Street Dreams - Hardcover

Kellerman, Faye

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446531316 ISBN 13: 9780446531313

Publisher: Warner Books, 2003

Synopsis

While on routine patrol, LAPD Officer CindyDecker rescues a newborn abandoned in an alley dumpster. But she can't call it a night until she sees the infant safe in a hospital. Now, the hunt is on for the mother, more than likely a desperate girl in need of medical attention. Armed with advice from her overworked detective father, Cindy searches through inner-city Hollywood, following a treacherous trail filled with drug lords. But with each new lead, the twisted journey gets darker, battering Cindy's complex personal relationships-and endangering her very life. When Decker andDecker join forces, can this edgy duo put personal issues aside to catch a vicious culprit before he strikes again?

About this title

Reviews

Bestseller Kellerman's latest Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novel (after 2002's Stone Kiss) will please her fans, but is unlikely to make new converts. When Cindy Decker, Peter's LAPD officer daughter (who had a big role in 2000's Stalker), finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster, she sets out to track down the developmentally disabled mother, suspecting that the child may have been the product of a rape. Her fellow officers discourage her efforts, while an attempt on her life sparks conflict with an alarmed Peter. Romance occupies Cindy, an observant Jew, as much as her professional career. Conveniently, the sexy and caring black pediatric nurse who cares for the baby turns out to be an observant Ethiopian Jew who is instantly smitten with her. Other coincidences abound, including Cindy's witnessing of a fatal hit-and-run that may be connected with the sexual assault she alone believes occurred. A minor subplot concerning the murder of stepmother Rina's grandmother in 1920s Munich simply peters out. Details of Jewish religious observance amount to superficial trappings. Cindy mentions dealing with an earlier trauma through therapy, but the author never lets the reader in on any of her sessions. The solution to the crime comes almost as an afterthought in this overlong book. Others, and Kellerman herself, have done a better job of melding a mystery plot with the challenges of maintaining Jewish identity in the modern world.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Because Kellerman doesn't reprise history in her latest Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker mystery, readers new to the long-running series may find themselves frustrated by the allusions. But Decker family fans will speed through this solid whodunit, which is not only an entertaining puzzler but also takes the characters' relationships to a new level. Cindy, a rookie cop and Peter's 28-year-old daughter by his first marriage, takes center stage here. Both her rocky history with the department and with her dad come to the fore as she digs into the case of a developmentally disabled teenager who abandoned her baby, insists she was raped, and may have witnessed a murder. Following the strangely coincidental hit-and-run of another disabled teen from the same area, the case blossoms into a mystery that requires help from Peter and from Cindy's new boyfriend, an Ethiopian-born Jew who finds willowy, red-haired Cindy to be the girl of his dreams. The romance and the dialogue are a tad overdone ("you and me both, hot stuff"), but series fans won't be too concerned. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Warner Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446531316
• ISBN 13: 9780446531313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432