The Clinic is billed as a thriller but it is more of a whodunit with zero leads. The characters are sad in the sense that they are just horrible, pathetic people. These people are all believable, as well as the settings that these souls are placed into. This is a very well written book but the reason it only got 3 1/2 stars. The reason for the 3 1/2 stars is because the book just ended leaving the reader wondering, "Okay, now what?" ( )

Good story!
Delaware is really becoming a force in his own right.
Amazingly, it wasn't until page 564 [large type edition] that bougainvillea was mentioned. ( )

Every trigger warning I usually include in my reviews is in this book. It reads like Kellerman wanted this to be a TV series--eighty percent of his books are huge monologues, exposition through speech, character studies through speech; and odd descriptions that didn't evoke in me the emotions they were supposed to. Having a sidekick be gay doesn't absolve a book of homophobia. Milo's regularly described as ugly, and his partner Rick fits the "the hottest guys are always gay" howled by enough straight women for it to be a trope. There's tons of other casual homophobia in this and other books of the series. Casual racism, definitely. Misogyny in heaps. Actors are roundly mocked in this. Nobody's relationships make sense. I have zero clue how Delaware leaps to the conclusions he does. And I devoured this series when I was eighteen! I'm so glad I've changed as a person and a reader over the years.

BDSM is heavily, heavily demonized in this as well. I'm going to sum up this behemoth of a book in fifty words or less, using sex-negative misogynist language Kellerman clearly longed to: "That ball-busting bitch longed to have her smokin' hot grad assistant and boring husband tie her up and rail her. BDSM is so icky and horrid, and feeemmaaallllesss shouldn't be professors. Smart ones clearly hate men and have convoluted, melodramatically tragic backstories. SO GROSS EWWWW." Only Kellerman used far more academic language, and turned it into a poorly-structured mystery. How can a husband go from jealousy to worship of his wife, to being okay with her banging her grad assistant as long as he's involved too? It should go 1. worship 2. jealousy and 3. it turns into attempted sexual humiliation as an outlet, and then he's furious that his wife is super into it.

There's a passage where a mother describes her daughter performing sex acts on men without realizing what she's doing, as the daughter is mentally challenged and has not had any sex ed. Kellerman beats the audience over the head with the portrayal of a mentally challenged teenager. The mother doesn't sound shocked or horrified that her daughter is in these situations with men much older than her, who are manipulating her, at all. The dialogue--almost reads like she's trying not to laugh or something. WRITE THAT SHE'S UPSET, KELLERMAN. Write that she cried a little or something, or was sad! He gives NO clue about characters' emotions, which strengthens my TV series attempt idea. Heaps of characters clutter this book to utter pointlessness most of the time. Kellerman treats genuine tragedies as shock value. What a horrible reading experience. ( )

2001 Santi

She was found stabbed to death on a quiet, shaded street in one of Los Angeles ' safest neighbourhoods. For three months the police have found no clues to the murder of Hope Devane, psychology professor and controversial author of a pop-psych bestseller, and angry indictment of men. Now homicide detective Milo Sturgis, newly assigned to the case, turns to his friend, psychologist Dr Alex Delaware, looking for insights into Devane's life. To both men the cold stalking of Hope Devane suggests calculation fuelled by hate � an execution. They discover why as they unlock, one by one, the very private compartments of her life: her marriage, her shadowy work for a Beverly Hills clinic, the Conduct Committee she ran with an iron hand at the University, and her baffling link to another murder victim. But it is when Alex delves into her childhood that he begins to understand the formidable woman she was – and the ties that entangled her life until the horrifying act of betrayal that ended it.