WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS

The first Alex Delaware novel describes the child psychologist's efforts to solve an increasingly complicated murder when the only witness is a 7-year-old girl. Alexander Adams presents the first-person narration of Delaware's educated, personable, and lively speeches most effectively. In some of the lengthy conversational scenes, however, Adams favors a pause-laden approach that impedes suspense and slackens pace. (The most sluggish are the mid-book scenes at a liberal arts college.) Both Kellerman and Adams have enough fans, of course, for them to overlook this one drawback. On the whole, the enjoyable, if slowish, reading succeeds at capturing Kellerman's distinctive strengths of storytelling and style. G.H. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 01]