The Burnt House

George Guidall is so comfortable performing the Rina Lazarus/Peter Decker series that even first-time listeners will feel right at home. In the sixteenth book featuring the married couple, a plane crash into an apartment building, a missing flight attendant, and the burned remains of a victim murdered over 20 years earlier provide plenty of mystery. Faye Kellerman builds tenderness, intelligence, and normalcy into Rina and Peter's Orthodox Jewish family life and their conversations about God, guilt, and sin. She produces a convoluted (if occasionally coincidence-prone) story, but, thanks in part to Guidall's top-notch performance, her characters have the gritty feel of real people. Guidall's pacing, vocal shifts, and delivery of the many Yiddish expressions sprinkled throughout are masterful. This is one listeners won't want to miss. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

July 9, 2007
A coincidence so improbable that a character comments on it renders bestseller Kellerman’s 16th novel to feature Lt. Peter Decker of the LAPD and wife Rina Lazarus (after 2003’s Street Dreams
) one of the series’ lesser entries. After a commuter airplane crashes into an apartment building shortly after takeoff from Burbank Airport, Decker and his team investigate what many fear was a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, the parents of Roseanne Dresden, a flight attendant, suspect that their daughter was murdered by her stockbroker husband, Ivan, who claims his wife joined the doomed flight at the last minute. Roseanne was considering divorce, and Ivan stood to lose financially. As the probes into the crash and into Roseanne’s fate converge, readers will find it a challenge to suspend disbelief. Fans of the extended Decker-Lazarus clan will enjoy catching up with old friends, but those looking for a plausible police procedural may be disappointed.

October 1, 2007
Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus fans will rejoice at another popular Kellerman murder mystery featuring the LAPD lieutenant and his sleuthing family. A small plane has crashed into an apartment building. The remains of the passengers have been found except those of flight attendant Roseanne Dresden, whose father doubts that his daughter was on the doomed flight and is convinced that her philandering husband Ivan has murdered her. The crumbling body of an unidentified murder victim is found in the rubble of the destroyed building, and although it's not Roseanne, it is linked to her in an unbelievable way. An excellent reading by George Guidall brings out the varied personalities of the characters; the voice of Roseanne's father is especially interesting. The coincidences in this book are a little too far-fetched, and although Peter's wife, Rina, and daughter Cindy and her husband, Koby, make an appearance, they do not play major roles in helping Peter solve the case. Recommended for the murder mystery section of libraries that collect the Decker/Lazarus series.Ilka Gordon, Park Synagogue Lib., Pepper Pike, OH

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