Stone Kiss

Rating:
Summary: I'm a Fan. . .
Review: ...of the Decker/Lazarus series and I started at the beginning. However, I don't think you'd want to read the series in succession. I now mix it up and when I returned to Stone Kiss it was like visiting with old friends. I enjoyed the story and always enjoy learning more about the Jewish faith. This is light, fast moving and easy reading. Christopher Donatti is a daunting character with good interaction between the characters. I, too, am sure he will turn up again as have a few others.

Rating:
Summary: Another Winner from Faye
Review: All of the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novels by Faye Kellerman are fast reads, and "Stone Kiss" is no exception.

Peter and Rina find themselves in the ultra-orthodox Jewish enclave of Brooklyn, NY, where Peter has been summoned by his half brother, Jonathan, to investigate the murder of Jonathan's brother-in-law, Ephraim Lieber. Peter is reluctant to get involved. He has no police jurisdiction in New York, he is without his usual sources and backup, and the entire Lieber family, grieving for their lost relative--and, coincidentally, Ephraim's teenaged niece, Shayndie, is treating Peter like dirt.

Peter is all for turning right around and going home, but like always, becomes deeply entwined in the mystery, which involves more twists and turns, more mysteries, than anyone shoud have to face. In addition to the missing girl and the murdered uncle, something is very strange about the surviving brother, Chaim, father of the girl--who all but kicks Decker out with his boot while nevertheless garbed in the pious garb of the ultra-orthodox.

It's strange alright--and gets even stranger when the mystery drops Decker right in the lap of mobster Chris Donatti, with whom Decker has a long and complicated history.

The mystery continues almost right up to the last page, and as always, there is no ends-tightly-sewn-together, pat ending. This is a good read, another Faye Kellerman winner, and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment for Faye Kellerman fans
Review: Faye Kellerman has been writing these stories for about a decade and a half now, since just a few years after her husband started. I think he was first, but I'm not sure. Anyway, her stories have gotten more character and atmosphere-driven, compared with his, because she chose to make her character an Orthodox Jew (both of the Kellermans are, to my understanding, also Orthodox Jews). This gives her something to work with other than the mystery/suspense plot, and serves her well (husband Jonathan has been concentrating on his main character's sidekick, the gay detective Milo Sturgis, in recent books, perhaps because of this). I should explain that the main character, Peter Decker, is an LAPD Homicide cop. He grew up knowing he was adopted, but it wasn't til adulthood that he discovered that his birth mother was Jewish. Coincidentally he met a beautiful woman who was an Orthodox Jew, and wound up converting to that faith and marrying her. This makes for a complicated plot, as Decker has both a birth family (Jewish, and living in New York) and an adoptive family (Gentile, living in Florida). Members of both families appear in the book, and make things complicated.

Decker's birth half-brother calls him in the dead of night to inform him that his (the half-brother's) wife's brother has been murdered in a seedy hotel room in New York City. He was supposedly with his niece (though he shouldn't have been in a hotel room with her, seedy or not). Instead, there are drugs in the room, and no sign of the fifteen year old niece. The brother-in-law asks Decker (in a bit of a stretch) to come to New York City from LA and try and help straighten things out. Decker agrees.

Ultimately, Decker's whole family travels to New York to visit and shop (his wife) and do detective work (Decker). I won't go into any of the details of the plot, other than to tell you that it's interesting, if a bit slow. There are characters from previous books, and various plot devices, that are all fun, in my opinion. I enjoyed reading about the neighborhoods in the city, the Jews (and others) that inhabit them, and so forth. There's much about Orthodox Jews and their thinking and attitudes, and it's fascinating.

I would say that if you want a fast-paced mystery you should probably look elsewhere, though this one does end in an interesting gunfight that concludes rather differently from most. I enjoyed the book, because

Rating:
Summary: Well-Plotted, Fast-Moving Thriller
Review: L.A. Police Lieutenant Pete Decker gets a call from his half-brother, Rabbi Jonathan Levine. The Levines live in New York and Jonathan is seeking Decker's help. His brother-in-law has been found murdered in a seedy hotel room and his fifteen year-old niece, who he had supposedly been watching that day, had disappeared. Jonathan wants Decker to fly to New York to help the family.

Decker's investigations in New York and Quinton, the town where the victim lived as part of an Orthodox Jewish enclave, are unwelcome to just about everybody, from the police in both cities to the missing girl's parents. And when a hitman from Decker's past enters the picture, things quickly get worse. Brutal but thoughtful, Stone Kiss is well-plotted, fast-moving, well-told and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Peter Decker Meets His Match
Review: Peter Decker, detective supremo,from LA meets his match in the big city, New York. Lt. Decker is asked by his brother come lately,Jonathan, an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, to come to New York to help find the murderer of his brother-in-law. Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus had planned a vacation, but they take this side trip to help family. The plot becomes quite complicated, but easily understood by Faye Kellerman's exquisite writing. She has found a true fan in me with this book. She explains the Orthodox Jewish faith through Rabbi Jonathan and stories of his family. The New York crime family comes to life with the re-introduction of Chris Donatti. Decker saved Donatti's girlfriend in a previvous story and helped her back on her feet. Donatti does not forget this, and even though Decker helps to make his shoddy life much more difficult, he sees Decker through some dangerous times. Lots of gore, mystery and surprises- so well written that I started to think of Rina as a friend that I wanted to warn of the dangers ahead. Decker and Rina extricate themselves and their family from this situation as Decker solves the murder and is looked at as the hero of the day. Off they go to Florida for a fun vacation with family where a letter arrives for Rina and the next mystery is born.

Rating:
Summary: Started out good, but went down, down.....
Review: The story had a good start with Peter being called to New York to help his relatives with a murder and disappearance. It was interesting to see him away from his normal LA surroundings and be a "fish out of water" in New York.

But, the actual mystery part of the story was buried under a lot of confusing circumstances and way too many characters. Since, the story takes place somewhere other than Peter's normal beat, the majority of the characters were new to us. Too many new people were included. There were lots and lots of relatives - half brothers and sisters, Peter's biological mother, parents of Rina's dead husband, Peter's adopted brother, Peter's adoptive parents plus a lot of in-laws of some branch of the family. There were new characters of police officers of various New York towns and several characters from previous Faye Kellerman novels. I want a story to be deep and interesting, but these new people were too much trouble to try to keep straight.

I enjoy the Jewish aspect and perspective of these books. It really is an education for me. But, in this book, the Jewish names, nicknames, customs, language and rituals really overwhelmed the mystery part of the story. A lot of the characters were called by their given name in one sentence and then were called by a nickname in the next sentence. As many of these characters were new, it took me a while to figure out that a lot of them had 2 names - a regular one and a nickname. Faye Kellerman could have helped us as readers if she would have some how explained or indicated that many of her characters had nicknames. For quite a while, I thought there were even more new people than there actually were. I finally figured out that more than one name was being used to denote the same person.

Then there was the problem with the point of view from which the story was written changing in the middle of the book with no warning or reason. All of a sudden, the story is written in the first person, but I had no idea who this person was who was saying these things. It took a while to figure out that the "speaker" was the girlfriend of a character that appeared in an earlier Faye Kellerman novel. The change to her "first person" point of view made no sense and was extremely confusing to the reader.

When I first started this novel, I had high hopes and felt it would be a really good read. But, it could not keep and maintain my interest for very long. By the end of the book, (I think) the mystery was solved. But, from what I could gather, the bad guys won quite a bit and most of what actually happened was covered up. I think in the final chapter, a bad guy (who got away with many crimes) killed someone else. The last several chapters were way too confusing to really make a lot of sense. It was a disappointing book that started out looking a lot better than it ended.

Rating:
Summary: GRITTY SMOOCH
Review: Uh-oh, looks like I'm in the minority, but the return of Christopher Donatti, to me, is the real spark in this well-written, dark, brodding novel. Oh, yes Chris is definitely sadistic, egocentric, psychopathic, childish, brutal and conscienceless. However, Kellerman has been smart enough to show his "good" side. Maybe he obssesses and uses Terry and others to achieve his own goals, but somewhere in all the brooding good lucks, his buff body, there is a soul of a man abused as a child, reaching out to find someone to love. His cruelty to Decker only masks his intense hate/love relationship. The ending is quite unexpected, and obviously leaves room for Donatti's return.
Elsewhere, Kellerman has fleshed out Jonathan Levine more, and his relationship with Decker grows in admiration and respect. The mystery actually gets overshadowed by the complexity of the relationships and the fiery Donatti. Suffice to say, it's easy to see who the real culprits are...it's just a lot of fun getting there.
ONE OF THE BEST IN THE SERIES.

Rating:
Summary: Huh ?
Review: Yes, this is what I kept saying throughout what I've read so far...I have been working on this book for a month. I am a Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb fan. I thought this book would match those of Roberts. Boy was I wrong. I have to agree with other reviewers, this book was confusing. No, I did not start at the beginning of the series. Readers shouldn't have to. We should be able to pick right up on the characters and plot. The next time I see a cheap hardcover at the checkout in Walmart I will leave it there.