The Wedding Guest, by Jonathan Kellerman, is the 34th book in the Alex Delaware series of novels. He’s been writing them at the rate of about one per year since 1985. I’ve read most of them, and I’ve been a big fan. So, I say the following with the greatest of respect: It’s time for Alex Delaware to go on an extended sabbatical.
Kellerman is one of the most successful authors in the world, for a reason. As an experienced psychologist, he brings unusual insights into characters, along with a professional’s knowledge of psychological practice to his work. The result is usually a fascinating reading experience involving compelling characters.
The Alex Delaware series had all of this for most of its run, but Kellerman is clearly having trouble keeping it up. (And who could, after 34 books?) Like all the books in the series, The Wedding Guest features the well-trodden duo of Alex Delaware, a psychologist who consults on police cases, and Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, gay ace homicide detective who works without a partner. Readers of the series know the pair extremely well, to the point where you know that Sturgis will help himself to orange juice in Delaware’s fridge without being asked, and so forth.
This book starts with a disturbing, perplexing murder mystery. A beautiful woman is found murdered in the bathroom at a wedding celebration. No one knows who she is or how she got there. The only thing anyone knows for sure is that her death has ruined the wedding for the “happy couple.” Sturgis gets the case, and brings Delaware in because it’s a head scratcher involving a lot of weird, hostile people.
And we’re off… with weird, hostile people commanding the bulk of the narrative. That seems to be Kellerman’s specialty these days—writing characters who are haughty, impossible, and in your face in the most triggering of ways. He has a particular knack for nailing the annoying pretensions of academic people.
The book lacks direction and energy, though. I’m not sure what Kellerman’s problem is, but maybe he’s just tired of writing these characters. For most of the book, you have Sturgis and Delaware gum shoeing it across a lot of difficult oddballs and getting mostly nowhere. It’s not the most fun read, unless you are into that sort of thing. Kellerman also seems to have a fetish for degrees, defining characters by their having attended Yale and going to this or that law school, medical school, or PhD program, etc.
He also shares scenic details that bring to mind a classic insult from the show “Frasier,” when a woman cut down Frasier by calling him “a man who knows what a duvet is.” Alex Delaware, for a straight man, pays a suspicious level of attention to the color of people’s shoes and home decor choices.
When the plot gets going, about midway through book, the pace and level of suspense does improve. Kellerman is at his strongest when he writes about families. There are a couple of dysfunctional ones in this book, and you do care about how they’re doing.
This book felt to me like an old friend who needs a rest. Maybe Delaware should go to Hawaii for a few years and stare at the waves until he comes back, ready for a better structured novel next time.