Thursday, April 05, 2007

Obsession


Special thanks to Cheeseburger for the birthday gift I received last week (even though my birthday is still three weeks away). Oddly, I had just ordered several books from Amazon.com and asked for them to be shipped to my work address. So when Chicken told me a package from Amazon was waiting for me on my front porch, I was all, "WTF, Amazon?" Turns out it wasn't one of the books I ordered after all.

OBSESSION is the latest Alex Delaware thriller from author Jonathan Kellerman. Delaware is a crime-fighting, ass-kicking child psychologist (!) who has starred in at least a dozen whodunits, usually slightly kinky, but rarely more outrageous than your standard made-for-TV movie. This time, Delaware is approached by a teenage woman whom he treated briefly when she was a child. Her mother, a registered nurse who was something of a saint to those around her, has died of a terminal illness, and made a vague deathbed confession to her daughter that she may have murdered someone. So she asks Dr. Delaware, who has become somewhat famous in the Los Angeles area for solving murders, to look into it, which he does, along with his best pal, the gruff but gay homicide detective Milo Sturgis.

I blazed through OBSESSION in less than three days (yes, I see the irony), which is not as difficult as it sounds. Kellerman's novels read like screenplays, heavy on dialogue and plot twists, light on overly florid descriptions, with lots of one- or two-sentence paragraphs. I'm actually surprised no film producer has ever attempted a series of Delaware movies. I read several years ago that some company had purchased the rights to do some mysteries for television, but that never panned out. I usually picture Alec Baldwin as Delaware; he would have been perfect as a big-screen Delaware. Maybe John Larroquette for TV. Back then, that is; I don't know who I would cast now.

6 comments:

katie said...

i ordered it before it came out. so you got the book before it was in some stores. i couldn't wait til your birthday. man - all you do is complain. ha ha. glad you enjoyed it. can't wait to read it. see you tomorrow for grindhouse. yay

Anonymous said...

OK, so explain to us out here in Blogland -- where does the Cheeseburger nickname come from?

JC

Marty McKee said...

Cheeseburger is "katie" who is right above you. Let's give her a chance to reply first. One hint: it's from one of your favorite movies, DRIVE.

katie said...

it's stupid and mckee gave it to me. it's because i'm from nebraska and there is a line from Drive (1997) that anyone from nebraska is a cheeseburger and they clog your hearts or something like that. somehow it has stuck with me. can't find the exact quote. ask mckee who tater is.

Marty McKee said...

What is the line? Kadeem Hardison calls his ex-wife's boyfriend something like a "Grade-A, heart-cloggin' Nebraska cheeseburger." I think it's only in the Director's Cut. She was here when we ran it on a Crappy Movie Night...it may have been the first time she ever attended. So, she became Cheeseburger. Best. Nickname. Ever.

Anonymous said...

OK, one mystery revealed.

So, who is Tater?

JC