Grievous sin : a Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus mystery /

Are fans of Kellerman's best-selling Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series ready for the crime-solving duo to become (gasp!) parents? Hannah Rose Decker, who's precociously adept at sleeping, crying, burping, and other baby-type functions, makes her appearance in Kellerman's latest. A tragedy occurs in the midst of the parental euphoria when a helpless newborn is kidnapped from the same hospital nursery where baby Hannah sleeps. As paterfamilias Decker juggles diapers, wee-hour feedings, and Rina's postpartum blues, he and his intrepid partner, Marge, search desperately for the kidnapper and the tiny victim. In a sometimes confusing but always suspenseful plot, Decker and Marge encounter bizarre nurses, a religious fanatic with major hormonal deficiencies, an unwitting blackmail victim, and a female weightlifter with more problems than a soap-opera heroine. While the plot comes dangerously close to being overly saccharine and annoyingly artificial, Kellerman does know how to hook her readers. First, she tantalizes them with ambiguous clues and ominous glimpses of an unbalanced villain's psyche, then she teases them with a blend of pulse-quickening suspense and heartwarming family tableaux. Only then does she deliver the shocking climax. Expect this formula to continue to deliver big sales and long reserve lists. (Reviewed July 1993)0688105548Emily Melton

Complications in the delivery room lead to major surgery for Rina Decker, who, when last seen in False Prophet , was pregnant with her and husband Peter Decker's first child . She is barely out of danger when an infant vanishes from the hospital's understaffed nursery, and proud father Peter, an LAPD detective sergeant, declares (in a mercifully brief descent into melodrama), ``I owe it to that little baby girl to find her.'' Marie Bellson, the nurse in charge of the unit that night, has also disappeared, but it is difficult to tell whether the woman--apparently a fiercely dedicated nurse--is a villain or a second victim. Peter's partner, Marge Dunn, visits Marie's mother, Lita, at her retirement home. Lita, a real pistol unsoftened by age, clues Marge in on Marie's days as ``Miss Flower Child'' before she ``found Jesus'' and became a nurse. Despite extended excursions into Rina's medical tribulations and the awkward introduction of a significant character in isolated vignettes from left field, Kellerman weaves a satisfying mystery that includes elements of the Decker family's daily life as Orthodox Jews. Her plot is generated by the failings of very human characters and derives depth from her consideration of healthy and unhealthy family relationships. Author tour. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This is another engrossing mystery in Kellerman's series featuring Rina and Peter Decker. While preoccupied with the birth of their first baby, a daughter, the couple are perturbed to learn of the disappearance of another newborn from the hospital nursery. While Rina recovers from the birthing, Peter sets out with his partner to investigate the events surrounding the missing baby girl. Chief suspect in the crime is a hard-working but stern nurse in the maternity ward who is also missing. This is a well-balanced tale, engaging the listener in an intricate plot and the details of the personal lives and relationships of the main characters. The reading by Buck Schirner is moderately paced, enabling the listener to absorb the author's detailed descriptions of characters, settings, and action. Recommended for mystery and general fiction collections.-- Catherine Swenson, Norwich Univ. Lib., Northfield, Vt. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

While his wife is recovering from birthing complications, Peter Decker of the LAPD (False Prophet, etc.)--along with his partner Marge and his teenage daughter, Cindy, from his first marriage--investigate the kidnapping of baby Rodriguez from the hospital nursery. Two nurses are also missing--one turns up murdered at the bottom of a cliff--and a former staff nurse, a 300- pounder with forged credentials, is now a sleek bodybuilder who hears voices telling her to kill. Decker, Marge, and Cindy toss around possible motives and--thanks to clues provided by the ramblings of an old woman and the confession of a scheming male RN- -they piece together the tale of a seriously warped little girl who grew up to confront the woman who had an affair with her daddy--a woman now so repentant that she swears she is the murderer/kidnapper. Nice family scenes for Jewish convert Decker and his orthodox in-laws, and Cindy is the most appealing--and overeager--teenage detective since Nancy Drew. But Kellerman's plotting still veers into melodrama, undercutting her story's plausibility.