In this riveting follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Clinic, Jonathan Kellerman proves once again why he is "crime fiction's hottest author."  And psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware confronts an almost unimaginably cruel, arrogant, and obsessed killer who takes as much pleasure in matching wits with the police as in robbing human life. The slightly retarded fifteen-year-old daughter of a diplomat dies on a school field trip--forced or lured into a deserted corner of the Santa Monica mountains and killed in cold blood.  Her father adamantly denies the possibility of a political motive, which leaves LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his longtime friend psychologist Alex Delaware to pose the question: Why? There are no signs of struggle, no evidence of sexual assault--and there are no easy answers.  Just one innocent youngster...dead. The victim's father is so intent on controlling the investigation that Alex and Milo start to wonder if he wants to bring out the truth--or make sure it stays buried.  Then there is another killing, and within days Alex finds himself ensnared in one of the darkest, most menacing cases of his career. Driven to find answers, he and Milo will work closely with Inspector Daniel Sharavi, the brilliant Israeli police detective introduced in Jonathan Kellerman's The Butcher's Theater.   In the end, though, it is Alex who will go undercover, alone, to expose the smug brutality of a murderous conspiracy and a terrifying contempt for human life.  Weaving together the threads of a mystery that lead from a child's murder to a young scientist's suicide, Jonathan Kellerman draws one of the most chilling, frighteningly realistic portraits of evil you will ever experience. Readers will find this latest installment in the Alex Delaware series (e.g., The Clinic, LJ 10/15/96) entertaining despite the author's tendency to overdescribe settings at the expense of character development. The psychologist again helps his friend, detective Milo Sturgis, solve a cold case: a deaf and mildly retarded Israeli girl, the daughter of a diplomat, is strangled in a park, and the letters "D-V-L-L" are found on a scrap of paper in her pocket. Authorities have failed to come up with a suspect or any leads, so the victim's father brings in a detective of his own, the great Daniel Sharavi, from Kellerman's The Butcher's Theater (Bantam, 1988). Over 200 pages later, Delaware finally goes undercover to infiltrate a sinister MENSA-like organization, and the ends of this plot, filled with psychopathic cops and pseudo-scientific racists, are (too neatly) tied up. Despite the book's flaws, Kellerman fans and readers seeking an intelligent thriller should enjoy this. Recommended for all public libraries.?Laurel A. Wilson, Alexandrian P.L, Mount Vernon, Ind. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Jonathan Kellerman doesn't just write psychological thrillers--he owns the genre." --Detroit Free Press "Why is it so hard to put down a Kellerman thriller...? It's simple: the nonstop action leaves you breathless; the plot twists keep you guessing; the themes... are provocative." --Publishers Weekly ting follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Clinic, Jonathan Kellerman proves once again why he is "crime fiction's hottest author." And psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware confronts an almost unimaginably cruel, arrogant, and obsessed killer who takes as much pleasure in matching wits with the police as in robbing human life. The slightly retarded fifteen-year-old daughter of a diplomat dies on a school field trip--forced or lured into a deserted corner of the Santa Monica mountains and killed in cold blood. Her father adamantly denies the possibility of a political motive, which leaves LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his longtime friend psychologist Alex Delaware to pose the question: Why? There are no signs of struggle, no evidence of sexual assault--and there are no easy answers. Just one innocent youngster...dead. The victim's father is so intent on controlling the investigation that Ale Jonathan Kellerman, America's foremost author of psychological thrillers, turned from a distinguished career in child psychology to writing full-time.  His works include eleven previous Alex Delaware books-- When the Bough Breaks, Blood Test, Over the Edge, Silent Partner, Time Bomb, Private Eyes, Devil's Waltz, Bad Love, Self-Defense, The Web, and The Clinic --as well as the thriller The Butcher's Theater, two volumes of psychology, and two children's books.  He and his wife, the novelist Faye Kellerman, have four children. Hooray for Hollywood. Brass stars with celebrities' names were inlaid in the sidewalk but the stars of the night were toxin merchants, strong-arm specialists, and fifteen-year-olds running from family values turned vicious. Open twenty-four hours a day, Go-Ji's welcomed them all.  The coffee shop sat on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard, east of Vine, between a tattoo parlor and a t