Mega-best-selling Kellerman delivers another psychological suspense
tale starring shrink hero Alex Delaware. While the Delaware novels are
wildly popular, this one, at least, gets by only on plot. The
characters are sketchily drawn, except for Delaware's new dog, who
receives far more intensive (and ridiculous) development than any human
in the book. Kellerman also takes the shortcut of having his characters
deliver plot details and provide background motivations in artificial
dialogue that should have been left to an omniscient narrator. But
Kellerman does have a strong plot going for him (once we've waded
through excessive descriptions of meals and interiors). The story
centers on a young woman, whom Delaware treated as a child and who
returns to tell the psychologist of the deathbed confession of her aunt
and adopted mother--a woman whom Alex remembers as a heroically capable
mother and nurse. The recently deceased woman allegedly told her niece
that she had killed someone.
