Jonathan Kellerman continues to amaze, even as he enters the fourth decade of his brilliant writing career. The tip of his literary spear has been his critically acclaimed and commercially successful series featuring Los Angeles consulting psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis. In less capable hands, these novels would almost reflexively lead to formulaic plotting, which Kellerman could probably get away with in a pinch. Happily, he has eschewed that path by changing things up, book by book. Alex may be a passive observer, merely chronicling events, in one, or being a prime mover in another, or a combination of the two in a third. You just never know what you are going to encounter when you start a new Alex Delaware thriller, other than that it will be the latest exhibit of a master craftsman at the top of his game.

"The novel is horrific in parts, heartwarming in others, redemptive in spots, bookended --- twice --- with some neat symmetry, and, when all is said and done, manages at its very end to elicit a heartfelt laugh when the reader needs it the most."

BREAKDOWN is no exception. Alex is very much involved in moving the events of the book along, motivated by a ticking clock that one can hear loud and clear throughout. The story begins with a somewhat bizarre, early-morning vignette involving an obviously disturbed woman digging up a residential garden. The lady, we come to learn, is former TV actress Zelda Chase. She has a connection to Alex; some five years before, when she was at the height of her career, he had performed a psychological evaluation on Ovid, her six-year-old son. Zelda had been involved in an incident markedly similar to the one that opens the book, and there was some concern for her son’s well-being. Everything appeared okay at that time, as far as Ovid was concerned. Zelda recovered from her episode, and life went on. The show was subsequently cancelled, and since that time Zelda apparently has had a long and hard fall from the grace of a television sitcom to the street.

The problem in the present day is that, following her latest arrest, Zelda is not coherent enough to tell anyone where Ovid is. Alex becomes extremely concerned for the child’s well-being, and is more so when Zelda, following her processing and release, is later found dead on the lawn of a palatial Bel-Air estate. He begins retracing the cold, stale trail of the past five years of Zelda’s life, trying to get a clue as to what might have happened to her son, wondering if she was able to make some sort of arrangements for him before her mental state reached the nadir of its decomposition. A surprise revelation, as well as a couple of disappearances that initially appear to be unrelated, puts Alex on the right track.

Of course, Milo is there to help, and brings the might and majesty of the LAPD on board --- officially and otherwise --- to assist. What begins as a sturdy and reliable police procedural becomes at its halfway point as suspenseful a novel as you are likely to read this year, as the life of a young boy hangs in the balance...that is, if he is not dead already.

BREAKDOWN may take just a bit of time to rev up, but about midway through the journey takes what otherwise would be a small bit of information and sets the remainder of the book on its head. The result qualifies, as have many of Kellerman’s more recent efforts, as one of his best to date. The novel is horrific in parts, heartwarming in others, redemptive in spots, bookended --- twice --- with some neat symmetry, and, when all is said and done, manages at its very end to elicit a heartfelt laugh when the reader needs it the most. Kellerman also somehow manages to reveal a new depth to Alex’s compassion and caring, which is not a bad trick at all, after 31 installments of the series. This is a book you should not miss.