num_pages: 448
description: The first Alex Delaware novel. It's a good one!We meet Dr. Morton Handler who 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.Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware's job is to unlock the terrible secret buried in Melody's memory. 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: Olivia Brickerman, Maurice Bruno, Marty Minassian, Stuart Hickle, Earl (When the Bough Breaks), Augustus McCaffrey, Rodney Broussard, Dr. Morton Handler, Delano Hardy, Professor Van der Graaf, Jeffrey Saxon, Edwin G. Hayden, Cora (When the Bough Breaks), Elaine / Elena Gutierrez, Tim Kruger, Jim Halstead, Cary Nemeth, Kim Hickle, Margaret Dopplemeier, Milo Sturgis, Dr. Lionel Willard Towle, Rick Silverman, Bill Roberts (When the Bough Breaks), Michael Penn and Roy Longstreth, Mrs. Bonita Quinn, Robin Castagna, Alex Delaware, Ned Biondi, Raquel Ochoa, Melody Quinn
genres: Mystery, Adult, Suspense, Detective, Thriller, Audiobook, Fiction, Psychological Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Crime
ratings_count: 64980
places: Washington (state), Pacific Northwest, Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington
series: Alex Delaware
awards: awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Anthony Award
category: Best First Novel, awardedAt: 504950400000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best First Novel
publisher: Ballantine Books