Book five in my Kellerman Reread is also the fifth book in the Alex Delaware series. Time Bomb deals with what looks like a school sniping avant la lettre, but it is anything but. However, the more I read these books written in the Eighties the more I’m shocked by how little some of the issues have changed. Not just in terms of the larger issues such as racism and bigotry regarding sexual orientation, but also in things that I thought were typical of the twenty-first century, things such as privacy concerns due to new technology for example. I keep coming back to the old adage “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”The plot at the heart of the book was interesting enough, with several sidesteps and twists. Time Bomb starts off with a school shooting, where fortunately none of the students and teachers were hurt, but they are traumatised and Alex is called in by Milo to help out with the kids. The shooter is the obvious villain, but through Alex’s investigation into her motives and through learning more about her background, we learn that Holly Burden is perhaps as much a victim as the children at Hale Elementary.The villains of the piece are vile from both a moral and an ideological perspective. Kellerman cleverly makes at least one of the villains of the story also be innocent of the crimes connected to the Hale shooting, but Mahlon Burden, Holly’s father is an awful human being who used his daughter Holly as an unpaid housekeeper and made her feel as if she was less than dirt. One of the true victims of the book is Ike Novato. His murder becomes an object of interest to Milo as part of the investigation into Holly and it turns out he is a victim of a political conspiracy. While Ike’s case is fascinating, it feels as if he replaces Holly as the most important subject of investigation, which while logical since she looks as if she’s a perpetrator, also feels a little unfair, especially when we learn more about her.Time Bomb is also the first book where we see Alex and Milo do a lot of detecting together, with Alex actually tagging along to crime scenes. I really liked this development and I hope it’ll continue in the next books. Their investigation into Ike’s murder leads Milo and Alex to the Holocaust Center; Milo has worked with them before and has a special interest in them, as Kellerman reminds us that in addition to the millions of Jewish people who were murdered, Hitler also persecuted the Roma, LGBTQ people and general political dissidents. I found the sections dealing with the Center and the Holocaust fascinating and affecting, since I’ve grown up with stories about the war and Kellerman’s descriptions of the exhibit at the Center were quite raw and visual. And again, the anti-semitic elements uttered against the Center and others in the book are eerily reminiscent of those expressed in today’s society, once more emphasising that we haven’t made as much progress as we’d like to think in the last twenty-five years.As might have been expected after Silent Partner, in Time Bomb Alex and Robin have ended their relationship and aren’t really in contact anymore at the start of the book. After the realisations Alex had in the last book about his own part in the breakdown of their relationship, he has gone back to his own therapist and has worked on his problems. When he meets Linda Overstreet, the principal of Hale Elementary, and they hit it off, we see him trying to not be smothering, so there is definitely progress. However, Alex does have a thing for younger women apparently. What killed me though, was that just as he’s moving forward, Robin calls. These painful, painful phone calls with Robin, who ostensibly isn’t looking to get back together, but misses their friendship, really bugged and also made me somewhat annoyed with both Robin and Kellerman, because really, that timing? Arg! Milo seems to be doing better, both privately and career-wise. He’s been promoted to D-Three, though there are lots of fellow officers who think he’s only been jumped up because of politically correct reasons and not due to his genuine skills. Obviously, this puts more pressure on Milo to prove himself and we still see him battling up the hill. We’re also once again reminded of the fact that Milo sometimes shows a severe lack of impulse control or perhaps a heavy disregard for the consequences of his actions when pushed to his limits and it’ll be interesting to see how events will resonate in the next book.Overall, I enjoyed Time Bomb more than I remembered and this reread is turning out to be as interesting due to the confrontation with the Eighties and how much they compare instead of contrast to today, as the quality of the stories. It’ll be interesting to see whether this persists the closer we come to the current day or whether the stories will move to the forefront as the time it is set in doesn’t distract as much anymore because I actually consciously lived through it. Onwards to the next book Private Eyes!
