Murder and a Bulldog : BAD LOVE, <i> By Jonathan Kellerman (Bantam: $22.95; 386 pp.)</i>

“Bad Love” is the eighth adventure of Jonathan Kellerman’s popular hero, Dr. Alex Delaware. Ever since “When the Bough Breaks” (1985), Kellerman has been thrilling his growing legion of fans with Delaware’s exploits. I’ve read about half the series, and have found them interesting and intelligent. “Bad Love” is no exception. This time out, Dr. Delaware, his lady friend Robin and his buddy, he gay LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, are up against a fiendish killer who specializes in killing shrinks, leaving behind the scrawled cryptic message “Bad Love.” To make matters worse, Delaware is himself the recipient of a tape with a hideous scream and a childlike voice leaving the message, “Bad love, don’t give me the bad love.” Soon after Alex is haunted by an ever escalating series of threats, until it becomes clear that he himself is marked for murder.

Alex’s only clue is a symposium, which he reluctantly served on honoring a child psychologist named Dr. Andres de Bosch. One by one the participants in that symposium are being dispatched, but neither Alex nor Milo can figure out why.

Besides being a good deal of fun, the novel touches on certain serious themes, the most familiar of which (to Kellerman fans) is child abuse. Kellerman himself is a former child psychologist and he knows the terrain as well as anybody writing today, whether they be mystery or mainstream writers. In this novel and others he depicts withdrawn, emotionally maimed children (and adult survivors of these unpardonable crimes) with sensitivity and insight. Indeed one of the impressive things about Kellerman’s books is that he can write about the homeless, life in trailer parks, spoiled and angry rich Beverly Hills girls, or chunky, sweat-shirt wearing storefront lawyers with a good deal of sophistication. It’s great fun to hang with Alex Delaware as he makes the rounds in Los Angeles, and the book generates a good deal of suspense; by the end I was fairly racing through the pages to find out who the killer was and what momentous ugliness he had in store for Alex.

The only problem I’ve had with Kellerman’s books is the voice of Alex Delaware himself. He’s a bright but brittle and sometimes arrogant narrator, a little cold, a little too sure of himself. Kellerman tries to humanize him in this book. He gives him more badinage with Robin, he has Alex humbly say that the older he gets the more he knows how ignorant he is, and he even uses that oldest of warmth inducing ploys--he gives Dr. D. a bulldog. Still, none of it quite makes Delaware lovable. He’s always the competent, brilliant guy who is liable to hit you with a gibe from Gessell rather than a clenched fist. The kind of guy who’s the smartest in psych class and wants to be damned sure you know it.

Still, let’s give Kellerman credit. He knows his strength ain’t lovability, but professionalism, and he doesn’t pretend Delaware is Capt. Warmth or for that matter a macho Superman, like most series detectives. At one point in “Bad Love” a baddie with a tire iron comes after Alex and he retreats to a statuary in his fish pond. To tell you the truth, that made him more lovable to me than anything else Kellerman tried in the book. Be honest guys, given the same situation that’s what most of us would do.

Interestingly enough, Kellerman warms up considerably when writing his secondary characters. The author’s suspects are a lively lot and he gets their snarling and whining, special pleading and willful obfuscations just right. It strikes me that he likes his villains and losers better than he likes Delaware . . . which is usually the way it is, from Milton to Spillaine. From my own experience writing in this genre on Hill Street Blues, I can tell you the hardest guy to write was Capt. Frank Furillo. He was too good, too kind, too smart and too contained. It was always a lot more fun to write bad Norm Buntz, growling sweetie Belker or wise-guy scamster J. D. Larue. . . . Street guys with street smarts and attitudes were a kick, yet we all knew that Furillo was the core of the show.

The same is true of Dr. Alex Delaware, and though he is still a little chilly, academic and well, fussy . . . he is also bright, insightful and resourceful enough. You’re in good hands with Kellerman, and to be honest, even though it’s a shameless ploy, I liked the damned bulldog, Spike, too.