December 19, 2011
A teenage romance dominates bestseller Kellerman’s subpar 20th novel featuring LAPD Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus (after 2010’s Hangman). Decker’s search for the truth in the wake of the inexplicable suicide of high school student Gregory Hesse competes with the story of Decker’s latest rescue, 15-year-old Gabe Whitman, a brilliant musical prodigy whose father earns his living as a pimp. Gabe’s hormones run out-of-control after he meets 14-year-old Yasmine Nourmand, a Persian Jew from a very traditional family. The vicissitudes of the budding relationship between Gabe, who lives with the Deckers, and Yasmine hit on pretty much all the usual clichés, and this focus diminishes the impact of the truth behind Gregory’s death. Kellerman’s portrayal of Rina as the Jewish mother of all Jewish mothers may leave some readers wishing the author had cast Rina more as an individual than a type.