Member Reviews
With apologies, but I'm finding the copy supplied quite unreadable. It has half sentences and words which appear out of nowhere and are totally unrelated to the text on the page.
I have tried downloading it again, but to no avail.
Such a shame, as I was really looking forward to this one!
I would love to have given a review of this book but unfortunately, the Kindle copy that I was sent was unreadable. A paragraph would break off, often mid-sentence, to be replaced by a different paragraph and then reappear a page or so later. It just didn't make sense. I persevered for six per cent, hoping it would right itself, but I had to give up.
I love Keller an novels, but I just couldn't get into this. It would probably translate better into a movie, but as a book, this one is a bit of a miss.
Very interesting thriller. When a guest at a wedding is murdered, no one knows who the victim is. Warm hearted and easy to like main characters. Spoiler alert, I was disappointed to find the bad guy was someone who hadn’t figured anywhere in the book.
Sadly as others have said, this was impossible to read as it was formatted incorrectly
It’s a shame, as the story seemed to be a good one and I would have liked to finish it.
It's impossible for me to review this book, because, as many others reviewers have said, the paragraphs and sentences were so mixed up and fragmented that it was not possible to read it. How could a publisher send out a copy to be reviewed in this condition? Very disappointing.
A good holiday read. Not the most challenging but certainly easy and enjoyable. I gave it 4/5 on goodreads.
An Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis detective novel
When bridesmaid Leandra goes upstairs to the toilet during the wedding reception of Brearley and Garrett Burdette she makes a gruesome discovery – a very dead girl dressed in a tight red dress and gold killer heal sandals and no identification on her. The LAPD is called in, and Lieutenant Milo Sturgis and LAPD consultant/ psychologist Dr Alex Delaware have to find out who she is and who killed her. It had to be someone at the reception, but everyone at the wedding claims to have never seen her before, and no guest is displaying any undue anxiety. However, psychopaths are better than most at staying calm under pressure.
Most murders lack mystery because they are committed by stupid, impulsive people who make no attempt to conceal. However, when death is preceded by thought, and misdirection detection is called for, and Milo and Alex are very good at detection even though it involves one step forward and ten steps backwards. Detective work is like building a suspension bridge; no matter how precise the engineering or elegant the architecture, nothing matters until the last gap is closed.
I was very excited to get this book to review as Jonathan Kellerman is one of my favourite authors and I have most of his books on my bookshelf. I did, however, find the book a little disappointing and the ending a little flat and that is the reason for the 4 stars instead of 5. If you have never read anything from this author then the book is a great read, however, if you have read most of his books and know his earlier work, then this book is not on par. In his previous work his characters were much more vivid and interesting, and now they are like an old married couple – settled in their stodgy daily routine.
Saphira
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.
Are we really all the way up to book 34 - wow! And still going strong... This time, Alex and Milo are trying to work out what happened to a young woman who was found dead in a toilet cubicle at a wedding. Nobody attending the wedding nor working at the venue recognises the victim, although our dynamic duo suspect people are being a bit economic with the truth.
The rest of what happens to get to the truth follows a similar path to the majority of the series. Milo bimbles around providing the badge to investigate Alex's insights whilst at the same time also providing background that goes a bit more in depth than Alex's googling! But you know what? It may be formulaic but it works, it really does. The series wouldn't have lasted this long if it didn't. The mystery is intriguing and contains several layers for the terrible twosome to peel back to get to the truth. We also have Robin and Blanche providing support to Alex, and the obligatory car journeys, banter, and food stops that make the whole book familiar and cosy. There's also a healthy dollop of red herrings and misdirection along the way which kept me guessing.
We do take a while to get to the bottom of things though and, when we got there, it didn't quite gel. I can't put my finger on it and probably wouldn't be able to mention it even if I could (spoilers) but there was something about the final reveal that didn't seem quite right. Maybe I missed something along the way, not sure. No matter, it was still a good solid read which will keep us fans of the series sated until the next book is due.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.
I am a big fan of this series. I have read most of them and really liked them all. I was not disappointed by this book. I devoured it in one sitting. Reading about Alex and Milo is like catching up with old friends. I liked everything about this book and will probably read it again.
Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.
A Saint and Sinners themed wedding reception at a former strip joint doesn't scream great taste, but who would have though someone would be tacky enough to commit murder?
Psychologist Alex Delaware lends Detective Milo Sturgis a helping hand, which is definitely needed when everyone claims not to know the victim.
