Sacred and Profane

The second in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series (1987) finds Decker on loan from the Juvenile Division to Homicide, investigating L.A.'s sleazy underbelly. Decker's encounters include teenaged runaways, prostitution, child pornography, and snuff films. Further, Decker and Rina's relationship is on the line, as Decker is unable to commit to Orthodox Judaism just to please her. Mitch Greenberg's skillful performance turns Kellerman's well-drawn characters into flesh and blood. Greenberg keeps Yiddish accents from being stereotypes, even singing a Hebrew blessing beautifully. Children sound childlike, women sound womanly, and his urban street toughs, pimps, and hookers never sound like caricatures. With enough plot twists to satisfy, fans will be well pleased with Greenberg's understated, controlled voicing of this popular series. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

January 1, 1987
Peter Decker, detective sergeant in the LAPD, meets young widow Rina Lazarus while investigating an attempted rape at the yeshiva in Deep Canyon where she lives. Rina's religious convictions shape their ensuing relationship and Peter begins the process of converting, in part for his own spiritual needs and in part to be able to marry her. On a camping trip, Rina's young sons discover two charred skeletons, plunging Pete into a case that makes up one thread in this follow-up mystery to Kellerman's The Ritual Bath. Identifying the skeletons via complex dental work (Kellerman is a dentist and the wife of suspense novelist Jonathan Kellerman), Pete traces the murders back to a grisly pornography ring centering around "snuff'' films, which climax in death. Wading through the underside of LA's sex-for-sale world, Pete questions the purpose and value of religion in his life. As the horror and death toll mount, he struggles to reconcile the sordid realities with the religious practices of the yeshiva. Pete's growing isolation from Rina and increasing despair comprise the secondperhaps primaryfocus in mystery. Though leaning too heavily on Hebrew words and on details of dentistry, and with more graphic violence than at times seems necessary, Kellerman brings the case to a resounding resolution, suggesting as well a believable conclusion to Pete's personal dilemma even as she leaves his future with Rina unresolved.

April 15, 2008
This follow-up to Kellerman's 1987 book, "The Ritual Bath", is the second in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus mystery series. Peter takes Rina's sons Sammy and Jake on a camping trip, and while walking alone in the woods, Sammy stumbles upon the charred remains of two teenage girls. Peter's search for their killer plunges him into the sordid world of child pornography and prostitution. As a result of the horrors Peter witnesses, he suffers a crisis of faith; he rejects orthodox Jewish practice and doubts there is a God. His changed attitude toward religion complicates his relationship with Rina. Narrator Mitch Greenberg does an excellent job, seamlessly changing voices, emotions, and accents as he speaks for the various characters. Recommended for the mystery collection of all libraries, especially those whose patrons are Kellerman fans. [Also available as downloadable audio from Audible.Ed.]Ilka Gordon, Park Synagogue Lib., Pepper Pike, OH

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