The Web: An Alex Delaware Novel

By Jonathan Kellerman

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Victims.

Psychologist-detective Dr. Alex Delaware finds terror in the heart of paradise in this relentlessly sinister novel by America's premier writer of psychological suspense. Three months in paradise, all expenses paid. It's an invitation Alex Delaware can't refuse. Dr. Woodrow Wilson Moreland, a revered scientist and philanthropist on the tiny Pacific island of Aruk, has invited Alex to his home to help him organize his papers for publication--a light workload leaving Alex plenty of time to enjoy a romantic interlude with Robin Castagna.

Quickly, however, secretive houseguests, frightening nocturnal visitors, and the elusive Dr. Moreland himself dim the pleasures of deep blue water and white sand.

The cases Moreland chooses to share--a patient driven to madness by a cruel, unspeakable act; a man who succumbed forty years ago to radiation poisoning after a nuclear blast; a young woman, brutally murdered, whose mutilated body was found on the beach just six months before--seem unconnected. And yet Alex can't help wondering what the good doctor is trying to tell him... and what Moreland's real reason for inviting him to Aruk is.

As Alex probes--with a little long-distance help from his friend LAPD detective Milo Sturgis--he comes to believe the answer lies hidden somewhere on Moreland's vast estate. Yet when he finally discovers the truth, the revelation will be more shocking than he could have imagined. And it will come too late to stem the tide of violence that threatens guilty and innocent alike on the lovely lost island of Aruk.

With his brilliant characterizations and rapid-fire pace, Jonathan Kellerman has redefined the boundaries of suspense, probing real-life horrors and innermost fears in a novel that transfixes from first page to last.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 1, 2003
• ISBN: 9780345463807

Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty bestselling crime novels, including the Alex Delaware series, The Butcher’s Theater, Billy Straight, The Conspiracy Club, Twisted, and True Detectives. With his wife, bestselling novelist Faye Kellerman, he coauthored Double Homicide and Capital Crimes. He is also the author of two children’s books and numerous nonfiction works, including Savage Spawn: Reflections on Violent Children and With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars. He has won the Goldwyn, Edgar, and Anthony awards and has been nominated for a Shamus Award. 

Reviews for The Web

[nicolewbrown · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this tenth Dr. Alex Delaware book, he and Robin leave Los Angles, where his home is still being repaired for an all expenses paid work vacation on the Pacific island of Aruk, by Dr. Woodrow Mooreland, a scientist, and philanthropist who needs help with his many case files to ready them for publication.But things are not as they seem. A couple, one a botanist, the other a meteorologist studying weather patterns in the area are to go on a plane ride over the jungle where no one goes because of the land mines left by the Japanese during World War II. They get in a fight before the flight and he goes alone and the plane crashes into the jungle. The Navy base on the other side of the island, which is blocked off by a large iron gate, that went up after the villagers protested the death and mutilation of a local girl who was known to hand around sailors.The other cases the doctor shares with him besides that of the girl is one of a man who suffered radiation poisoning when the Bikini Islands were bombed and the air shifted and drifted over some of the Pacific Islands, causing death and cancer. The people were compensated monetarily, but in the doctor's opinion, that was not enough. The people of Aruk receive government checks each month because of their poverty, which does not encourage them to try to revive the island's economy and while Dr. Mooreland has the money to help, he does not.There are also two strange American men on the island who seem to want to drink all day and harass the local women. But they are not the only odd thing on the island. A man who is running for the Senate seat of Washington State, and known for his environmental policies back stateside, is perhaps not so eco-friendly concerning the island. A big business is interested in the island and all the land the doctor owns, which is considerable.But that is not the biggest secret being kept. The good Dr. Mooreland waits until the end to show and tell his story to Alex and Robin one stormy night. A story that may get them all killed. This book's ending will come as a complete shock. As all of the secrets kept by the various players unravel, a horrendous revelation and a shocking request made by Dr. Mooreland to Alex and Robin could quite possibly end in tragedy for them all.

[rockhead515-580421 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Delaware working almost entirely without Milo was an interesting twist in the series.
It got a little rushed near the end, leaving me with alot more questions than answers, which is not typical for this series.

The second half I felt like I was reading an Agent Pendergast novel at times.
I think Delaware and Pendergast would work well together and I'd like to see that someday ;-)

[fmrox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Psychologist Alex Delaware and girlfriend Robin Casta gnarly go to Micronesia to help am aging doctor with his cases. What ensues is a weird mystery unlike no other Kellerman novel. This one has all the usual grit and grime but more weirdness than exoected. And, if you don't like bugs, you may want to skip this one.

[pinkozcat · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I can't believe that Jonathan Kellerman wrote such a dreadful book.Alex Delaware and Robin are lured to a tropical island to collaborate on a book to be written from the records of a medical doctor's experiences working among the population of the island.The book then descends into murder, cannibalism, giant invertebrates, worm-like monsters and government corruption.It was truly dreadful but I kept reading on the assumption that it had to get better. It didn't.

[darrol_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Kellerman does go for the odd menagerie. The Pacific island vacation is not Delaware's true milieu. But an entertaining story--I guess.

[amacmillen_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Alex Delaware and friend take a job on a remote Pacific island and work for a scientist with secrets. At the same time there are some strange murders. Underground caves and disfigured people all add to much different plot.