description: In the first Alex Delaware novel, Dr.  Morton Handler practiced a strange brand of psychiatry.  Among his specialties were fraud, extortion, and  sexual manipulation. Handler paid for his sins when  he was brutally murdered in his luxurious Pacific  Palisades apartment. The police have no leads, but  they do have one possible witness: seven-year-old  Melody Quinn.It's psychologist Dr. Alex  Delaware's job to try to unlock the terrible secret  buried in Melody's memory. But as the sinister  shadows in the girl's mind begin to take shape, Alex  discovers that the mystery touches a shocking  incident in his own past. This connection is  only the beginning, a single link in a  forty-year-old conspiracy. And behind it lies an unspeakable  evil that Alex Delaware must expose before it  claims another innocent victim: Melody Quinn.
language: English
title: When the Bough Breaks
titlecomplete: When the Bough Breaks (Alex Delaware, #1)
characters: Dr. Lionel Willard Towle, Rick Silverman, Augustus McCaffrey, Cary Nemeth, Michael Penn and Roy Longstreth, Tim Kruger, Maurice Bruno, Mrs. Bonita Quinn, Marty Minassian, Professor Van der Graaf, Elaine / Elena Gutierrez, Raquel Ochoa, Jim Halstead, Edwin G. Hayden, Rodney Broussard, Melody Quinn, Cora (When the Bough Breaks), Margaret Dopplemeier, Ned Biondi, Stuart Hickle, Milo Sturgis, Dr. Morton Handler, Earl (When the Bough Breaks), Bill Roberts (When the Bough Breaks), Olivia Brickerman, Kim Hickle, Alex Delaware, Jeffrey Saxon, Delano Hardy, Robin Castagna
genres: Audiobook, Crime, Suspense, Thriller, Adult, Mystery Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Fiction, Detective, Mystery
ratings_count: 64981
places: Washington (state), Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington, Pacific Northwest
series: Alex Delaware
awards: awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Anthony Award
category: Best First Novel, awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best First Novel
publisher: Random House Audio