From Publishers Weekly
Kellerman bares a dark, brooding side of his appealing series' detective, child psychologist Alex Delaware ( Over the Edge ), in this complex tale of guilt, greed and expiation. Although his beloved girlfriend Robin has left him, to find herself, Delaware decides against seeing former lover Sharon Ransom, when she asks to meet. Stricken with guilt when he reads of her suicide the next day, he is driven to understand the circumstances that led to her death. Delaware traces Sharon's life back through their relationship and into the many versions of her childhood he discovers. As grisly murders accrue, he gradually unknots a tangled skein of pornography, blackmail, corporate megalomania, academic pretension, mistaken identity, multiple births and borderline personalities. Aided by his friend, gay LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, he travels from L.A.'s mansion-strewn hills to its seamy underside, from the countryside west of Claremont to the hi-tech desert abode of a Howard Hughes-like recluse, uncovering a generation-spanning web of deception that leaves Delaware as uncertain of his own worth as he is of others.' Kellerman keeps his labyrinthine plot in hand, peopling it with eccentric, memorable characters. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"A  complex and haunting story of tangled personalities,  deeply buried family secrets, and of violence lying  thinly under the surface ... Hits the reader  right between the eyes." -- Los Angeles  Times Book Review


Review
"A  complex and haunting story of tangled personalities,  deeply buried family secrets, and of violence lying  thinly under the surface ... Hits the reader  right between the eyes." -- Los Angeles  Times Book Review

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The bestselling author of When The Bough Breaks, Blood Test, and Over The Edge delivers the most stunning novel yet and featuring psychologist-detective Dr. Alex Delaware. At a party for a controversial Los Angeles sex therapist, Alex encounters a face from his own past--Sharon Ransom, an exquisite, alluring lover who left him abruptly more than a decade earlier. Sharon now hints that he desperately needs help, but Alex evades her. The next day she is dead, an apparent suicide. Driven by guilt and sadness, Alex plunges into the maze of Sharon's life--a journey that will take him through the pleasure palaces of California's ultra-rich, into the dark closets of a family's disturbing past, and finally into the alleyways of the mind, where childhood terrors still hold sway.

Also available on BDD Audio Cassette.

SYNOPSIS

The bestselling author of When The￯﾿ﾽ￯﾿ﾽBough Breaks, Blood Test,￯﾿ﾽ￯﾿ﾽand Over The Edge delivers the￯﾿ﾽ￯﾿ﾽmost stunning novel yet and featuring￯﾿ﾽ￯﾿ﾽpsychologist-detective Dr. Alex Delaware.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly