Rating: 
Summary: Extremely dull with wooden characters
Review: I have to admit I am new to the series, but I am not going to bother with any more books like this if this is how she writes. The characters are all so wooden and passionless even in the midst of a supposed romance, that they might as well be stick figures. Making the boyfriend one of the suspects and the whole theme of sexual abuse are being done to death by the publishers these days, and the Jewishness of the novel is totally superficial gloss.
Father and daughter tensions amount to a storm in a tea cup, as does the solving of an old murder in Germany. the author has no ability to create suspense through setting, or characterization via dialogue.
I can see the author has written many novels, and is getting tired of even her own characters. Yet another mediocre churn and burn book from the big publishers looking for 'product' rather than a great, memorable story.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't get into it
Review: I really like the Kellermans' books, but this one totally lost me when it compared a character to Kobe Bryant, down to the same first name.It seemed to drag on forever. Not one of her better works, and definately a bad time to use that character. It just ruined it for me.
Rating: 
Summary: Thriller Alert
Review: I thought that this was an outstanding book that had a lot of important issues come alive. The two issues that come straight to my mind abondend baby and a seierl killer on the loose.
Both of these topics are things that happen in every day life.
Rating: 
Summary: Confusing hodge-podge
Review: I was disappointed. This book reads as if Kellerman was required to include as many controversial subjects as possible. We have an inter-racial relationship with so much sex it would sate a nympho queen; we have Jewish vs Christian issues, we have mentally challenged, Hispanic gangs, blacks, good and bad cops, medically trained immigrants, old people, even remnants from the Holocaust. Give me a break, I was exhausted trying to keep track of it all.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing read
Review: I was eagerly awaiting this book, as I have really enjoyed Faye Kellerman's previous novels. I found the first novel about Cindy Decker intriguing and was looking forward to a second one. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations. The plot was slow and uninvolved. I was never really in suspense as to what was going to happen, and the ending was anticlimatic. A secondary plot, about the murder of Rina's grandmother in Germany, was never resolved and it was unclear to this reader why this subplot was included at all. In this novel, Cindy gets a new love interest, an Ethiopian Jew named Koby. While it is interesting to see a story about an interracial relationship, this particular relationship does not have any spark. It is unclear why Koby is so attracted to Cindy when she is not an observant Jew and he hates cops. Cindy obviously has issues with dating a man of a different race and a religiously observant man, but does not address any of these issues before becoming happily engaged to him. All in all, an ok read but disappointing if you were expecting a novel of the caliber of Faye Kellerman's previous works. I hope this one is an aberration and the next one is much better.
Rating:
Summary: "Where's the beef?"
Review: I'm a big fan of Ms Kellerman's husband, Jonathan; so I decided to try Faye. The Publisher's Weekly review hit the nail on the head. (I bought this book off the newsstand, but should have come here to read the reviews first.) I was very disappointed. Ms Kellerman describes the various events in this book very nicely. However, there's no follow through with what's going on. Things get tied together, but there is no substance between the initial events and the conclusions that are each neatly wrapped up in a few paragraphs.
One theme that could have been embellished is Officer Cindy's meeting with a male nurse, Koby, and the progress of their relationship. The Koby character, who is initially described as educated and formerly in the Israeli army, could have been well developed, but winds up being mostly beefcake. This character should have grown into something substantial, and the romance spread over a couple more novels. However, it too gets predictably wrapped up in the end.
What was Cindy's trauma and therapy about? If this was a reference to another book, tell us a little to whet the appetite. The segment with Rina's grandmother - why did Ms. Kellerman even bother? It seemed to be an aside that didn't fit in the book.
If you're a fan of this series, then maybe it all made sense; but, as a first time reader, I find it sorely lacking in substance. As Clara, on the old Wendy's commercials used to say, "Where's the beef?"
Rating: 
Summary: Not Faye Kellerman's best
Review: I'm a big fan of Ms. Kellermans but this book jumped all over the place. There were several story lines and I was getting confused. I think just the story line about Cindy would have been fine.
Rating:
Summary: second generation comes into its own
Review: In some ways I found this book confusing, being used to Peter Decker as the "first person speaker" in Faye Kellerman's books. But I found it interesting to carry the Decker family into the second generation and follow the relationships of Cindy as well as her parents. There were two ongoing plots, one with Cindy and one with her stepmother Rina and her dad Peter. They were, in a sense, looking for a murderer of two generations ago. This murder was never resolved and I personally felt the whole plot belonged in another book. The main plot, tracking down an abuser of retarded women, took enough twists and turns to keep me interested and resolved itself in an interesting way. The side plots Cindy's new love interest, an Ethiopian Jew who works as a nurse, was fun, except that I tired of hearing them talk about how beautiful each other is. Okay, beauty is fine. But let's talk about how bright each other is too. Well, they did, just not nearly as frequently. But overall, I think Kellerman is successful in bringing the Decker family into the new generation and hopefully she has a lot more Cindy stories to tell.
Rating:
Summary: I've been really disappointed....
Review: in the way Kellerman had let this series meander in her last two outings "The Forgotten" and "Stone Kiss". Unlike many of the other readers I want to applaud this latest effort, picking up on Cindy Decker as the main character, and continuing her story from "Stalker". It is true that if you haven't read the series, this book won't work for you. But like many patient readers of "series" mystery and thrillers, I get a little tired of the time and effort spent recapping the series for new readers. At some point, (and this is the 16th book in series), an author needs to cater to the fans that have been loyal enough to follow the series.....so, the action picks up without a lot of background noise on either Cindy or parents Peter/Rina -- a welcome relief. Cindy's police work is supplemented this time by a much more realistic love story than her affair with a detective in "Stalker". Koby, the man she meets and falls in love with, is perhaps drawn too physically, but the sexual energy and attraction between them shines through, much like the early books portrayed the link between Peter and Rina. For once, Peter and Rina take a trip/vacation where there is no need for police work, and no family to "save" (thank goodness!)...their backdrop of searching for Rina's family past in Europe is a nice, humanistic setting for the primary story. Cindy's got an interesting, realistic crime to solve, and there is some danger, along with a lot of help and advice from her father and Koby. The book moves rapidly, with the love and family stories seamlessly meshing with the police work. If Kellerman can follow this book up with a winner, starring the new couple, she might be the first contemporary serial writer to successfully move her stories from one generation to another; an interesting accomplishment. More!
Rating:
Summary: EMPTY STREETS
Review: In this latest installment of the Decker family series, Kellerman commits a grave sin as far as good mystery writers go: there is little, if any, suspense, and she sacrifices the mystery by focusing on two plots that go absolutely nowhere.
The focus in this novel is on Peter's daughter, Cindy, who continues to be a non-interesting, hardly likeable character. She continues to resent teamwork, and now she finds herself madly in love with an Ethiopian Jew. A disarmingly handsome nurse who helps her out when she finds the abandoned baby. Again, Kellerman lets her religious fervor dominate. What's odd about this particular romance is that obviously from Koby's own words, his relationship with Cindy is primarily physical. He wants to have sex with her all the time; he also has dark moods that are never truly explained or resolved. Combining the racial and religious problems fails to enliven this meandering romance.
Then we have this other plot where Rina is investigating the murder of her grandmother in 1930's Poland. She goes all out to discover the truth, but when the novel ends, we have no further understanding of what really happened.
And perhaps the biggest disappointment is that even after the child abandonment, the hit and run, etc., the killers are characters who have had little time in the novel. So who can really care?
I have read all of the series now and still maintain that "love/hate" relationship with Kellerman's books. She might be better off just writing family tales of the usual marital and romantic woes, than trying to slide a mystery in.
Not the best of her series in the long run.
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