Jonathan Kellerman

Author Information
Jonathan Kellerman
  • Bibliography:
    53 Books (3 Series)
  • First Book:
    March 1985
  • Latest Book:
    February 2026
  • Author Rating:
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About the Author

When Jonathan Kellerman was attending UCLA he worked his way through as an editorial cartoonist, freelance musician and editor. In his senior year, he won an award for his fiction writing. Kellerman went on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology, with a specialty in pediatric psychology. He has conducted research on the psychological effects of extreme isolation on pediatric cancer patients. That study led to the first comprehensive approach to treating the emotional as well as physical aspects of children with cancer.

His first fiction novel, “When the Bough Breaks”, was a huge critical and commercial success. Since then, he has written a bestselling novel a year as well as two children’s books and a nonfiction work on childhood violence.

He is married to Faye Kellerman, a bestselling novelist herself. They have four children. He still serves as the Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Psychology at University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.

Full Series List in Order

Alex Delaware

1 - When the Bough Breaks // Shrunken Heads (Mar-1985)
2 - Blood Test (Mar-1986)
3 - Over the Edge (Apr-1987)
4 - Silent Partner (Oct-1989)
5 - Time Bomb (Sep-1990)
6 - Private Eyes (Jan-1992)
7 - Devil's Waltz (Jan-1993)
8 - Bad Love (Feb-1994)
9 - Self-Defense (Jan-1995)
10 - The Web (Jan-1996)
11 - The Clinic (Feb-1997)
12 - Survival of the Fittest (Dec-1997)
13 - Monster (Dec-1999)
14 - Dr. Death (Dec-2000)
15 - Flesh and Blood (Nov-2001)
16 - The Murder Book (Oct-2002)
17 - A Cold Heart (Apr-2003)
18 - Therapy (Apr-2004)
19 - Rage (May-2005)
20 - Gone (Apr-2006)
21 - Obsession (Apr-2007)
22 - Compulsion (Apr-2008)
23 - Bones (Nov-2008)
24 - Evidence (Oct-2009)
25 - Deception (Apr-2010)
26 - Mystery (Apr-2011)
27 - Victims (Mar-2012)
28 - Guilt (Feb-2013)
29 - Killer (Feb-2014)
30 - Motive (Feb-2015)
31 - Breakdown (Feb-2016)
32 - Heartbreak Hotel (Feb-2017)
33 - Night Moves (Feb-2018)
34 - The Wedding Guest (Feb-2019)
35 - The Museum of Desire (Feb-2020)
36 - Serpentine (Feb-2021)
37 - City of the Dead (Feb-2022)
38 - Unnatural History (Feb-2023)
39 - The Ghost Orchid (Feb-2024)
40 - Open Season (Feb-2025)

Dr. Grace Blades

0.5 - The Right Thing to Do: A Novella (Jul-2015)
1 - The Murderer's Daughter (Aug-2015)

Petra Connor

1 - Billy Straight (Dec-1998)
2 - Twisted (Nov-2004)

Book List in Order: 53 titles

  • When the Bough Breaks // Shrunken Heads

    Alex Delaware - 1

    NIGHT TERRORS There is something spooky about this one, even for the dark side of L.A. A child molester's grisly suicide. A shockingly brutal double murder. A hidden network of perversion in high places. And a terrified seven-year-old girl who coul...

  • Blood Test

    Alex Delaware - 2

    It is a case unlike any psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware has ever encountered. Five-year-old Woody Swope is ill, but the real problem is his parents. They refuse to agree to the one treatment that could save this boy's life. Alex sets out to convince ...

  • Over the Edge

    Alex Delaware - 3

    BRACE YOURSELF FOR SHOCK -- when Alex Delaware gets a phone call from a former patient, a young, troubled genius who suffered a devastating mental collapse... when he drives through the night to save his life and winds up in a morass of murder....

  • The Butcher's Theater

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   They call the ancient hills of Jerusalem the butcher’s theater. Here, upon this bloodstained stage, a faceless killer performs his violent specialty. The first to die brutally is a girl. She is drained of blood, ...

