Over the Edge

by Jonathan Kellerman

Published 23 April 1987
OVER THE EDGE: The case against Jamey Cadmus seems open and shut. Found clutching a bloody knife at the scene of a horrifying double murder, he's a prime suspect in a series of killings that have rocked Los Angeles. Even his lawyer won't do more than plead diminished responsibility. No one - not the police, not the family, not the lawyers - wants Alex Delaware lifting up stones. But under those stones lies something unspeakable. BLOOD TEST: Little Woody Swope was gravely ill. But his parents, members of a bizarre sect, threatened to take him out of hospital. Then Woody was gone. So were the Swopes, leaving their motel suite heavily bloodstained. Enter Alex Delaware, child psychologist, and LA cop Milo Sturgis, who find a heap of suspects - an ageing ex-hippy doctor; a back-country police chief; a male stripper; a flame-haired Lolita with hate in her eyes and larceny in her soul. But the truth was more bizarre than even Alex could have imagined.

Alex Delaware, a child psychologist, is drawn to a case that endangers first his career and then his life.

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.

"A suspenseful thriller whose solution lies in the darker recesses of the human soul." -- "The Wall Street Journal"