Jonathan Kellerman
2 total works
Psychologist Dr Alex Delaware has always looked on Melissa Dickinson as one of his greatest triumphs. A terrified, tormented seven-year-old when she first appeared in his Los Angeles surgery, Melissa after two years seemed totally recovered. But nine years later Melissa contacts Alex again, anxious this time for her mother. As Alex recalls, weatlthy widow Gina Dickinson has problems of her own. For two decades she has hidden herself away from the eyes of the world - ever since a vicious acid attack destroyed the face of Hollywood actress Gina Prince. Then the reclusive Gina climbs into her car - and totally disappears. And as Alex and Detective Milo Sturgis lead the search for her, they find their quest taking them out of the here and now and into a grotesque, labyrinthine private history as violent and sinister as any bad dream...How well did Alex ever understand his star patient Melissa? How could he have 'cured' her when he never even guessed at the evil and hatred that formed her inheritance?
Child psychologist Dr Alex Delaware returns after five years to Los Angeles' Western Pediatrics Hospital, called in by a former colleague to help with the case of twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones. The little girl is persistently, terrifyingly ill, and nobody can explain why. Her doctor, Stephanie Eves, has finally come to suspect the unthinkable - that Cassie's own mother is deliberately trying to make her own child sick. But Stephanie needs an independent assessment of the Jones family, for Cassie Jones is none other than the granddaughter of the Chairman of the Board. Teaming up once again with his old friend Detective Milo Sturgis, Alex starts to investigate Western Pediatric's First Family, but rapidly uncovers layer after layer of high-level corruption and intrigue concerning the hospital itself. Added to which are the brutal killings of two members of the staff. Most importantly, Alex must find the answers to some intensely private questions about the workings of one family, with all its intimate deceits and murderous hatreds. For at any given time, young Cassie Jones could be back at Western Pediatrics fighting for her life..