  • Silent Partner

    Alex Delaware - 4

    At a party for a controversial Los Angeles sex therapist. Alex encounters a face from his own past--Sharon Ransom, an exquisite, alluring lover who left him abruptly more than a decade earlier. Sharon now hints that she desperately needs help, but Al...

  • Time Bomb

    Alex Delaware - 5

    By the time psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware reached the school the damage was done: A sniper had opened fire on a crowded playground, but was gunned down before any children were hurt. While the TV news crews feasted on the scene and Alex began his...

  • Private Eyes

    Alex Delaware - 6

    BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Guilt.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   The voice belongs to a woman, but Dr. Alex Delaware remembers a little girl. It is eleven years since seven-year-old Melissa Dickinson dialed t...

  • Devil's Waltz

    Alex Delaware - 7

    Child psychologist Dr Alex Delaware returns after five years to Los Angeles' Western Pediatrics Hospital, called in by a former colleague to help with the case of twenty-one-month-old Cassie Jones. The little girl is persistently, terrifyingly ill, a...

  • Bad Love

    Alex Delaware - 8

    It came in a plain brown wrapper, no return address - a tape recording of a horrifying, soul-lacerating scream, followed by the sound of a childlike voice delivering the enigmatic and haunting message: 'Bad love. Bad love. Don't give me the bad l...



  • Self-Defense

    Alex Delaware - 9

    Dr Alex Delaware doesn't see many private patients any more, but for a young woman called Lucy Lowell he's prepared to make an exception. Referred to him by the police detective Milo Sturgis, Lucy had been a juror at the harrowing trial of a serial k...

  • The Web

    Alex Delaware - 10

    Three months in paradise, all expenses paid. It's an invitation Dr. Alex Delaware cannot refuse. Revered scientist Dr. Woodrow Wilson Moreland has invited Alex to a remote Pacific island to help him organize his papers for publication. Yet the ple...

  • The Things We Do for Love

    in Murder for Love

    Sixteen stories about love gone wrong consider the link between romance and death and include contributions by such popular authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Jonathan Kellerman, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, and Joyce Carol Oates. Reprint....

  • The Clinic

    Alex Delaware - 11

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   Professor Hope Devane’s male-bashing pop-psych bestseller created a storm of controversy on the talk-show circuit. Now she is dead, brutally slashed on a quiet street in one of L.A.’s safest neighborhoods. The ...

  • Survival of the Fittest

    Alex Delaware - 12

    When a slightly retarded fifteen-year-old girl dies on a school trip, LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his friend psychologist Alex Delaware are stumped. There's no sign of a struggle and no evidence of sexual assault. Just an innocent young girl--dea...

  • Billy Straight

    Petra Connor - 1

    A resourceful runaway alone in the wilds of Los Angeles, twelve-year-old Billy Straight suddenly witnesses a brutal stabbing in Griffith Park. Fleeing into the night, Billy cannot shake the horrific memory of the savage violence, nor the pursuit of a...

  • Monster

    Alex Delaware - 13

    A second-rate actor is found mutilated in a car trunk. Then a psychologist at a Los Angeles hospital for the criminally insane is murdered in a similar grisly fashion. Suddenly the incoherent ramblings of an inmate at the presumably secure institutio...

  • Diagnosis Dead

    Mystery stories by such authors as Max Allan Collins, Jeremiah Healy, Carolyn Wheat, Faye Kellerman, and Nancy Pickard ...

  • Dr. Death

    Alex Delaware - 14

    A brutalized corpse discovered in a remote region of the Hollywood Hills plunges psychologist-detective Alex Delaware into a landscape of rage and madness as he struggles to solve this most baffling of homicides. To some, Eldon Mate was evil perso...

  • Flesh and Blood

    Alex Delaware - 15

    Lauren Teague is a beautiful, defiant, borderline delinquent teenager when her parents bring her to Dr. Alex Delaware's office. Lauren angrily resists Alex's help -- and the psychologist is forced to chalk Lauren up as one of the inevitable failures ...



  • The Murder Book

    Alex Delaware - 16

    L.A. psychologist-detective Alex Delaware has received a strange, anonymous package in the mail. Inside is an album filled with gruesome crime-scene photos. When his old friend and colleague, homicide detective Milo Sturgis, views the compendium of d...

