Publisher Description
Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus face a familiar sociopath in this electrifying tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman.
When LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker reluctantly agrees to do a big favour for old friend Teresa McLaughlin, he knows that his involvement will bring her sociopathic husband, Chris Donatti, back into his life. But then Terry goes missing and Donatti disappears, leaving their 14-year-old son Gabe behind.
Meanwhile Adrianna Blanc, a party-loving nurse, is found swinging from the rafters of a house in a wealthy suburban area. Her last phone call announced she was breaking up with her philandering boyfriend and Decker questions whether it was in fact suicide.
With lives hanging in the balance, Decker and his team need to find answers fast. At home matters are just as precarious: while Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus want to look after young Gabe, with Donatti on the loose, no one is really ever safe…
Reviews
Praise for Faye Kellerman:
• ‘Kellerman is an excellent writer’ The Times
• ‘Very exciting’ Daily Mail
• ‘Brutal but thoughtful and well-plotted, fast-moving and well told’ Observer
• ‘Sensational’ Mirror
• ‘Kellerman creates a claustrophobic atmosphere, against a background of seediness, violence and distrust’ Sunday Telegraph
• ‘Kellerman moves her gritty mean streets LA plot along with breakneck pace’ Irish Independent
About the author
Born in St. Louis, Faye Kellerman is one of the most highly considered US crime authors. Her first novel, ‘The Ritual Bath’ (1986) introduced Sergeant Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. It also won the 1987 Macavity Award for Best First Mystery. Kellerman currently lives in Beverly Hills with her husband and four children.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Kellerman once again mixes mystery and soap opera in her 19th novel featuring Lt. Peter Decker of the LAPD and his wife, Rina Lazarus (after Blindman's Bluff). Terry McLaughlin, a doctor and battered wife, asks Decker, who's an old friend, to help mediate a meeting with her abusive husband. When McLaughlin disappears soon after the meeting, her 14-year-old son, Gabe, a gifted piano prodigy, is left on his own. Welcomed into the Decker/Lazarus household, Gabe is allowed to attend their youngest daughter's Jewish day school, even though he's Catholic. Meanwhile, Decker fears that an unidentified woman who's found hanged at a construction site may be Gabe's mother. Readers should be prepared for some unconvincing police procedure (members of Decker's team obliviously contaminate a crime scene) and some stilted prose ("Everything works out. Sometimes it works out good. And sometimes it works out bad. It's the bad that concerns me"), but series fans will cheer the serendipitous developments that lead to a better life for Gabe.
