Book Review - The Web by Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellermen is a criminal psychologist by trade and he has now brought his expertise to the world of thriller writing. He has already established himself as one of the world’s most popular authors with a string of bestselling novels, a smattering of prestigious awards and number of non-fiction works to his name. His most popular series is the one featuring Alex Delaware, of which The Web is the latest instalment.

Alex Delaware and his wife are desperate to escape the violence of Los Angeles and recover from a harrowing ordeal and it seems that the mysterious Dr William Moreland is offering them the perfect solution. Out of the blue he invites them to his tiny Micronesian community, Knife Island, to help him record the masses of information he has gathered from his years of looking after the physical and mental wellbeing of the island’s inhabitants.

Very quickly though, it appears that Knife Island isn’t the perfect piece of paradise that the Delaware’s were hoping for as one of the inhabitants is brutally murdered. Rather reluctantly, Alex is thrown into a grotesque web of intrigue that seems to prove that all, including Moreland himself, is not what it seems.
The story is a very promising one and is the kind of thriller that I enjoy the most, however the execution wasn’t, in my opinion, to Kellerman’s usual high standard. It seems that the whole book was working to a big ending. Kellerman does an excellent job of building up a very tense and intriguing scenario that in this case doesn’t live up to the hype. I obviously don’t want to give away the ending, but suffice to say I thought it lacked the massive climax that it deserved. I thought that the ending sort of just petered out to nothing and I was left feeling unsatisfied.

That said, it was the only thing that Kellerman did wrong here. His characters were interesting and full of dark secrets that kept me on the edge of my seat turning pages as quickly as I could manage. Moreland was an intriguing but distant character that was clearly hiding something big. His interaction with others was great at giving clues to his secret and I really felt that I was attempting to solve the mystery alongside Alex Delaware.

The setting for the story couldn’t have been more appropriate. Although on the face of it, Knife Island is a little piece of paradise in the middle of nowhere, right from the moment that the Delawares stepped off the boat, it was clear that something was amiss. Knife Island was described very successfully as a beautiful but chilling place that had a very dark history and many awful stories to tell.
Overall I would have to say that this book had a lot of promise that it just didn’t quite live up to. This kind of story has to have a really powerful ending to make you really sit back and wonder, but in my opinion Kellerman didn’t manage to accomplish this time.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Great review - I've not actually read any of the books in this series but I might have to check the first one out. It's probably about time I read a few thrillers - I used to read loads but have been on a real paranormal romance / urban fantasy kick recently

It's great to find another UK blogger by the way - I'm a new follower :o)

Tahereh said...

awesome review!! so helpful!!

thanks for sharing :D

StephTheBookworm said...

Oooh, I just got a bunch of Kellerman's novels at an estate sale because I love to read thrillers! It's so fun when you feel like you're getting to solve the mystery right with the character like you mentioned! Great review. I'll have to check this one out.

Great blog too. I love the look you have, and the title! I am so obsessed with reading lol.

Julie P said...

Have you read the other books in the Delaware series?

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