As this was book 34 in the series, I was happy to see that you didn't have to know anything in order to enjoy it!
This was a good crime story, with characters from the previous books in the same series making an appearance, and if you like crime novels, you'll enjoy this!
The Wedding Guest is out on 7th February 2019, and will be available on Amazon, and everywhere else you can find books!
I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and Cornerstone Digital (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!
This book gave me a serious case of nostalgia... I started reading Jonathan Kellerman from the very beginning, and this is his 34th book. So I have been reading his stories with Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis all through my life.
The Characters
Alex Delaware was a child psychologist, and Milo Sturgis a gay detective in the 1980s where he had to face opposition and hate from all his colleagues. The author had courage to write stories with darker themes right from the very beginning, and a gay police detective was practically unknown in those times. Hence his books fascinated me.
And this book too had a murder mystery in the upstairs loo of a wedding reception, a converted bar. A woman in red was found garotted along with a cocktail of opioids injected into the base of the brain. And Milo and Alex get to what they do best... Pure investigation.
This could be read as a standalone and it was just as interesting. Jonathan Kellerman stuck to his trademark theme - the dark human psyche. Alex Delaware provided the psychological insight to Milo's investigative deductions.
The thing that niggled me was that the book appeared a bit disjointed in the grand reveal as it didn't go with the flow. I missed the pizzazz of the prose which used to be goose-bumpy.
Overall, a good book for hard-core Jonathan Kellerman fans!!
This book was sadly unreadable like many other reviewers suggest the paragraphs were jumbled and repeated so after a chapter I had to admit defeat and stop reading
I am not sure how Mr Kellerman comes up with such wonderful, exciting story lines, but here there is a murder at a wedding reception. Given that the wedding theme is 'Saints and Sinners' (!), and there are 100 guests, the whole search for the murderer needs all of psychologist Alex Delaware's skills. Having read a few of Mr Kellerman's books there will always be twists, excellent dialogue and bits of humour - he doesn't disappoint. Thus it can only be five stars!
Unfortunately I had to give up on this book at around Chapter six due to the missing lines and repeated paragraphs all over the place . I accept this was possible pre-proof reading , but it should not have been put on line like this . I do not mind minor typo's but this was too much . This was a great shame as I have previously enjoyed this writers work .I have given it one star but expect a proper proofread and sorted copy will be much better.
I have never read any of Jonathan Kellerman’s previous novels but I really liked the blurb and, as it is the 34th book in the Alex Delaware series, I thought I was on to a winner. I surely didn’t have any problems getting into the novel and it read well as a standalone book.
The setting of the crime is at the Saints and Sinners themed wedding party of an unfortunate young just-married couple. One of the bridesmaids stumbles upon a dead body in an upstairs toilet. The victim appears to be unknown to both the families of the bride and the groom and the once joyous wedding is thrown into chaos. The bride is distraught and is convinced it is a hate crime against her. Who is the young lady? Why is she at the wedding? Who put the wire around her throat? It’s the responsibility of top psychologist Alex Delaware and LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis to pool their experience and knowledge to discover the identity of both murder victim and murderer. It’s not going to be easy and a trail of red herrings and blind alleyways stand between the two friends and the unveiling of the truth.
I found the story both disappointing and very slow moving. I almost gave up reading the novel, but I kept expecting the pace to improve and so I kept turning the pages. One thing I can almost guarantee is that the identity of the perpetrator will elude your own predictions. I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Cornerstone Publishing through my membership of NetGalley. These are my own honest and well considered opinions. Unfortunately this book is not to my taste. 2*
Unfortunately I cannot read this book as paragraphs are repeating themselves and it’s all jumbled up. I only got to chapter 3 and couldn’t go any further. Disappointed as I was looking forward to reading it. Hopefully the publisher can sort this out and resend it
In spite of the galley being very poor I managed to work my way through it It’s a good read And a great thriller . Interesting storyline which keeps the reader hooked. I found it unputdownable!!
As Others have commented I have been unable to read this book as the paragraphs are jumbled, split and repeat themselves at various points in the chapter. So disappointed as I was looking forward to reading this book.
The Wedding guest is found dead in the toilets by a bridesmaid wearing a designer dress and shoes but no identification. She hasn't been invited to the wedding and no-one knows who she is. The setting is a former strip club that had been a church and the wedding theme of was Saints and Sinners.
The story is told by Alex Delaware a psychology consultant who tries to solve the murder by getting in to the mind of the killer.
The plot twists and turns and sometimes seems to loose its way but has a good twist at the end.