Official Review: Time Bomb by Jonathan Kellerman

[kayla1080]

I was travelling in Mexico and found this book in the room. Since it was in English and I was spending a lot of time on the beach, I thought this would be a quick, fun read. But while I like some mystery thriller novels, this one was really hard to get into.

The premise of a “school shooting” turned into a complex plot line, with all kinds of things going on, including: racism, politics, romance, corruption, drugs, murder, neo-Nazism, homophobia, and more. It seemed kind of cliche and like it was written in the early-90's with some of the references Kellerman made. I also think that Kellerman missed an opportunity to make characters more in-depth... some of them I kind of liked, but didn’t know that well. The main character, Detective Alex Delaware, totally turned me off because of his arrogance, but I liked his policeman friend Milo because he showed a bit more compassion.

The ending was kind of a surprise, but again, could have been drawn out more. The first 50 pages were hard to get into but then some characters drop off in the final 50 pages.

However, this book was well-written and you can tell that the author is close to psychology. He used some words though that I’m not sure a layman would understand (ex. after about the 15th usage of “vis a vis” I looked it up- it means “in relation to”. Is that a common reference?) Terms like that detracted me a bit from the story, but it didn’t completely turn me off.

I haven’t read Kellerman’s other psychological thrillers, but other fans say that this wasn’t his best novel. The plot seemed improbable and because of this, I rate it 2 out of 4 stars.

[Fran]

I haven't read Time Bomb but I've read quite a few of his books and IMO he's a superb thriller writer.
I agree with you I love Milo a great character. Vis-à-vis is a commonly used expression - this is one of the great joys of reading when you find new expressions or words.

[KingOfTheAce]

Thank you for the lovely review. I often like to see new words or phrases in books that I have not encountered before, so I can expand my horizon and vocabulary, especially since I am not a native English speaker.

[gali]

I am a fan of Jonathan Kellerman as well and read (and loved) most of his books.

[kayla1080]

I did notice Kellerman introducing new words that I didn't know, but not to say they aren't commonly used That is one of the benefits of reading.

It sounds like I need to read some of his other books to gain a more valid opinion of his writing. Thank you all for comments on this review!