  • A Cold Heart

    Alex Delaware - 17

    LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis summons his friend, psychologist-sleuth Alex Delaware, to a trendy gallery where a promising young artist has been brutally garroted on the night of her first major showing. The details of the murder scene immedia...

  • The Conspiracy Club

    When his passionate romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut short by her kidnapping and brutal murder, young psychologist Jeremy Carrier is left emotionally devastated, haunted by his lover's grisly demise-and eyed warily by police still seeking a pr...

  • Therapy

    Alex Delaware - 18

    Behind the yellow crime-scene tape,-a brutal tableau awaits. On a lonely lovers' lane in the hills of Los Angeles, a young couple lies murdered in a car. Each victim bears a single gunshot wound to the head. Though the female remains unidentified, he...

  • Double Homicide

    DOUBLE HOMICIDE: BOSTON After a basketball match leads to a fatal shooting, Detectives Dorothy Breton and Michael McCain are looking to make an open-and-shut case. For Dorothy, who knows the victim's mother, the crime hits close to home. And for Mic...

  • Twisted

    Petra Connor - 2

    With her energies focused on a baffling, vicious gang slaying and her personal life in shambles, Hollywood homicide detective Petra Connor has a full plate. The last thing she needs is a whiz-kid grad student claiming to have stumbled upon a bizarre ...

  • Rage

    Alex Delaware - 19

    Troy Turner and Rand Duchay were barely teenagers when they murdered a younger child. While Troy died violently behind bars, the hulking, slow-witted Rand managed to survive his stretch. Now, at age twenty-one, he's emerged a haunted, rootless ma...

  • Gone

    Alex Delaware - 20

    Missing acting students Dylan and Michaela are found in the remote mountains of Malibu, battered and terrified after a harrowing ordeal at the hands of a sadistic abductor. But forensic evidence soon exposes the incident as a hoax, and the kids are c...

  • Music City Breakdown

    in Capital Crimes

    Detective team Baker Southerby and Lamar Van Gundy understand the rhythms of the music biz as intimately as the streets they work. But when rock legend Jack Jeffries ends up in a ditch with his throat slashed, they find out just how high the price of...

  • Obsession

    Alex Delaware - 21

    Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, Tanya returns with a curious request: that Delaware investigate her aunt's deathbed confession of murder. While De...



  • Compulsion

    Alex Delaware - 22

    A tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the inky black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. The curious fact that...

  • Bones

    Alex Delaware - 23

    The anonymous caller has an unnerving message about something "real dead .. . buried in your marsh." The eco-volunteer on the other end of the line thinks it's a prank, but when a young woman's body turns up in L.A.'s Bird Marsh preserve, no one's la...

  • True Detectives

    Moses Reed and Aaron Fox have the same mother; their respective fathers were cops, friends, and partners. And despite their shared calling, their turbulent family history has set them at odds. Moses is a no-frills LAPD detective; Aaron is a smooth-ta...

  • Evidence

    Alex Delaware - 24

    In a half-built mansion in Los Angeles, a watchman stumbles onto the bodies of a young couple -- murdered and left in a gruesome postmortem embrace. Veteran homicide cop Milo Sturgis is shocked at the sight: a twisted crime that only Milo and psychol...

  • Deception

    Alex Delaware - 25

    Her name is Elise Freeman, and her chilling cry for help comes too late to save her. On a DVD found near her lifeless body, the emotionally and physically battered woman chronicles a long ordeal of abuse at the hands of three sadistic tormentors. But...

  • Mystery

    Alex Delaware - 26

    The closing of the grand old Fauborg Hotel in Beverly Hills is a sad occasion for longtime patrons Alex Delaware and Robin Castagna, who go there one last time for cocktails. But even more poignant -- and curious -- is a striking young woman in elega...

  • Victims

    Alex Delaware - 27

    Acid-tongued Vita Berlin hadn't a friend in the world, but whom did she cross so badly as to end up meticulously arranged in such a gruesome murder scene? One look prompts LAPD detective Milo Sturgis to summon his expert in homicidal maniacs, Alex De...

