Jonathan Kellerman doesn't dissappoint with Night Moves., it's darn good read from a favorite author.

Another excellent book by Mr Kellerman. His books always keep me anticipating the next step! Night Moves is no exception, I read it in one night and couldn't put it down!

Another great Delaware book. Unlike other authors of recurring characters, Kellerman manages to keep you engaged with Alex and Milo.

Jonathan Kellerman does not disappoint with his new thriller Night Moves! Definitely a great read that keeps you guessing until the end. Kellerman's amazing writing and plot will dazzle all fans of this thrilling series. All newcomers to the series can jump right in since this can be read as a stand-alone.

Ouch. NOT my favorite in the Alex Delaware series. As with all of the books in this series, they can easily be read as a standalone and this was no different.

Alex is brought in, as per usual, to consult on a case with his best friend Lt Milo Sturgis. A somewhat dismembered body is found in a home office and the home owners have no clue who he is. The dynamic of the family is super off and something just doesn't sit right with either Milo or Alex. When Chet, the homeowner, is also soon found dead, in a seedy no tell motel, the case takes some crazy twists and turns.

I love Jonathan Kellerman as an author, I love this series, I love Alex and Milo. I did not love this book. I could not connect with this story line or even the characters, to save my life. I even checked to see if he wrote this one with another author. Nothing felt like it usually does. I'm not tossing him aside, I'm looking forward to the next one, but whew, this one just didn't do it for me.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Random house for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2338434966

As has been the case in the last several Jonathan Kellerman novels, much of this book is talking. There just is not enough suspense to keep me on the edge of my seat, unlike his earlier novels. Am thinking Alex and Milo are tired.

Though not so different than other books in this series, the story was well worth the read. It moved at a steady pace, letting you know the details as Delaware and Sturgis discovered them, but putting in enough twists to catch you off-guard and lead you astray. Appearances can be so deceiving!

Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis are once again working together to solve a murder mystery (or a few) with psychological insight, wit and perseverance. Night Moves begins with a very unusual homicide that spirals into many different directions. Night Moves is like unpealing an onion...each layer brings a new twist and a new adventure. I didn’t want to put it down once I started. Very enjoyable. Jonathan Kellerman is outstanding once again. By the way, I’ve already bought the book and read it again!

NIGHT MOVES: An Alex Delaware Novel
Jonathan Kellerman
Ballantine Books
ISBN
Hardcover
Mystery

I have told you this before, and I will tell you now. Jonathan Kellerman continues to amaze, to dazzle, to delight and to entertain. There are few authors who can make new readers of their work so immediately comfortable with their characters as can Kellerman. Alex Delaware, a child and forensic psychologist, is an eye of sanity in the maelstrom of contemporary Los Angeles, and has been so for the thirty-plus years existence of the series. He has in the course of the books assisted in murder investigations at the request of his good friend, LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis, a droll but extremely sharp investigator and interrogator. While Delaware is ostensibly compensated for his time, one takes the sense that he would do what he does for the police for free, and, indeed, he occasionally interjects himself into the proceedings in a manner above and beyond the call of duty. This brings us to the newly published NIGHT MOVES, which continues Kellerman’s practice of making his latest books one of his best.

Kellerman wastes little time in immersing his readers and characters into the heart of the story. It begins with Kellerman, at Sturgis’ request, accompanying his friend to a single-family home in a upscale neighborhood. They discover a corpse within, whose face has been obliterated by a shotgun blast and whose hands have been removed. Care has obviously been taken to keep the police or anyone else from determining the identity of the deceased. The homeowners profess to have no idea as well. Something about them is way off, however. The Corvin Family, consisting of Chet and Felice, as well as an adolescent daughter and son are frighteningly dysfunctional. Think of the Al and Peg Bundy family, but without the charm, warmth, love, and mutual respect. Chet’s aggressive cheerfulness and concrete certainty about everything that passes within his notice is particularly aggravating and wearing, not only upon his family but also upon Sturgis and Delaware. He of course has no idea why anyone would dump a mutilated corpse in his home office but he wants Delaware and Sturgis to figure out the who and the why, if not necessarily the how. Sturgis, with some invaluable help from Delaware, manages to figure out all three, as well as a couple of southern California cold cases and a subsequent murder or two as well. It makes for a plot which eventually becomes complex, but never boring or obtuse. Kellerman’s utilization of the ever-expanding and always changing greater Los Angeles area as a carousel of backdrops is worth the price of NIGHT MOVES and each and every book in the series which has preceded it as well.
Oh, and in the course of one of the many memorable vignettes in NIGHT MOVES an improbable story is told about an incident in a San Francisco strip club involving a dancer and a piano. I said “improbable” but it’s one hundred percent real world true.

