When the Bough Breaks (novel)

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When The Bough Breaks
Author Jonathan Kellerman
Country United States
Language English
Series Alex Delaware novels
Genre(s) Mystery
Publisher Random House
Publication date 1985 (1st edition)
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 432 pp (Hardcover 1st edition)
ISBN ISBN 0-345-46660-8 (Hardcover 1st edition)
Followed by Blood Test

When The Bough Breaks is a mystery novel by Jonathan Kellerman. It is the first novel in the Alex Delaware series.

[edit] Plot introduction

Dr. Morton Hander practiced a strange brand of psychiatry. Among his specialties were fraud, extortion and sexual manipulation. Hander paid for his sins when he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old Melody Quinn.

It's psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex discovers that the mystery touches a shocking incident in his own past. And behind it lies an unspeakable evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it claims another innocent victim.

[edit] Characters in "When The Bough Breaks"

  • Alex Delaware - Psychologist
  • Milo Sturgis - Police detective
  • Dr. Morton Hander - Psychiatrist and murder victim
  • Melody Quinn - Delaware's patient and murder witness