseudo-scientific racists, are (too neatly) tied up. Despite the book's flaws, Kellerman fans and readers seeking an intelligent thriller should enjoy this. Recommended for all public libraries.?Laurel A. Wilson, Alexandrian P.L, Mount Vernon, Ind. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this follow-up to the New York Times bestseller THE CLINIC, Jonathan Kellerman proves that he is one of crime fiction's hottest authors. Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware confronts a killer who takes as much pleasure in matching wits with the police as in robbing human life. A diplomat's retarded daughter is murdered on a school field trip. The girl's father denies the possibility of a political motive, leaving LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his longtime friend Alex Delaware stymied. When another killing occurs, Alex finds himself ensnared in one of the most menacing cases of his career. The psychologist ultimately goes undercover to expose the smug brutality of a deadly conspiracy in Jonathan Kellerman's chilling portrait of evil.

Publishers Weekly

Why is it so hard to put down a Kellerman thriller, even though they're strewn with red herrings, the coincidences demand grand suspensions of disbelief and the main characters, psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware; his lover, Robin; his best friend, gay L.A. detective Milo Sturgis, are so predictable? It's simple: the nonstop action leaves you breathless; the plot twists keep you guessing; the themes (eugenics, this time) are provocative. Milo asks Alex to help solve the murder of Irit Carmeli, the deaf, slightly retarded teenaged daughter of an Israeli diplomat. They identify three similar cases in which retarded or handicapped victims are found with the enigmatic legend "DVLL" written near the body. Meanwhile, Alex counsels Helena Dahl, whose brother, a cop, may have been involved with Meta, an organization whose members have high IQs, just before he killed himself. When Alex and Milo discover a link between "DVLL" and neo-fascist Meta in the alleged suicide of a genius scientist, the "DVLL" and Dahl cases entwine. The coincidence is quite a stretch; but by the time it unfolds, readers are hooked enough to accept it, just as they're likely not to question Alex's going undercover for the police. As an added bonus, Israeli detective Daniel Sharavi, the astute protagonist of Kellerman's non-Delaware mystery (The Butcher's Theater, 1988), returns as a valuable partner in this typically complicated, exciting Kellerman page-turner.

In this riveting follow-up to the "New York Times" best-selling "The Clinic, " psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware confronts an almost unimaginably cruel, arrogant, and obsessed killer who takes as much pleasure in matching wits with the police as in robbing human life--all in the name of science.The nightmare started with a single crime: the murder of 15-year-old Irit Carmeli, the daughter of the Israeli consul in Los Angeles. But within days it had become one of the darkest, most menacing cases of Alex Delaware's career: three young people dead with no apparent motive, and the only trait linking them is the fact that each has a disability. Driven to find the answers, Alex will work closely with his longtime friend Milo Sturgis of the LAPD, but with Inspector Daniel Shavari, the brilliant Israeli detective who solved the serial murders in Kellerman's best-selling novel, "The Butcher's Theater." In the end, though, it is Alex who will go undercover to expose the smug brutality of self-styled elite who will justify their bloody deeds by any means. "Survival of the Fittest" is Kellerman's most provocative and disturbing novel yet. In portraying the chilling consequences of pseudo-science he shows yet again why he has been called "crime fiction's hottest author." " FEVERISH IN PACE AND RICH IN CHARACTERS . . . THIS IS A CHILLING AND IRRESISTIBLE THRILLER." - "People" The daughter of a diplomat disappears on a school field trip- lured into the Santa Monica mountains and killed in cold blood. Her father denies the possibility of a political motive. There are no signs of struggle, no evidence of sexual assault, leaving psychologist Alex Delaware and his friend LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis to pose the disturbing question: "Why"? Working together with Daniel Sharavi, a brilliant Israeli police inspector, Delaware and Sturgis soon find themselves ensnared in one of the darkest, most menacing cases of their careers. And when death strikes again, it is Alex who must go undercover, alone, to expose an unthinkable conspiracy of self-righteous brutality and total contempt for human life Psychologist Alex Delaware joins forces with LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and Israeli inspector Daniel Sharavi to solve a series of killings in which the victims--including the Israeli consul's teenage daughter--are linked only by the fact that each had a disability Brass stars with celebrities'ames were inlaid in the sidewalk but the stars of the night were toxin merchants, strong-arm specialists, and fifteen-year-olds running from family values turned vicious.