TITLE: Blood Test (Alex Delaware #2)
AUTHOR: Jonathan Kellerman
GENRE: Fiction/Thriller/Suspense/Mystery
PUBLISHED: March 25, 1986
RATING: ★★★★☆
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes
MOBILISM LINK: 24 Alex Delaware novels
Review: It is a case unlike any psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware has ever encountered. Five-year-old Woody Swope is ill, but the real problem is his parents. They refuse to agree to the one treatment that could save this boy's life.
Alex sets out to convince Mr. and Mrs. Swope--only to find that the parents have left the hospital and taken their son with them. Worse, the sleazy motel room where the Swopes were staying is empty--except for the ominous bloodstain. The Swopes and their son have vanished into the sordid shadows of the city.
Now Alex and his friend, homocide detective Milo Sturgis, have no choice but to push the law to the breaking point. They've entered an amoral underworld where drugs, dreams, and sex are all for sale...where fantasies are fulfilled at any price--even at the cost of a young boy's life.
Reading books, especially when in a series that has a long publication history, is a daunting task to try and take in when you know the author is capable of good quality writing. Such as is the case of Jonathan Kellerman. The writing of Mr. Kellerman is enjoyable, his characters are richly developed. Whether they be one off or tightly wound into the plot of his story lines. Blood Test, the second book in his Alex Delaware series proves that When the Bough Breaks was no instant charmer of the moment.
The case of a young boy battling Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma whose parents battle the medical advice of a world renowned cancer doctor with a success rate for childhood cancer remission rates above statistical recorded averages intrigues Dr. Alex Delaware, who has mostly left the medical profession except for a few special cases.
Initially, upon explanation of the boy and his case, Alex, who specializes in Childhood Psychology, figures a quick sit down with the parents might help alleviate their concerns of treatment but when he returns to meet them at the hospital he ends up driving to their hotel after his disturbing disappearance, coming across a dried stain of blood and even more questions about the family as his "Partner in Crime" LAPD Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis gets involved.
The inclusion of Milo in Alex's life is there almost for comedic relief but Milo is a tough guy at heart who considers Alex to be his closest friend even if they live totally separate lives: Alex the semi retired Psychiatrist ready to settle down and start a family, Milo a lion hearted homosexual toeing the tough guy line as a cop. Looking aside the stereotypes you kind of appreciate that as tortured (moderate at best overall) as Alex gets with his life to have a guy's guy gay friend. In explanation of this though, Milo may be gay but he isn't the flamboyant type. He likes sports, drinks heavily as any other guy other than the fact of him being gay and sentimental with his partnership.
As this story builds, I found myself wanting more and more of this story. The premise of a cultish fellowship may seem cliché which it is but you over look it. The shut-in recluse leader who in a past life was a powerful, cut throat divorce attorney who became a prophetic savior after a brush with death. The rebellious sister with anger and curiously unkempt sexual desires. The suspicious but do good-er of a sheriff with secrets. The Canadian Cancer Fellow with oddball holistic medicinal beliefs are the primary characters who keep our attention. Alex though also has to deal with the Psychosis of a delusional father he testified against in a divorce case in the first chapter. At one point escaping gunfire aimed at his house only to find the man dead in a fish pond on his property with a gunshot wound and later discovering that he, himself was the target of not just the father but of the mysterious shooter who mistook the father as Alex (Character descriptions by Kellerman made Alex and the divorced father resemble one another if looked at from behind)
Alex and Milo make great partners. I find them a compromising and equal balance. Because if I had to focus on the personality of Alex, then I think I would find the books a bit off putting. If I wanted to be literal a bit, Milo is like that best friend who is kind of a big brother to Alex but knows Alex can handle himself dutifully and only steps in when he senses his friend may lose the upper hand in the fight and save him by delivering the swift powerful knock to the jaw that puts the bully to his butt.
TO TRUST someone is to take the greatest risk of all. Without trust nothing ever happens.
After finishing this and looking back at the "big reveal" when Alex pieces it all together and spills it to the group is something that you never saw coming but in the end you just might say "I should have seen it coming". This is what makes a good thriller into a great thriller.