NIGHT MOVES is simply the best. As with its predecessors, it is narrated in Delaware’s somewhat world-weary but cautiously optimistic voice filtered through Kellerman’s straightforward, workman-like, and always perfect prose. Pay your hard earned money for some worthwhile entertainment and read NIGHT MOVES. You won’t be disappointed. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Having read most of Jonathan Kellerman’s previous work, I enjoyed reacquainting myself with the Alex Delaware – Milo Sturgis investigative team. One a psychologist, the other a police detective, the two very different men have developed the ability to get the most out of their collaborative efforts along with a long-standing friendship. The case they tackled this time was complex and challenging – complete with an unidentifiable victim, brutal murders, false leads, unclear motives, and more. The intricate plot made for an interesting mystery, however it was not as fast-paced and polished as other books in the Alex Delaware series. Nonetheless, I enjoyed following the duo as they unraveled the solution to yet another crime.

A thrilling read that will have you guessing all the way until the end. Milo pulls Alex into a mysterious case that brings out more questions than answers. After coming home from a dinner a family finds a body in their study. The biggest problem for Milo is figuring out who the dead man is, you see the body is unidentifiable. When they figure out who he is they can find no connections between him and the Corvin's. Things are getting stale when Mr. Corvin ends up dead and the investigation into his death ensues. Are the murders connected in any way? Who could the killer be, the weird neighbor, a stranger? Is there more than one killer? Follow along as Milo and Alex try to figure out just that and why. Each new book just adds to this authors sensational collection of work. I can't wait to see where he takes us next.

Milo and Alex are back in a twisty and compelling tale.

The body was found in a quiet suburban Pacific Palisades neighborhood with its head disfigured by a shotgun blast and its hands removed. The residents, a family of four, claim to not know the victim. When Milo feels a strange vibe within the family, he calls on clinical psychologist, Alex Delaware, to informally evaluate them. After meeting the overbearing salesman father, the overprotective mother, the athletic son and possibly autistic daughter; Alex agrees that something is simmering just under the surface.

I loved this twisty tale. People that I pinned as the murderer came up dead. Motives were shuffled multiple times as I tried to solve the crimes before Alex and Milo. The ending totally blindsided me though looking back I could clearly see the red herrings and clues that I failed to identify correctly. The last few books in this series have been rather lackluster but Night Moves is one of the best! Highly recommended for series fans and also anyone wanting a good challenging mystery to solve from their armchair. 5 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Tidy murder mystery with perennial favorites Alex Delaware and his sidekick, Milo Sturgis. Originally these stories focused on children because Alex was a child psychologist. After 32 books, the duo engages with a wider range of cases and the series benefits from the expansion in topics. Author Kellerman writes Everyman tales, recognizable for their touchstone qualities of normalcy until they aren’t. Once they veer off into craziness, the shift is quite jarring. The reader is left wondering why it wasn’t obvious all along. Solving the puzzle of human behavior gone wrong is the appeal of this series and this tale is a one more very good addition to the group. Fans won’t be disappointed. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I'm a fan of Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware books and always look forward to new ones. I think this is one of his best. It captured my attention from page one and had me guessing throughout the book has he tossed in one red herring after another. The characters are realistic and believable, the storyline twisted and intriguing. I love Kellerman's use of descriptive phrases - like when he described seeing glimpses of Lake Arrowhead through the trees as "loose sapphires in a green velvet box". Pure poetry tossed off as an aside in the narrative.

This is one I'll be recommending to my friends. Great entertainment and another winner for Jonathan Kellerman.

A lengthy read that kept my attention....most of the time. There were some parts where I wondered when the interaction with a potential suspect was going to get anywhere! I was particularly annoyed with a part, near the beginning of the book, when a character wasn't supposed to stand out....it seemed the author was literally accomplishing this by describing each and every thing as plain or like every normal thing....just no interesting visual imagery, at all. As the story proressed, characters became complex, especially mentally, with resuts ranging from comedy to tragedy. This might make an intersting movie!

Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman was another wonderful ride with Dr Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis. I loved the twistedness of the plot with the intricacies of people, mysteries and secrets. I think this plot in Night Moves might have been more intricate than usual, but it really kept me on edge. The edge might have been sharper as well, because my time read this week was more limited that usual.

Milo gets a new case and with cases that are unusual, he calls in Dr Alex Delaware to help him figure out the ins and outs. Interestingly a dead body shows up in a study. The man had no hands and his face had been destroyed by a shooting. Interestingly, as much as the the homeowner is a jerk, he does not know anything about the dead man in his house. From here we are brought on a ride with several false leads and multiple theories and few ideas about who did it.

