Hangman: A Decker/Lazarus Novel - Hardcover

Kellerman, Faye

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061702560 ISBN 13: 9780061702563

Publisher: William Morrow, 2010

Synopsis

“No one working in the crime genre is better.”
—Baltimore Sun

 

L.A.P.D. Homicide Detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus are back on a case in Hangman—an electrifying new novel of suspense from Faye Kellerman, New York Times bestselling author of Blindman’s Bluff, The Mercedes Coffin, The Burnt House, and many other masterful thrillers. A stunning tale of crime and detection featuring the brutal death of a “party girl” health care worker, a mysterious disappearance, and the chilling return of an all-too-familiar sociopath, Hangman is Kellerman’s 21st bestseller to feature Decker and Lazarus, “Hands down, the most refreshing mystery couple around.” (People)

 

About this title

About the Author

Faye Kellerman lives with her husband, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, in Los Angeles, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

From the Back Cover

Murder, a missing woman, and a sociopath from the past sweep Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus into a labyrinth of mystery and danger in this electrifying new tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman. . . .

Fifteen years ago, high school senior Chris Whitman went to jail for murdering his girlfriend, Cheryl Diggs. Propelled by a misguided sense of chivalry, he confessed, determined to save another classmate, the beautiful and vulnerable Terry McLaughlin, from having to testify at his trial. When the truth came out, Chris was released from prison, married Terry—pregnant with his child—and changed his last name to Donatti. He also became a professional killer.

Peter Decker was the detective on the case, and over the years, he and Terry kept in touch. Now his friend is in L.A. and asking for a favor. Though Decker knows full well that getting involved will bring Terry's sociopathic husband back into his life, the obsessive and duty-bound LAPD lieutenant reluctantly agrees. The favor soon becomes complicated when Terry goes missing and Donatti disappears, leaving their fourteen-year-old son, Gabe, with no one to turn to except Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus.

But Peter's search for Terry must share center stage with a gruesome murder. Adrianna Blanc, a neonatal nurse at St. Timothy's Hospital, had signed off her night shift at eight a.m. Six hours later, a foreman supervising the construction of a house in a nearby suburb discovered her body swinging from the rafters, a cable wire around her neck. Her car was found where she had parked it the night before, with no signs of foul play.

A dedicated and conscientious professional, Adrianna had a circle of close friends. Yet as Decker and his able team soon learn, the young woman also had her share of detractors. A party-hearty girl, she enjoyed booze, kinky sex, and revenge-cheating on her boyfriend, Garth Hammerling, another nurse at St. Tim's. Suspicions heat up when Decker and his team find that one of Adrianna's last phone calls was a provocative and disturbing message to her vacationing boyfriend—who himself has vanished without a trace. Was Adrianna's death something personal because of her carefree lifestyle? Or was this unusually cruel and very dramatic murder the first signs of a serial killer? With lives hanging in the balance, Decker and his colleagues, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver, need to find answers and fast.

As if juggling two investigations weren't enough for the lieutenant (not to mention turning sixty!), things are becoming even more dangerous with his precarious home life. Ever the concerned parent, Decker wants to look after Terry's son, Gabe. Yet who will protect his own family? Because if there's one thing he knows for sure, with a sociopath like Donatti on the loose, no one is ever really safe.

Reviews

If you’re a Kellerman fan, especially of her best-selling and long-running series featuring LAPD Detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, this latest entry, again mixing police procedural and family drama, should fill the bill. If you’re new to Kellerman, though, this is not the place to start. Kellerman works primarily in dialogue, with very sketchy narrative support, which requires readers unfamiliar with the backstory to act as their own detectives, figuring out what the heck is going on in each scene. The plot maintains a breakneck pace—we move from the Deckers at dinner getting a call from a distressed teen to the teen’s revelation that his parents are missing from their hotel to the further revelation that Decker worked on a homicide case 15 years ago in which the now-absent father falsely confessed to murdering his high-school sweetheart, went to jail, and emerged as a hired killer. There goes dinner. Decker and Lazarus have to track down all these moving pieces. Meanwhile, a neonatal nurse with a wild private life is found brutally murdered. Naturally, we have to confront the fact that there may be a serial killer at work. Fans of Joseph Wambaugh will find a very different LAPD here—less credible and certainly far less funny—than the one he presents. Still, the family-drama side of this series is its main appeal to fans, and that’s what will get them through a less-than-stellar effort. --Connie Fletcher

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0061702560
• ISBN 13: 9780061702563
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432