A decent ending, but it took a lot of effort and patience to get there.

I'm talking about Jonathan Kellerman's Silent Partner.  Part of Kellerman's Alex Delaware series, this book gives Alex one of his biggest challenges yet.

For those who don't know, Alex Delaware is a semi-retired child psychologist.  He frequently is asked to consult on cases being investigated by the LAPD.   In this book, Alex is asked to give his expert opinion regarding a little boy who witnessed a horrible accident that killed his father.

Alex works on this case, while trying not to obsess over the fact that his long-term girlfriend Robin has left him, needing some space and time away from him.

When an invitation arrives to a posh party, honoring Dr. Kruse, the new head of the University's Psychology Department, it's the last place Alex wants to go.  For one, he's not in a partying mood.  But also he hates Dr. Kruse, a man who dedicated the bulk of his career to studying the effects of viewing pornography and defending its use as a legitimate sexual aid. 

But Alex does attend the party, and things will never be the same.  Because at the party he bumps into an ex-girlfriend, Sharon.  Sharon confides in Alex that something is bothering her, and she'd like to discuss it with him.  He agrees to meet with her, then later changes his mind, leaving her a voice mail telling her that he's canceling their date, and closing with a very cold-sounding "Good luck".  The next day, she's dead, an apparent suicide.

Driven by guilt over the canceled date and the cold message, Alex refuses to believe that Sharon would end her own life.  Thus he goes into full-blown investigation mode.  Turning over clues that show he never knew Sharon at all.

That's the set up.  The entire middle of the book is spent chasing one clue after another, digging around Sharon's past, and anyone who ever interacted with her.  The problem is that as Alex digs deeper, more bodies turn up dead, and more questions arise.

Alex's investigation leads him to places he never expected to be - scandalous sex films from years ago, Sharon's creepy college thesis about good twins/evil twins, decades-old illegal abortion rings, corrupt doctors sleeping with their patients, and more.  Much, much more. Basically, the web gets bigger and more tangled with each passing chapter.

I actually found the middle of the book to be a bit too convoluted.  Too many subplots were added, too many weird events were examined, and too many characters were introdcued.  There were lots of jumps in time, and many long passages, such as Sharon's entire thesis, I found myself bored, and anxious for it all to finally come together.

This book also had an overwhelmingly dark, sad feel to it.  So many people whose lives were defined by lies, misery, and abuse.  Even Alex's personal life was bleak, with Robin gone, and Alex not having a clue what he can do to fix things with her.  This was definitely not a feel-good type of story. 

But I will say that eventually everything does come together, in a way that more than satisfies.  This was one of the better endings I've read, in that there were surprises and twists that smacked me upside the head, but that didn't feel contrived or rushed.  In other words, just the right amount of surprise was given so that it was enjoyable, without feeling like I had been tricked. 

Overall, I don't recommend this book.  While the ending was terrific, it took way too much time and effort to get there.  I still think the Alex Delaware series is a good one, but this isn't one of the better books.

Also by Jonathan Kellerman:
Deception
Double Homicide
The Clinic

Recommended: No