Breakdown

Zusatztext Praise for Breakdown This is a book you should not miss. . . . A master craftsman at the top of his game . . . one of his best to date. Bookreporter Gripping . . . an exhilarating masterclass in the art of plotting! suspense! characterization and brilliant mind games. Blackpool Gazette Praise for Jonathan Kellerman Jonathan Kellerman's psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix. Los Angeles Times Kellerman doesn't just write psychological thrillershe owns the genre. Detroit Free Press Informationen zum Autor Jonathan Kellerman Klappentext NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The iconic thriller series that inspired the upcoming streaming show on Prime Video , in development now! Jonathan Kellerman's psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix. Los Angeles Times Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets beautiful and emotionally fragile TV actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, Alex is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after Zelda's release, an already sad situation turns tragic when she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Having experienced more than enough of L.A.'s dark side to recognize the scent of evil, Alex turns to his friend LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis for help in finding out who ended Zelda's broken life. At the same time, Alex is caught up in another quest: the search for Zelda's missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror. As Alex struggles to piece together the brief rise and steep fall of a gorgeous, talented actress, he and Milo unveil shattered dreams, the corruption of a family, and a grotesque betrayal of innocence. With each devastating revelation and damning clue, Alex's brilliant mind is challenged as never beforeand his determination grows to see a killer caged and the truth set free. Leseprobe CHAPTER 1 Noise was everywhere. To avoid it, Tina figured you had to die. When she and Harry lived in Manhattan, the nerve-scraping clangor of garbage trucks and delivery vans had served as early-morning alarm clocks. Waking up to the din was jarring and souring for Tina but useful for Harry because he slept like a drunk and had to be on the subway by seven. Here in L.A., nestled in the alleged luxe of upper Bel Air, mornings were quiet. Until they weren't: the house groaning and creaking randomly, scolding reminders that they'd traded New York bedrock for the traitorous sand of earthquake country. Of course, Harry barely noticed. The jolts to Tina's nervous system made her feel like shedding her skin. L.A. evenings were left-coast mellow for him, crushingly still for her. She yearned for the rumble of a late-night bus, the drone of human voices rendered unintelligible at the seventeenth floor, the farting aggression of taxi-horns. Anything to remind her that other people existed beyond the confines of her personal space. After two months of living on a ridge of soft dirt straddling L.A. the thick, almost slimy stillness was threatening to smother her. When the creaks and groans weren't freaking her out. Officially, neighbors existed. The place Harry's firm had leased for them (midcentury delight, in reality a bland ranch house) was bordered by similar structures. But each was vacant due to traveling owners: a wire service editor currently working in Greece, a merry widow enjoying a round-the-world cruise. Tina knew those details because the rental agent had informed her how lucky she was to have peace and quiet. ...

Praise for Breakdown
 
“This is a book you should not miss. . . . A master  craftsman at the top of his game . . . one of his best to date.”—Bookreporter
 
“Gripping . . . an exhilarating masterclass in the art of plotting, suspense, characterization and brilliant mind games.”—Blackpool Gazette

Praise for Jonathan Kellerman
 
“Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“Kellerman doesn’t just write psychological thrillers—he owns the genre.”—Detroit Free Press

Autorentext

Jonathan Kellerman

Klappentext

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The iconic thriller series that inspired the upcoming streaming show on Prime Video, in development now!**

“Jonathan Kellerman’s psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix.”—Los Angeles Times

Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets beautiful and emotionally fragile TV actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, Alex is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after Zelda’s release, an already sad situation turns tragic when she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Having experienced more than enough of L.A.’s dark side to recognize the scent of evil, Alex turns to his friend LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis for help in finding out who ended Zelda’s broken life.

At the same time, Alex is caught up in another quest: the search for Zelda’s missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror.

As Alex struggles to piece together the brief rise and steep fall of a gorgeous, talented actress, he and Milo unveil shattered dreams, the corruption of a family, and a grotesque betrayal of innocence. With each devastating revelation and damning clue, Alex’s brilliant mind is challenged as never before—and his determination grows to see a killer caged and the truth set free.

Leseprobe
CHAPTER 1

Noise was everywhere. To avoid it, Tina figured you had to die.

When she and Harry lived in Manhattan, the nerve-scraping clangor of garbage trucks and delivery vans had served as early-morning alarm clocks. Waking up to the din was jarring and souring for Tina but useful for Harry because he slept like a drunk and had to be on the subway by seven.

Here in L.A., nestled in the alleged luxe of upper Bel Air, mornings were quiet. Until they weren’t: the house groaning and creaking randomly, scolding reminders that they’d traded New York bedrock for the traitorous sand of earthquake country.

Of course, Harry barely noticed. The jolts to Tina’s nervous system made her feel like shedding her skin.

L.A. evenings were “left-coast mellow” for him, crushingly still for her. She yearned for the rumble of a late-night bus, the drone of human voices rendered unintelligible at the seventeenth floor, the farting aggression of taxi-horns.

Anything to remind her that other people existed beyond the confines of her personal space. After two months of living on a ridge of soft dirt straddling L.A. the thick, almost slimy stillness was threatening to smother her.

When the creaks and groans weren’t freaking her out.

Officially, neighbors existed. The place Harry’s firm had leased for them (“midcentury delight,” in reality a bland ranch house) was bordered by similar structures. But each was vacant due to traveling owners: a wire service editor currently working in Greece, a merry widow enjoying a round-the-world cruise.

Tina knew those details because the rental agent had informed her how lucky she was to have peace and quiet.

Quiet could only be peaceful if it wasn’t polluted by loneliness and unpredictability.

Evenings when Harry worked late proved unnerving.

Even when he was home for dinner, there was bedtime to deal with, the dreaded moment when bedroom lamps were switched …