When the Bough Breaks

Jonathan Kellerman's first novel introduces Alex Delaware, a Los Angeles child psychologist who has stepped away from practice while still in his thirties. When a psychiatrist named Morton Handler is found brutally murdered, the police have no leads except one possible witness, seven-year-old Melody Quinn. Alex's friend, homicide detective Milo Sturgis, asks him to help the frightened girl recover what she saw, and the work draws Alex into a case that threatens first his career and then his life, reaching toward a hidden pattern of harm done to children. Kellerman won the 1986 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and the book began one of the longest-running series in crime fiction.