Jonathan Kellerman


Jonathan Seth Kellerman is an American novelist, psychologist, and Edgar- and Anthony Award–winning author best known for his popular mystery novels featuring the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults for the Los Angeles Police Department.
Born on the Lower East Side of New York City, his family relocated to Los Angeles when Jonathan was nine years old.
Kellerman graduated from the University of Southern California with a Ph.D in Psychology in 1974 and began working as a staff psychologist at the University of Southern California School of Medicine where he eventually became a full clinical professor of pediatrics. He opened a private practice in the early 1980s while writing novels in his garage at night.
His first published novel, When the Bough Breaks appeared in 1985, many years after writing and having works rejected. He then wrote five best selling novels while still a practicing psychologist. In 1990 he quit his private practice to write full-time. He has written more than 40 crime novels as well as non-fiction works and children's books.

Life and career

Kellerman was born in New York City, son of David, an aerospace engineer and inventor, and Sylvia, a dancer and office manager. He attended Yeshiva of Central Queens before his family relocated to California. He grew up in Los Angeles and received a BA in psychology at UCLA in 1971. He worked his way through college as a cartoonist, illustrator, journalist and editor, as well as by teaching guitar. As a college senior, he co-wrote an unpublished novel that garnered a Samuel Goldwyn writing award. That prize has served as a stepping-stone to film writing for other writers, but Kellerman deliberately avoided the world of screenwriting and enrolled in a PhD program in clinical psychology at the University of Southern California. He received his doctoral degree in psychology from USC in 1974. His doctoral research was on attribution of blame for childhood psychopathology and he published a scientific paper on that topic, his first, at the age of 22. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine.
Kellerman's externship, internship and post-doctoral fellowship were at the Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles/USC School of Medicine, where he became founding director of the Psychosocial Program, Division of Hematology-Oncology. Kellerman's initial position at CHLA was conducting research into the effects of psychological isolation in germ-free "plastic bubble" rooms upon the emotional and intellectual development of children with cancer.
Simultaneously, he was assigned to minimize the destructive consequences of such intense treatment by developing a multi-disciplinary clinical approach. The success of that endeavor led to the expansion of psychosocial services to all oncology patients at CHLA and the program developed by Kellerman and his staff was the world’s first attempt to provide comprehensive, systematic emotional support to pediatric cancer patients and their families and served as the template for what is now considered appropriate care. Kellerman’s experiences at CHLA led him to publish his first book in 1980, a medical text that he edited, titled Psychological Aspects of Childhood Cancer. He is, himself, a survivor of thyroid cancer.
During Kellerman’s time at CHLA, he also conducted research and published in the areas of disease impact and adolescence, disease-related communication and its effect upon emotional adjustment, pediatric pain management, sleep and anxiety disorders, the treatment of childhood encopresis, and the neuropsychological effects of central nervous system chemotherapy and radiation.
Kellerman’s extensive work with anxiety disorders led him to publish a book for parents, Helping the Fearful Child, in 1981. Four years later, his first novel, When the Bough Breaks, was published, became a bestseller and was adapted as a TV movie. He has published one, occasionally two, bestselling thrillers every year since. During his tenure as a practicing psychologist, he came into contact with the legal system as a consultant and expert witness and some of those experiences have impacted his novels.
Jonathan Kellerman lives in Los Angeles with his wife Faye Kellerman, herself a well-known bestselling crime writer. They have four children. Their oldest, Jesse Kellerman, is a bestselling novelist and award-winning playwright. Their youngest, Aliza Kellerman, co-wrote Prism, a young adult novel published in 2009, with her mother.
Jonathan Kellerman has publicly spoken out against what he calls the "misguided" release of severely mentally ill people into the community, where they must fend for themselves instead of receiving proper care. He has stated that such people should receive counseling and psychotherapy as well as medication, as opposed to today's model in which they receive only medication and no other care at all.
Faye and Jonathan Kellerman’s decades of philanthropy include endowments at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles Division of Hematology-Oncology, where a yearly lecture has been named after Jonathan, and USC’s department of psychology and Thornton School of Music. They have also contributed to numerous educational institutions, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s musical instrument department, the Georgia Okeeffe Museum, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Alex Delaware

  1. When the Bough Breaks This novel was originally titled Shrunken Heads. The novel was adapted as a TV movie in 1986 starring Ted Danson and Richard Masur.
  2. Blood Test
  3. Over the Edge
  4. Silent Partner
  5. Time Bomb
  6. Private Eyes
  7. Devil's Waltz
  8. Bad Love
  9. Self-Defense
  10. The Web
  11. The Clinic
  12. Survival of the Fittest : Featuring Daniel Shalom Sharavi of The Butcher's Theater
  13. Monster
  14. Dr. Death
  15. Flesh and Blood
  16. The Murder Book
  17. A Cold Heart
  18. Therapy
  19. Rage
  20. Gone
  21. Obsession
  22. Compulsion
  23. Bones
  24. Evidence
  25. Deception
  26. Mystery
  27. Victims
  28. Guilt
  29. Killer
  30. Motive
  31. Breakdown
  32. Heartbreak Hotel
  33. Night Moves
  34. The Wedding Guest
  35. The Museum of Desire

    Petra Connor

  36. Billy Straight
  37. "A Cold Heart" with Alex Delaware
  38. Twisted

    Jacob Lev (with [Jesse Kellerman])

  39. The Golem of Hollywood
  40. The Golem of Paris

    Clay Edison (with Jesse Kellerman)

  41. Crime Scene
  42. A Measure of Darkness

    Non-series novels