More ain’t better

How does the American author Jonathan Kellerman create a 500-page novel about his psychologist character Dr. Alex Delaware? Relentless padding with lists longer than you can shake a stick at.
    Okay, there’s setting the scene, that’s fair enough. But I get the feeling that no blishon is being left unscradged, to borrow an expression from one of my favourite authors.
    Whilst wading through the lists, I get the feeling that the book’s essential content could be reduced to what used to be library-size, i.e. 200 pages.