“Time Bomb” is Jonathon Kellerman’s fifth Alex Delaware novel wnd was first published in 1990. Delaware is a psychologist based in LA who earns his living as a consultant – largely working with the courts and the police.

Alex is contacted at the book’s beginning by Milo Sturgis, his trusty pet detective from the LAPD. There’s been a shooting at the Nathan Hale Elementary School, in Ocean Heights – thankfully none of the children have been hurt. However, Milo feels that it would be a good idea for Alex to come down and help the kids work through the aftermath. The school had been in the news relatively recently : suffering from a siginificant drop in pupil numbers, it had started admitting inner city kids. This has caused a problem for for certain people, as the majority of these kids are Latino – broken windows, racist graffiti on the school walls…even pickets at the school gates. This ‘problem’ has brought two local politicians to the school – State Assemblyman Samuel Massengil and City Councilman Gordon Latch – who had opposing views on the presence of the kids. It’s believed that Massengil – who was far from happy about the kids attending the school – may have been the target.

The would-be assassin, a young woman called Holly Lynn Burden, was killed by one of Latch’s men. The police can only guess as to who she intended to hurt, though the most ovious target would have been Massengil. This leap has also been made by LAPD’s anti-terrorist department, which means that Milo’s time on the case is going to be very limited). However, Alex is subsequently given an alternative line of inquiry when he is approached by Holly’s father – who is convinced she wouldn’t have been capable of acting in this manner. When he accepts, Alex discovers there’s more to the race angle than he may have thought…

The book started out from an interesting – and not an entirely implausible – angle, and was pretty enjoyable for quite a while. I’ve only read two others by Kellerman, and thought – maye, just maybe – I’d found one of his books that didn’t rely on a certain amount of daftness. (Well, as further I got into the book, I realised that wasn’t going to happen). The writing is pretty lame at times, too : Kellerman tends to get overdescriptive and labours on what a room looks like, or what somebody is wearing. (In the case of Dr. Linda Overstreet, the school’s principal, Alex tends to focus on her long white legs). There’s even a fair number of typos and spelling mistakes in the book – well, at least in this edition I have. (Given that the edition I have was printed in 2002 – 12 years after the book was first published – I’d doubt that I’m alone). It’s therefore a little funny that Alex criticises a book written by another character – Terry Crevolin – for being ‘typos and grammatical errors’. Easily enough read, but no classic.

Rating: 3*/5