Sanctuary (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Series #7) » (Reissue)

Love is serious business in Faye Kellerman's murder mysteries, starring sleuthing couple Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker. Kellerman spices her hardboiled crime stories with issues involving modern Judaism (Rina is Orthodox), putting a unique spin on the mystery genre in both this series and two separate but similarly successful novels, Moon Music and The Quality of Mercy.

A diamond dealer and his entire family have mysteriously disappeared from their sprawling Las Angeles manor, leaving the estate undisturbed and their valuables untouched. Investigating detective Decker is stumped—faced with a perplexing case riddled with dead ends. Then a second dealer is found murdered in Manhatten, catapulting Decker and his wife, Rina, into a heartstopping maze of murder and intrigue that spans the globe...only to touch down dangerously in their own backyard.A diamond dealer and his entire family have mysteriously disappeared from their sprawling Los Angeles manor, leaving the estate undisturbed and their valuables untouched. Investigating detective Decker is stumped—faced with a perplexing case riddled with dead ends. Then a second dealer is found murdered in manhattan, catapulting Decker and his wife, Rina, into a hearstopping maze of murder and intrigue that spans the globe. . . .only to touch down dangerously in their own backyard.

Publishers Weekly

Orthodox Jewish housewife Rina Lazarus and her husband-and convert to Judaism-LAPD Detective Sergeant Peter Decker (last seen in Grievous Sin) have their hands full in their seventh adventure. While Peter and his partner, Det. Marge Dunn, investigate the disappearance of prosperous diamond dealer Arik Yalom, his wife and their teenage sons, Rina plays hostess to Honey Klein, visiting from New York with her children and obviously escaping problems with her Hasidic diamond-dealer husband, Gershon. When the bodies of the older Yaloms are found buried on a local mountainside, their sons are seen as possible suspects or potential victims fleeing for their lives. The Yalom case leads Peter to L.A.'s diamond center; to elegant Kate Milligan, a power in the South African diamond trade; and eventually to Israel, with Rina along as interpreter. After Gershon Klein is found dead, Honey and her kids vanish too, further complicating this overrich brew. Scouring the environs of Jerusalem in their search for the missing Yalom boys, turning up bomb plots as they go, Peter and Rina get a fix on the killer and take an inside look at some Israeli institutions. The multitude of plot threads and characters, however, may trip up some readers. Mystery Guild selection; Doubleday Book Club alternate; author tour. (Oct.)