The Hunt: A Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus thriller
Faye Kellerman’s book reviewed by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen.
This is the 26th novel by this author in this series. She does have others, including two with her husband and one with her daughter. In the dedication, she indicates that this will be the final novel in this series [and of course, one wonders whether this will be a variation on the Nellie Melba final performance].
In most of the past novels, the primary detective is Decker but so often in Rina is a serious player. In this novel, she is missing for at least half of it, although when she does appear, it does make a difference.
For most of the novel, there are two stories running independently. One is a kidnapping in India and the other is a murder in a small town in America’s east coast. The connection between the two is that Rina and Decker have helped raise a non-biological son, Gabe, and it is his half-brother, who is kidnapped in India. The half-brothers share a mother with Gabe. It is Gabe’s father who puts in motion the process to rescue Sanjay despite not being kin to the boy. It is part of the condition that Gabe’s mother return (and eventually marry) Gabe’s father as part of his rescuing Sanjay.
The murder goes through the usual twists and turns and is eventually solved by Peter. Peter and Rina are about to go off for 6 months to Israel as part of their ultimate plan to move to Jerusalem with Pete no longer a homicide detective. It is then that Rina returns to the narrative and the two stories have some joining for Decker has not been at all involved in the kidnapping resolution.
Gabe’s mother has disappeared, and his father turns to Decker to help solve this mystery. It is Rina’s sixth sense which identifies the perpetrator and then they finally locate the missing woman. The last 50 pages have a couple of twists and turns, and rather than reveal both of them I will let the reader discover them- they won’t make sense if you just turn to the last 50 pages.
There is a lot more sexual activity in this novel than in any of the others in this series. Some of it I felt was more for sensationalism than to progress the plot. Some of the scenes were overly graphic, and I was left wondering how a nice orthodox Jewish girl [Kellerman] would know so much to describe them so graphically. While each scene might not be forbidden in Jewish tradition (except for rape and marital rape), many would not be the norm in Kellerman’s real world.
Like all the Decker/Lazarus novels, this was an easy read and a good page-turner. Enjoy it!
Jeffrey Cohen is associated with the School of Medicine (Sydney), University of Notre Dame Australia as well as on Staff at St. Vincent’s’ Private Hospital, Sydney. He has previously held academic appointments at UNSW Sydney and St Louis University. He served as CEO of the Sydney Jewish Museum for 5 years and is a Senior Consultant to Museum Planning Services.