Recently i read this book for the second time. The first time I had read it was nearly twelve years ago. The younger me didn't have enough perspective to give this book enough credit. The older me upon second reading upgrades its star rating by two stars.Originally when reading this book, i had already read book 1 in this series, but then skipped straight to this book (book 5) omitting books 2-4. But now that I have read those three in between stories and reread this book. I can see that while the continuation of the characters from books 2-4 is somewhat minimal, it is still nevertheless quite important.Characters in this story are not up to par with the previous story (Silent Partner) the mystery itself still lacks compared to Book 1, but overall this book still has a lot of redeeming quality to it. I think aside from reading stories in order, two other rules can be established when reading these early Kellerman novels which every reader should adhere to, or else will be likely to miss the quality of the work.The first rule is, A. Do not start one of these Deleware stories unless you have time to read from the story almost every day, and will be able to finish the book within several weeks of starting. If this luxury is not available to you, wait until it is, because you will likely lose track of the story arc if you put the book down for too long.Secondly, one of my favorite things about When the bough Breaks, was how Kellerman described beautiful southern California geography. Especially the city of Los Angeles. In the 2-5 stories that would continue, he continued to describe many beautiful details, but often his description of roads and neighborhoods, would become less intimate as he as a writer perhaps got a little lazier, or maybe couldn't find descriptions he had not already written in past stories as Deleware and Sturgis had driven down many of these same streets in previous adventures, or also probably presumed that most readers of books three through five in his series had already been down these famous LA streets at least once in their lives before.The 20year old me who read this book first time around had never been within a 2500 mile radius of those streets and LA was only a dream. Without including more intimate details of the setting, the story wore thin. But now upon second reading, having explored many of the described roads and neighborhoods previously in rental cars as well as my own beat up old SUV, i can imagine the scene far more vividly even if Kellerman's description may sometimes lack. So Rule B. if you've never been to Southern California before, its still ok to read "Bough Breaks" and "Blood Test" and i hope you will love them just like i did even though i'd never been to Cali back then. But don't bother to read books three through five until you pop your "So-Cal" cherry first. If you don't live within 500 miles of there currently, i hope anybody reading this will be fortunate enough to visit someday.
What do You think about Time Bomb (2003)?
I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. I like the character of Dr Alex. But I was wondering how the incident could make a whole book. It was a bit slow at first, but then as the plot thickened, it beame hard to put down at night and go to bed! Milo is a good character also, and I really liked him. Actually, Mr Burden made the story - the gadgets he used and all made this a very interesting end. Too many people are in the "background" like Holly, and become obsessive about something. A very good read here!
—Cathy Smith
Time Bomb, by Jonathan Kellerman, a-minus, Narrated by Jeff Harding, Produced by Isis Publishing, Downloaded from audible.com.Alex receives a phone call from Milo one morning: “quick, turn on the t.v.”..When he does, he finds that a sniper shot at children in a school yard but the sniper was killed by the aide of a politician there to speak to the children. No other children are injured. Milo asks Alex to come right away to consult with the school and talk with the children. When he gets there, he finds that the sniper was a girl, a big shock to everyone. Also, when he starts working with the kids, another therapist suddenly comes in and says she was sent by the authority of the school board. Alex and the school principal work together to try to straighten this all out. But as Alex works with the children, he also is interested in finding out what motivated the sniper. In pursuing these threads he becomes involved in a tangle between right-wing politicians which may put him and the school principal in danger. This is no. 5 in the series, an earlier book. The earlier books in this series are much better than the later ones.
—Kathleen Hagen
This is not his best work. The reason I enjoy Mr. Kellerman's books so much is his ability to take people and situations that are polar opposite yet flawlessly weaves them together. While reading his books, I spend half my time wishing I had a mind that could do that.I kept recognizing his attempts at "weaving", but unlike most of his work, instead of being jealous of his creativity, I was thinking "oh, please!"No one's perfect and this is definitely NOT the worst book I've read. If you read the Alex Delaware novels in order, don't skip it. But if you don't read these books in any particular order, I'd suggest you put this one near the bottom of the pile.
—Carolee