I think I love these books so much, because of the characters; I am worried about how much Milo is eating. I am always interested in who they tap for help and how their logic moves them from one place to another.

Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman is a great read!

This is a stripped-down Alex Delaware mystery with few sideplots. It's mostly Alex and Milo, Robin plays only a minor part, but some of Milo's colleagues get some pages--not enough to make it a credible procedural, but at least he isn't police detective in a vacuum as in some other recent novels. Milo's eating has broadened into caricature, something I feel clashes with the ugly violence and deep pathologies of the crimes. There isn't any reference to multi-book plot threads that have made some books seem like episodes in a soap opera that has run too long.

The psychology of the crimes is surprising but satisfying, believable in retrospect and accounting for the details. It's not as dramatic as in the best Delaware books, but it's more chilling than nearly any other author can produce.

On the negative side, this story does not play by mystery rules. Too much of the solution comes to light in the last few pages, and is merely explained rather than revealed naturally by events.

Overall, this is a pretty good entry in the Alex Delaware series, much better than the worst of the last few years, but significantly less good than the best books in this series. Of course, even a subpar Kellerman is better than most other authors. The book works best as a psychological thriller, not so well as a mystery.

This is the thirty-third in the Alex Delaware (child psychologist) series! Alex gets a jingle late one evening from his old police buddy, LAPD Detective Milo Sturgis, and off he goes on another head-scratcher in the burbs. The victim will not be easy to identify as he's been dumped in the family home of Chet Corvin and the Corvin's have absolutely no clue who he might be. The victim's hands have been removed and he was shot in the face leaving little with which to identify.

Dr. Delaware appears as an observer most of the time, while Milo plows ahead with questions and theories--and the man can come up with a boat-load of theories. Dr. D employs his educated opinions and the two spark off each other as they develop one lead after the other, albeit not at a blazing pace.

I was struck early in the book by how much the dialogue reminded me of the old Dragnet series, hearing the voices of Webb's Joe Friday and Morgan's Bill Gannon. As the plot progressed and the characters deepen, the comfortable exchange becomes complete conversations, familiar sparring between men, respect just under the surface. Descriptions of characters often include personal details such as weight, tattoos, or clothing down to the labels. There are LOL flashes of humor and a significantly unique writing style.

As the plot progresses, red herrings appear often. The climax doesn't come suddenly but is dribbled out. While the narrative doesn't have you hanging on the edge of your seat or reading until the sun breaks the horizon, it is still a compelling read--and the characters take center stage in this one. I downloaded a copy of the uncorrected ebook from Ballantine Books and NetGalley and can recommend as a thriller, crime, and murder mystery you'll enjoy and look for more.

I have read every one of Jonathan Kellerman’s books and I can not wait to see what he writes next. He consistently turns in great books. He is always a must read

Jonathan Kellerman has written more than 30 Alex Delaware thrillers. Night Moves, the latest in the series, (Random House, 2018) is vintage Delaware. With characters so familiar to readers that each has his own biography and fan base, Alex and Lieutenant Milo Sturgis are once again on the trail of an ephemeral murderer, one whose MO is shotgun and band saw. Identification is not easy, nor is the actual crime scene obvious. Add a completely dysfunctional family and no apparent motive, and Alex and Milo are left to concoct a series of scenarios, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, none of which appear to bring the perpetrator closer to justice.

A second murder does little to clarify matters. In fact, the waters are if anything, murkier than ever. Who is the target? What do the victims have in common besides the obvious? Serious detective work is called for, but never to the extent that they interfere with Milo’s gustatory habits.

Solid police work, nosy, reclusive and sometimes helpful neighbors finally develop enough information for Alex to begin to see a more clear picture and to develop a profile of the killer that he and Milo can pursue. Kellerman’s skill is such that no reader will solve the mystery before it’s time to reveal the killer and the motive. Like the real-life psychologist that he is, he brings the reader toward a conclusion slowly, bit by bit, emulating his fictional alter-ego.

Night Moves is an altogether enjoyable read, another in a long string of sure hits for Kellerman. Any review would be incomplete, however, without quoting a few of the more poetic lines he has penned into this one:

“A starless sky sagged like a rain-soaked tarp, a malnourished moon cast anemic light.”

“The flame turned into sprinkles of earthbound stars plummeting to the ground.” (tossing a lit match away)

“Tattoos ran up his neck, flirting with his carotid.”

Kellerman devotees may not be surprised with his use of imagery, but occasional readers will undoubtedly be.