Synopsis
Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when she first met Dr. Alex Delaware for treatment of her obsessive-compulsive disorder. Now, at 19, she again turns to the doctor with a plea for help to discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious deathbed confession of a murder that happened sometime in her past. With the help of a detective from the LAPD, the trio sets out to discover the real events that may or may not have transpired, with no clues, witnesses or motive to go on.
Stepping into the sleaziest neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the trail leads them to discover unscrupulous real estate brokers, heroin addicts, and an affluent family that thrives solely on the trust funds from prior generations and the slumlord investments willed to them. * * *
My Two Cents Worth
I finally gave in to the badgering of my bookworm friends to "read a Kellerman." They have raved about his talents for as long as I can remember, so I plucked Obsession from the stack and settled in to see what all the fuss was about.
The result? I agree with them that Kellerman is an exceptional wordsmith - I found myself marking phrases and tagging words that I thought particularly appealing at a rapid pace.
However, the story went nowhere in a hurry.
I read the first 101 pages on the first sitting, set it aside, and felt like giving up on it. There was far too much psycho-babble that had nothing to do with advancing the story line. Nothing had happened so far. An obscure deathbed confession followed by psycho analysis and speculation.
"Let's assume she meant ..." and "What if she meant ..." was all we were subjected to, without any action by the characters to uncover the plot. I was bored.
The efforts to merge the events of the past with the questions of the present to solve the mystery took a back seat to the symptoms and treatment of OCD.
I stopped at page 208 - the beginning of chapter 24. I gave up. I felt the story was just about to get started, but I couldn't force myself to care enough. After 2 1/2 hours I picked up a Dean Koontz, desperate for a story. This is a very rare occurrence for me - happens only about 2-3 times a year.
Paperback
464 pages
2 1/2 hours - did not finish - indifference
Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when she first met Dr. Alex Delaware for treatment of her obsessive-compulsive disorder. Now, at 19, she again turns to the doctor with a plea for help to discover the truth behind her mother's mysterious deathbed confession of a murder that happened sometime in her past. With the help of a detective from the LAPD, the trio sets out to discover the real events that may or may not have transpired, with no clues, witnesses or motive to go on.
Stepping into the sleaziest neighborhoods of Los Angeles, the trail leads them to discover unscrupulous real estate brokers, heroin addicts, and an affluent family that thrives solely on the trust funds from prior generations and the slumlord investments willed to them. * * *
My Two Cents Worth
I finally gave in to the badgering of my bookworm friends to "read a Kellerman." They have raved about his talents for as long as I can remember, so I plucked Obsession from the stack and settled in to see what all the fuss was about.
The result? I agree with them that Kellerman is an exceptional wordsmith - I found myself marking phrases and tagging words that I thought particularly appealing at a rapid pace.
However, the story went nowhere in a hurry.
I read the first 101 pages on the first sitting, set it aside, and felt like giving up on it. There was far too much psycho-babble that had nothing to do with advancing the story line. Nothing had happened so far. An obscure deathbed confession followed by psycho analysis and speculation.
"Let's assume she meant ..." and "What if she meant ..." was all we were subjected to, without any action by the characters to uncover the plot. I was bored.
The efforts to merge the events of the past with the questions of the present to solve the mystery took a back seat to the symptoms and treatment of OCD.
I stopped at page 208 - the beginning of chapter 24. I gave up. I felt the story was just about to get started, but I couldn't force myself to care enough. After 2 1/2 hours I picked up a Dean Koontz, desperate for a story. This is a very rare occurrence for me - happens only about 2-3 times a year.
Paperback
464 pages
2 1/2 hours - did not finish - indifference
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