Flesh and Blood: A Novel - Hardcover

Kellerman, Jonathan

3.87

10,120 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375431292 ISBN 13: 9780375431296

Publisher: Random House Large Print, 2001

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Perennial bestseller and acknowledged master of the psychological thriller, Jonathan Kellerman has created his most riveting and memorable work to date in the Alex Delaware novel about a troubled and elusive young woman whose brutal murder forces the brilliant psychologist-detective to confront his own fallibility.

Lauren Teague is a beautiful, defiant, borderline-delinquent teenager when her parents bring her to Alex Delaware's office. But for all Alex's skill and effort, Lauren resists—angrily, provocatively. Reluctantly, the psychologist chalks Lauren up as one of the inevitable failures of a challenging profession. But years later, when Alex encounters Lauren as a stag party's featured entertainment, both doctor and patient are sticken with shame. And the ultimate horror takes place when, soon after, Lauren's brutalized corpse is found dumped in an alley. Alex disregards the advice of his trusted friend, LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, and jeopardizes his relationship with longtime lover, Robin Castagna, in order to pursue Lauren's murderer. As he investigates his young patient's troubled past, Alex enters the shadowy worlds of fringe psychological experimentation and the sex industry, and then into mortal danger when lust and big money collide in Southern California.

Jonathan Kellerman's L.A. is evil, seductive, erotic, and unforgiving, and Flesh and Blood is mind-opening in its drama of a driven man's personal quest, breathtaking in its ingenious plot, filled with unforgettable characters, and topped off by a terrifying climax. This is suspense fiction at its finest.

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Review:

Psychologist Alex Delaware hasn't been in private practice for a long time, but when the mother of a former patient calls and asks for his help, he can't turn her down. He couldn't help Lauren Teague when she was alive, but something about his failure with the beautiful, sullen teenager who grew up to be a high-priced call girl won't let him walk away after her bullet-ridden body turns up in an L.A. dumpster. When she wasn't turning tricks, she was a straight-A student; despite his detective pal Milo's demurral, Alex is convinced there's a connection between Lauren's death and another beautiful UCLA psych major who disappeared a year earlier. With his customary skill and compassion, Jonathan Kellerman draws us deep into Lauren's complicated life, from a university campus to a Malibu estate owned by a wealthy publisher of soft-core porn (who bears a distinct resemblance to the pajama-clad mogul who made a small white bunny famous).

Kellerman's last couple of books have been a bit disappointing, but here the bestselling author is writing up to the high standard he set in his earlier ones. With solid plotting, well-realized characterizations, and a strong narrative drive, Flesh and Blood delivers the real goods on every page. --Jane Adams

From the Back Cover:

“[KELLERMAN] HAS SHAPED THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MYSTERY NOVEL INTO AN ART FORM.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review

“VIBRANT . . . [Kellerman] can always be counted on to deliver a smooth and satisfying adventure as he makes his way through the darker sides of Los Angeles.”
–Cleveland Plain Dealer

From the Paperback edition.

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