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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780345460691
ISBN number: 0345460693
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 496
Printing Date: April 29, 2003
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: April 29, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 24333
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Product Description:
Edgar Award winner Jonathan Kellerman once more  explores the corruption of California's golden  coast and produces a novel of complex  characterizations and nonstop suspense.  By the time psychologist Dr. Alex  Delaware reached the school the damage was done:  A sniper had opened fire on a crowded playground,  but was gunned down before any children were  hurt.  While  the TV news crews feasted on the scene an Alex  began his therapy sessions with the traumatized  children, he couldn't escape the image of a slight  teenager clutching an oversized rifle. What was the  identity behind the name and face: a would-be  assassin, or just another victim beneath an  indifferent California sky?
Intrigued by a request from the sniper's father  to conduct a 'psychological autopsy' of  his child, Alex begins to uncover a strange  pattern of innocence, neglect, and loss. Then suddenly  it is more than a pattern -- it is a trail of  blood. In the dead sniper's past was a dark and  vicious plot. And in Alex Delaware's future is the  stuff of grown-up nightmares: the face of real  human evil.
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Rated by buyers 
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Time Bomb by Jonathan Kellerman is yet another great mystery with Alex and Milo, this time trying to make sense of a shooting at an elementary school. At very first the shooter seems an unlikely candidate for the crime, but as Alex attempts to counsel the school's traumatized kids he begins to suspect the shooter was also suffering from the effects of a childhood trauma. When asked by the father to conduct a psychological autopsy he agrees even though there is little hope for the vindication the father is hoping for. He and Milo dig deeper into the senseless crime and discover it's all a lot bigger than it seemed. Old hippies, Nazis, and a narcissist genius, fill the pages along with radicals from the left and right, crooked politicians, fraudulent psychologists and a cop with questionable ethics. This story has something for everyone and a surprise ending that makes you smile.
Rated by buyers 
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I have purchased many of the Kindle version books with numerous typos but could usually figure out what was intended. This one had so many errors, it took away my enjoyment. The story was great, but each page had many errors; some indecipherable. I wish there were some way I could correct these, so that subsequent time I pull up the book, it will be easier to read, or better yet for other purchasers to read. I would even be willing to check out the printed version to correct it.
Rated by buyers 
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Another Alex Delaware mystery hit! Jonathan Kellerman writes excellent books, and this is not exception. Highly recommend. A++++
Rated by buyers -
I've enjoyed other Jonathan Kellerman novels, but I thought TIME BOMB was a real dud. This book is probably twice as long as it needs to be, with endless descriptions and ruminations that add nothing to the plot. Put simply, TIME BOMB is one of those novels that could have used a good editor. This might have been a decent novel if it was 150 pages shorter.
Even worse, there's very little genuine suspense; Alex Delaware faces no danger in this story until maybe the last 80 pages of the book. The plot is also too convulted, to the point of straining credulity. The identities and schemes of the book's villains, for example, are downright ridiculous.
In the end, this novel is a slow-paced bore. In particular, the dialogue in TIME BOMB is very poor and stilted -- too many conversations where characters give long, pretentious speeches instead of talking like real people. I also thought that Delaware came across as pompous and arrogant in many of these scenes, too much of a know-it-all for my tastes.
Kellerman's a very decent writer, but his plotting skills are highly uneven. If you've never tried him before, my advice is to read his earlier novels such as WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS, SILENT PARTNER and OVER THE EDGE. Those novels have better structured plots, and are far more enjoyable reads.
Rated by buyers 
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"Time Bomb" is Jonathon Kellerman's fifth Alex Delaware novel wnd was very first published in 1990. Delaware is a psychologist based in LA who earns his living as a consultant - largely working with the courts and the police.
Alex is contacted at the book's beginning by Milo Sturgis, his trusty pet detective from the LAPD. There's been a shooting at the Nathan Hale Elementary School, in Ocean Heights - thankfully none of the children have been hurt. However, Milo feels that it would be a good idea for Alex to come down and help the kids work through the aftermath. The school had been in the news relatively recently : suffering from a siginificant drop in pupil numbers, it had started admitting inner city kids. This has caused a problem for for certain people, as the majority of these kids are Latino - broken windows, racist graffiti on the school walls...even pickets at the school gates. This `problem' has brought two local politicians to the school - State Assemblyman Samuel Massengil and City Councilman Gordon Latch - who had opposing views on the presence of the kids. It's believed that Massengil - who was far from happy about the kids attending the school - may have been the target.
The would-be assassin, a young woman called Holly Lynn Burden, was killed by one of Latch's men. The police can only guess as to who she intended to hurt, though the most ovious target would have been Massengil. This leap has also been made by LAPD's anti-terrorist department, which means that Milo's time on the case is going to be very limited). However, Alex is subsequently given an alternative line of inquiry when he is approached by Holly's father - who is convinced she wouldn't have been capable of acting in this manner. When he accepts, Alex discovers there's more to the race angle than he may have thought...
The book started out from an interesting - and not an entirely implausible - angle, and was pretty enjoyable for quite a while. I've only read two others by Kellerman, and thought - maybe, just maybe - I'd found one of his books that didn't rely on a certain amount of daftness. (Well, as further I got into the book, I realised that wasn't going to happen). The writing is pretty lame at times, too : Kellerman tends to get overdescriptive and labours on what a room looks like, or what somebody is wearing. (In the case of Dr. Linda Overstreet, the school's principal, Alex tends to focus on her long white legs). There's even a fair number of typos and spelling mistakes in the book - well, at least in this edition I have. (Given that the edition I have was printed in 2002 - 12 years after the book was very first published - I'd doubt that I'm alone). It's therefore a little funny that Alex criticises a book written by another character - Terry Crevolin - for being 'typos and grammatical errors'. Easily enough read, but no classic.
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