  • Guilt

    Alex Delaware - 28

    In an upscale L.A. neighborhood. a backyard renovation unearths an infant's body, buried sixty years ago. Soon thereafter, in a nearby park, another disturbingly bizarre discovery is made not far from the body of a young woman shot in the head. Helpi...

  • Killer

    Alex Delaware - 29

    After thirty-five riveting, internationally acclaimed novels of psychological suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman returns with his most stunning thriller to date. Killer is a mesmerizing L.A. noir portrayal of the darkes...

  • Motive

    Alex Delaware - 30

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman writes razor-sharp novels that cut to the quick. Now comes Motive, which pits psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide cop Milo Sturgis against a vicious criminal mind -- the kind only Keller...



  • The Right Thing to Do: A Novella

    Dr. Grace Blades - 0.5

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman heralds the arrival of his thrilling new stand-alone novel, The Murderer’s Daughter, with this eBook original prequel short story -- a powerful portrait of a young man seeking his destiny, who...

  • The Murderer's Daughter

    Dr. Grace Blades - 1

    Brilliant, beautiful, and stunningly effective, psychologist Dr. Grace Blades has a special gift for treating troubled souls and healing tormented psyches -- perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars. Only five years old when she witnessed he...

  • Breakdown

    Alex Delaware - 31

    Bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman has been universally hailed as the master of psychological suspense, and the blockbuster new thriller featuring Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis confirms his status as today’s preeminent practitioner of saber-sha...

  • Heartbreak Hotel

    Alex Delaware - 32

    Alex Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis investigate the death of Alex’s most mysterious patient to date in the sensational new thriller from the master of suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman. At nearly one hun...

  • Night Moves

    Alex Delaware - 33

    Even with all his years of experience, LAPD homicide detective Milo Sturgis knows there are crimes his skill and savvy cannot solve alone. That’s when he calls on brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware to read between the lines, where the darkest mot...

  • The Wedding Guest

    Alex Delaware - 34

    Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis dig into a shocking crime at a raucous wedding reception in this gripping psychological thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense. In the middle of a “Saints and Sinn...

  • The Museum of Desire

    Alex Delaware - 35

    Psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis struggle to make sense of a seemingly inexplicable massacre in this electrifying psychological thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense. LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis h...

  • Serpentine

    Alex Delaware - 36

    Psychologist Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis search for answers to a brutal, decades-old crime in this electrifying psychological thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense. LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis is...

  • City of the Dead

    Alex Delaware - 37

    The past comes back to haunt psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis when they investigate a grisly double homicide and uncover an even more unspeakable motive in this riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of s...

  • Unnatural History

    Alex Delaware - 38

    The most enduring detectives in American crime fiction are back in this electrifying thriller of art and brutality from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.Los Angeles is a city of stark contrast, the palaces of the affluent coexisti...



  • The Ghost Orchid

    Alex Delaware - 39

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis confront a baffling, vicious double homicide that leads them to long-buried secrets worth killing for in the riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling ...

  • Open Season

    Alex Delaware - 40

    The most beloved and enduring duo in American crime fiction is back.Psychologist Alex Delaware and Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis race against time to find a twisted killer in this riveting thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master o...

  • Coyote Hills

    The electric new Clay Edison thriller from the New York Times bestselling, acclaimed father-son duo who write “brilliant, page-turning fiction” (Stephen King).Clay Edison has left behind the Alameda County coroner’s office to strike out on his ...

  • Jigsaw

    Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis, the most beloved duo in American crime fiction, return in this electric thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling “master of suspense” (Los Angeles Times).In Los Angeles, the law is any...

Award-Winning Books by Jonathan Kellerman

When the Bough Breaks // Shrunken Heads
1986 Anthony Award -- First Novel
1986 Edgar Allan Poe Award -- First Novel


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Jonathan Kellerman has published 53 books.

The next book by Jonathan Kellerman, Jigsaw, will be published in February 2026.

The first book by Jonathan Kellerman, When the Bough Breaks // Shrunken Heads, was published in March 1985.

Yes. Jonathan Kellerman has 3 series.
Pseudonyms / Co-Author
Author Series
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