Private Eyes (Alex Delaware Series #6) » (Abridged)

Child psychologist-turned-novelist Jonathan Kellerman uses his knowledge of the psyche's weaknesses to create chilling crime novels, many starring detective (and former child psychologist, natch) Alex Delaware and cop friend Milo Sturgis.

The voice belongs to a woman, but Dr. Alex Delaware remembers a little girl. It is eleven years since seven-years-old Melissa Dickinson dialed a hospital help line for comfort--and found it in therapy with Alex Delaware. Now the lovely young heiress is desperately calling for psychologist's help once more. Only this time it looks like Melissa's deepest childhood nightmare is really coming true ... Twenty years ago, Gina Dickinson, Melissa's mother, suffered a grisly assault that left the budding actress irreparably scarred and emotionally crippled. Now her acid-wielding assailant is out of prison and back in L.A.--and Melissa is terrified that the monster has returned to hurt Gina again. But before Alex Delaware can even begin to soothe his former patient's fears, Gina, a recluse for twenty, disappears. And now, unless Delaware turns crack detective to uncover the truth, Gina Dickinson will be just one more victim of a cold fury that has already spawned ...

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

But my goodness! What a very dry meal of cliche without cream or sugar Mr. Kellerman does serve up in the process. His psychobabbly dialogue has the pace of a 78 r.p.m. record played at 33. There isn't a setting in the book that isn't overdescribed or a character who isn't overdetailed. . . maybe the point of "Private Eyes" is simply to entertain? Well, if the mere unscrambling of a complicated scramble is to your taste, then this novel is a multi-course banquet. -- New York Times