Someone has dumped the body of a young woman outside an acute-care hospital in west Los Angeles. There’s nothing on the corpse to identify the woman. But her fingerprints are on file from a background check where she worked. She’s “Marissa Adrianne French, twenty-five years old, five-five, one seventeen, brown and blue, driver of a six-year-old white Accord. . . During the past eighteen months, Marissa French had worked as an extra on four TV pilots and three low-budget horror flicks.” But no one had seen who’d dumped her body. And no reader will be shocked to learn that Marissa’s murder is only the first of several that will come to light in this complex police procedural. It’s the 40th entry in Jonathan Kellerman’s celebrated series of Alex Delaware novels. And it shows no sign of fatigue on the author’s part.
A slow-burning novel of suspense
Early in this series, child psychologist Alex Delaware serves only as an occasional consultant to the LAPD on cases involving his specialty. But his partnership with Detective Milo Sturgis has proven so productive that he serves as a one-man brain trust on homicide cases. The insight Alex brings as a psychologist has helped Milo achieve the highest solve rate in the department. Thus, despite the lack of any connection to a troubled child in this latest case, Milo calls on him to tag along as he methodically sorts through the meager clues in Marissa’s murder. You will feel the two men’s frustration as you stumble your way through this police procedural. It’s a slow-burning thriller, with no breakthrough on the case until four-fifths of the way through the story.
Open Season (Alex Delaware #40) by Jonathan Kellerman (2025) 312 pages ★★★★☆
Character development is the key to this series’s success
There’s no mystery why the Alex Delaware series has run so long. The books’ success rests on Jonathan Kellerman’s skill and artistry in developing the characters of the principals in the stories. Dr. Delaware’s insight and expertise as a psychologist is no mystery, either. Kellerman himself is a highly accomplished child psychologist with both a clinical practice and a position as a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.
The novels reflect Kellerman’s real-life experience in other ways as well. His connections to the LAPD, including gay officers (despite the department’s denial they existed), lend authenticity to the character of Detective Milo Sturgis. Milo, who is both gay and African-American, holds his own in the partnership, which has evolved into a deep friendship. And Alex’s romantic partner, Robin Castagna, his on-again, off-again girlfriend and soulmate, is a fascinating character in her own right. She repairs and rebuilds classic guitars and other stringed instruments, reflecting Kellerman’s hobby (which led to the publication in 2008 of With Strings Attached: The Art and Beauty of Vintage Guitars.)
Claude-AI’s summary of the plot
Since I’ve long since learned that artificial intelligence, and especially the chatbot Claude (version Sonnet 4.5), can do a better job summarizing a story than I can, I’m including here its take on this well-crafted novel. What follows is verbatim, except that I’ve deleted the links to its sources and inserted subheads.
The first victim is a vibrantly beautiful aspiring actress
Open Season is the 40th novel in Jonathan Kellerman’s long-running Alex Delaware series featuring psychologist Alex Delaware and his best friend, LAPD Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis. The story begins at 2:53 a.m. when a young woman’s body is dumped outside Westside Acu-Care Hospital. The victim is Marissa Adrianne French, a vibrantly beautiful aspiring actress who had been drugged and murdered.
Alex and Milo quickly narrow in on a suspect, a known abuser, but their investigation takes an unexpected turn when their prime suspect is shot dead by a sniper. The murder weapon is soon connected to two other unsolved homicides, with all victims shot from a distance using the same rifle.
The puzzle: these are not random killings, but how?
What initially appears to be random killings becomes increasingly complex as Alex and Milo discover the victims have no apparent connection to one another. The case transforms into a race against time to identify a highly intelligent and methodical killer before more bodies pile up. The duo must use all their investigative skills and psychological insight to unravel the killer’s deep-seated motivation.
Set against Los Angeles’s “surreal underbelly,” the novel explores the dark side of the City of Dreams, where hopefuls come seeking fame only to meet tragic ends. The story showcases the strong friendship and professional partnership between Alex and Milo that has sustained the series since its 1985 debut.
Critics describe Open Season as “a tale of psychological complexity, dark suspense, and shocking surprises” with an edge-of-your-seat conclusion. Published in February 2025, the novel demonstrates Kellerman’s continued mastery of the crime thriller genre, blending intricate plotting with compelling character dynamics.
About the author
Like Alex Delaware, his protagonist, Jonathan Kellerman is a pediatric psychologist. He holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Southern California and later became a clinical professor of pediatrics there. His first published detective novel came in 1985 while operating a private practice. When the Bough Breaks was the first of what are now 41 books in the Alex Delaware series. He has also published 20 other novels, several of them coauthored with his son Jesse, as well as five nonfiction books. Kellerman was born in New York City in 1949. His wife is Faye Kellerman, who is also a successful crime novelist. They have four children.
For related reading
Among the many Alex Delaware novels I’ve reviewed are the first three as well as two more recent books:
- When the Bough Breaks (Alex Delaware #1) — When a child psychologist uncovers the key to solving a murder
- Blood Test (Alex Delaware #2) — This complex murder mystery hinges on the symptoms of schizophrenia
- Over the Edge (Alex Delaware #3) — Psychological expertise enlivens this crime thriller involving gifted children
- Night Moves (Alex Delaware #33)—A truly baffling murder stumps Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis
- Unnatural History (Alex Delaware #38)—A tangled mystery captivates Alex Delaware
Check out Top Los Angeles mysteries and thrillers.
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- Top 20 suspenseful detective novels
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- Top 10 mystery and thriller series
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