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In this 21st book in the 'Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus' series, Detective Decker confronts a crime scene demolished by a confined tiger. The book can be read as a standalone.*****Eighty-nine year old eccentric, Hobart Penny, is found dead in the apartment he shares with a full grown Bengal tiger.Penny has been bludgeoned and shot, but clues are hard to find since the apartment has been torn up and befouled by the frustrated, hungry tiger.When LAPD detective Peter Decker and his colleagues Marge Dun...
Every once in a while it is comforting to take a break from reading classics, nonfiction, and literary fiction and return to a familiar series. I have been with Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus since her debut book The Ritual Bath and followed the story of their lives until present. I had taken a break from the series as I had gotten too emotionally invested in the characters, especially because Peter and Rina share my orthodox religious lifestyle by choice so by default I felt an
Decker is called into the death of 80ish Hobart Penny. When they arrive at his apartment they find a full grown female tiger which puts a hold on the investigation until animal control can come and remove it. They find that Mr. Penny has been bludgeoned and shot inthe back and the apartment is a disaster area. Thus begins a strange case filled with deadly creatures, a wildlife sanctuary and a murdered wealthy recluse with strange habits and activities. Decker and Lazarus are also dealing with th...
Faye Kellerman is every bit as good an author as her more famous husband, Jonathan. In "The Beast", she brings back LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina, to unravel a very odd murder. Billionaire eccentric Hobart Penny is found murdered, with his pet Bengal tiger roaming loose in the apartment. As Decker and his team sort out suspects and motives, Rina is trying to settle things on the home front. Their teenaged foster son is leaving the nest and is romantically involved with
Each and every book in this series is a perfect stand-alone. I do think, however, that my reading pleasure is enhanced by knowing part of the history of the main characters, even if there are allusions to events and books that I have not yet read. But knowing the people involved in the story is like meeting old friends – and catching up with old friends is always fun! Especially when old friends from another series – Dr. Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis – written by Faye’s husband Jonath...
Way too explicit in the beginning, no matter how intriguing. The ending was way too flat.
Two intense storylines. Peter Decker is called to an apartment building where a female Bengal tiger is angry and nobody has seen the tenant. After Animal Control tranquilizes the tiger, the old man is found murdered. Suspicion falls on his sanctuary friends although he has a kinky past and is regularly visited by masseuses. Meanwhile, Gabe Whitman, Peter and Rina's charge, continues to see his girlfriend Yasmine against her mother's wishes, leading to a nasty scene with the police. Marge and Pet...
This book is number 21 in a Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. Peter is a LAPD Detective and his wife Rina is Jewish and spends her time doing many community activities. The story centers around an elderly man found in his apartment dead with a bullet in his back, with a pet tiger as a pet in the apartment... Peter must not only find who the culprit is, but what this man was doing with a tiger in his apartment amongst other things... It is a good read, it starts off with conflict between his fost...
I adored the beginning of the Peter/Rina series. I really did. But let’s deconstruct why I loved it: First, Peter was changing, evolving. Trying to cope with his past and overcome it, and forge a new future.Second, Rina was dynamic and interesting, involved in Peter and in the casesThird, Orthodox Judaism is cool and a different perspective on how to integrate religion into a cop’s life. Basically, Faye took that entire construct and just. . . did away with it. Peter basically gets told by every...
Opening a new Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus book always is accompanied by a bit of excitement - I've read them all (this is the 21st), and while some have been better than others, I've enjoyed every single one. This one, IMHO, is one of the best.Any disappointment, if you can call it that, is that it seems Rina's role has diminished over time (as I mentioned in my review of last year's Gun Games. In the past, she's been more directly involved in her husband's murder investigations, and there's been
I am a sentimental gal. The mystery aspect was not great, but not bad. Five stars for the update on the characters in the book. I just wish Faye would write a book about Peter and Rina, and not bother me so much with the mystery!!
I did not like -- I did not like -- I did not like at all. This was truly a gruesome experience.And yet I read it. From beginning to end. That's what happens when you're trapped in hospital waiting rooms, waiting for the shoe(s) to drop. You read garbage. You read each page twice and thrice. And you read to the very end. And you wonder why. And you wished you still belonged to that religion you once believed in, just so you could go to confession and absolve yourself/get absolution for the (char...
What happened to Decker?I used to love the series. He was a cool guy, an Orthodox Jew detective with an interesting wife, and he used to investigate crimes with odd circumstances, fantastic characters, and a good team - all while giving some glimpses of the exotic Jewish life and habits to his readers.As the series went on, he grew and his family members and team grew. The characters of the people investigated in the books also grew to be more interesting and wilder. But now it suddenly feels li...
I like Faye Kellerman's writing which I have read from the start. I think there is a good mixture of police investigation and family life with one complementing the other, although I missed Rina in this one as she didn't have a starring role. I also think that to get the best from the family angle you should read some of the preceding books first. The police investigation in Predator is a bit of a walk on the wild side as they find a rich eccentric murdered in his apartment and his pet tiger goi...
First of all a HUGE thanks to Kate for sending me a copy of this book for review. And because I love the Kellermans!This instalment of the Decker/Lazarus series begins with a body in an apartment building. Well, they think there is a body...trouble is there is also a Tiger. A very large and rather hungry looking Tiger..perhaps one of the most entertaining openings to this series yet.As Decker investigates it becomes apparent that a tiger is not going to be the only problem...the dead man was wea...
Third lackluster outing in a row for Lazarus and Decker:We’ve read every entry in the now 21-book set that are basically police procedurals starring LAPD Homicide Lt. Peter Decker. Wife Rina Lazarus has increasingly taken a filler role – in the early days she was used to illuminate, sometimes blatantly, the strict practices of conservative Judaism. In more recent novels, she is basically the mother image holding things together. And when the Decker nest was finally empty, they took in a teenaged...
Its been a long while since I have read a Faye Kellerman book. Bad idea to pick up again with her latest! So much has happened to the characters it made me mad I had not read the books in between.Can I say that I think Faye is a better writer than her husband?? I love them both but Faye has the edge.Predator is another Decker and Lazarus thriller. An 89 year old recluse has been found dead....with a pet tiger in his apartment. It soon becomes clear he was murdered and as they delve deeper into t...
FINALLY! A mystery book club book selection that I've enjoyed! But not surprisingly, the rest of the book club was a bit "meh" on it.I liked the setting in the San Fernando Valley. The murder victim deserved to be murdered, so I was fine with his death. Overall, a quick read with a satisfying procedural bent to it. Plus, who doesn't love when a tiger is part of the murder scene? (Okay, I know the answer - my book club. But they don't love much.)
I don't know whether this one is a substitute writer, or a serious editing failure, but it's quite bad. Punctuation errors and word misusage (affective instead of effective, for example) are obvious, but the bad writing is the real sin. The dialogue is pretty unbelievable in many places, too - since when would a teenager refer to himself as a "dreadful actor"? He'd use 'awful' or 'terrible' but I don't think teenagers have used 'dreadful' in that sense anytime this past 70 years or so. And 'mani...
While the mystery in this one is one of the weakest in the series, I like these books for the life of Decker and his family, the police family, the real family, and the adopted family. This book was heavy on the adopted family (Chris Donatti and Gabe Whitman) and the police family. I always enjoy the way Faye Kellerman describes the details and in this one the tigers and beast are interesting. This one was interesting enough I skipped the next book in the reading list for the next Decker book.