Jonathan Kellerman is a psychologist/author (or psycho author like myself) and I have enjoyed his Alex Delaware series. His character Alex is a child psychologist who consults on murder cases.
When the Bough Breaks is book #1 of a whopping 27 so far in the series. I stopped reading somewhere after #10 because the murder mystery thing was getting a bit gruesome for me, but I like how Mr. Kellerman weaves his psychological knowledge into stories.
In Chicago for the Romantic Times convention, I was talking to my brother-in-law about novelists who capitalize on their professional expertise. He’s a fan of Michael Crichton and John Grisham, scientist and attorney, respectively. Wasn’t it cool how Mr. Crichton used his knowledge about DNA to write Jurassic Park?
What professional expertise sparks your interest when reading novels?
Jennifer Lane Books 
I think psychologists have a huge advantage, especially in the crime genre – I always feel I'm learning something about how to be human. I used to work in a library – at no time was that useful… And I never shook out my hair and took off my glasses to be beautiful either!
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I am pretty fascinated by psychology, so I think I would enjoy these books!
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Any professional expertise I don't have (which translated into \”just about everything\”) always strikes my fancy.Hope you're having fun in Chicago! As I go about my daily drudgery, it'll be very fun knowing you all are so close.
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I do love psychological thrillers because I am fascinated with human behavior, psyche, what motivates us, what makes us tick.Karen
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I've never read his books but I often hear good things about him.I loved Michael Crichton and I will re-read Jurassic Park a million times. It was such a good book.Heather
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One of the major reasons I was drawn to the writings of John Donald, Raymond Chandler, Ross MacDonald, and Robert B Parker was their insight into human psychology. AND that their dialogue sparked! Great post as always, Roland
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Annalisa, I think psychologists get way more credit than they deserve when it comes to understanding the complex human psyche! But we are good listeners. 🙂 No slo-mo sexy librarian scenes for you? Hi Kyra, the first novels are great but then they become a bit formulaic. One of my favorite characters is Milo, the gay detective who is Alex's friend.Nicki, I love your city! I took the blue line to RT and I think I'm here kind of early. But there's a workshop at 10:00 about writing action scenes in romance novels that I'm excited to attend.
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Karen, human behavior fascinates me as well. It's so predictable yet unpredictable.Heather, my friend and I went to see Jurassic Park and I was thinking it was a nice science-fiction movie only to be completely terrified by those damn velociraptors! One of the scariest movies I've seen. I read the book after and loved it.Wow Roland, I haven't read any of those authors. Thank you for your ongoing support.
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No matter what the profession is I think an author just writes better about things he/she knows about. Grisham is a perfect example of this – nobody but nobody writes lawyerly fiction like him.
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Its a fine line between \”cool\” and \”distracting.\” I just read a book by a social worker, and it was so bogged down in details the plot.Crichton would be my choice! Good theme.
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Jurassic Park is one of my favorite stories of ALL TIME! It is such a smart story and it's plausible! I can totally see the world overrun by dinos again! 🙂
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Cathy, agreed about Grisham. He gets a little too preachy about his political POV though so I haven't read many of his latest books. Thanks for the follow! I just followed you back.Shauna, excellent point. Editors help us avoid getting bogged down in nerdy details of our trade.Jack, what was your fave dino? I loved the diloposaurs. So cute until *gasps* it spits on you!
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