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Overview
Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.
The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws, the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking, they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.
Faye Kellerman, wife of Jonathan Kellerman, bestselling author of When the Bough Breaks, weaves a fascinating mystery set in Los Angeles' orthodox Jewish community. Soon to be a CBS-TV movie.
Editorials
San Diego Union-Tribune
Exceptionally fine suspense.Los Angeles Times Book Review
Engaging.Murder Inc.
Phenomenal!.Murder Inc.
Phenomenal!Los Angeles Magazine
Move over, Dr. Ruth!Beverly Hills Today
Just what cupid ordered!Dr. Patricia Allen
The woman's movement brought us independence, but it did not bring us love.Publishers Weekly
Like the series it inspired, Kellerman's award-winning 1986 debut novel combines police procedure, via hard-boiled LAPD detective Peter Decker, with Judaic rites and rituals courtesy of its heroine Rina Lazarus, an ultra-Orthodox widowed mother of two. Decker and Lazarus are brought together by the brutal rape of a young bride-to-be at the mikvah (a bathhouse used in the purification ritual) that Rina manages in the Hollywood hills. Mitchell Greenberg nicely vocalizes the story from Decker's point of view, with the detective struggling to stick to his sleuthing in spite of his developing feelings for Rina. The novel continually rings true, from explaining various Orthodox beliefs and customs to Decker and his crew's no-nonsense unmasking of the villain. Greenberg moves in and out of the novel's elements smoothly and efficiently. He paces the police work with just the right sense of urgency and frustration; handles the romantic sequences with the proper emotion and without a hint of sentimentality; and breezes through the many Jewish-centric passages with the confidence and clarity of a yeshiva graduate. An Avon paperback. (Jan.)
Copyright 2007Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
This is Kellerman's first Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus mystery, published in 1986. When an orthodox Jewish woman is raped outside the mikvah(ritual bath), Det. Peter Decker is assigned to the case and soon becomes immersed in the insular world of the Yeshiva (orthodox Jewish school). While investigating the rape, Peter meets Rina Lazarus, the young widow who runs the bathhouse, and there is an immediate mutual attraction. Despite Rina's determination not to get involved with a Gentile, her romantic feelings toward Peter grow. The story is exciting, the characters are well developed, and the listener is introduced to Jewish law and ritual. Narrator Mitchell Greenberg does an excellent job; he pronounces the Jewish terms and Hebrew words correctly, and he gives each character an appropriate voice and accent. Highly recommended for mystery collections. [Also available as downloadable audio.-Ed.]
—Ilka Gordon