False Prophet

Author: - Faye Kellerman

Just like me, I have started yet another series of books mid-way through, when the central characters are already fairly well established and are beginning to mature in complexity.

This series, featuring Pete Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus, is no exception, with ‘False Prophet’ being the 5th, in a series of some 19 mysteries, in which they appear.

Synopsis

Buy This Book From Amazon

Even to case-hardened Detective Sergeant Pete Decker the brutal rape of Lilah Brecht, exquisite daughter of an aged Hollywood movie queen, is a disturbing act of violence. The only leads are provided by Lilah herself. However, Lilah’s credibility is soon shattered when it emerges that she didn’t physically see her rapist. It was only her ‘gift’ of second sight that enable her to ‘image’ her attacker. She claims that Decker is the only policeman who can truly understand and catch her attacker, who, she says, is still threatening her. Decker, however, is not so sure and is anxious to protect his heavily pregnant wife Rina from Lilah’s alternately seductive and hysterical phone calls. But when Decker himself sees Lilah almost killed in a freak accident, he begins to think he may have judged her too harshly…

About The Author

Faye Kellerman, is just part, of a whole dynasty of crime and thriller writers, which includes her husband, Joanathan and son Jesse.

She was born in St. Louis Missouri, raised in Sherman Oaks California, and still lives in the State with her husband and family, only now their home is in Los Angeles.

She studied at UCLA, where she earned a BA in mathematics and has a Doctorate in dentristy.

Dentistry was to be her career, until she became a Mother, when she took up writing full time, with her first novel being published in 1986.

She likes nothing better than to garden, sew or jog, in her spare time.

My Personal Review Of: – ‘False Prophet‘

This novel seems to have had some pretty mixed reviews, with the general concensus being, that it is a good middle-of- the-road read, but certainly not the best of the series.

Coming into the series mid-way, I can therefore only review this book, as a stand alone one-off title and rate it on it’s own merits.

A rape, that isn’t all it seems. Robbery, blackmail, murder and dark family secrets. All the ingredients that make this a novel with an overwhelming aura of seediness, violence, corruption and mistrust.

A whole gamut of complicated characters, draw you into their murky world: an ageing star, who will go to any lengths to keep her family secrets buried, frightened that her dead husband’s unseen memoirs will reveal all; siblings, all controlled by this one determined woman, none of whom must ever know the truth of their birthright; employees determined to wreak revenge in the vilest way possible.

The story is engrossing and it is easy to get woven into the plot, with all it’s twists and turns right to the end, and only then the final missing piece of the jigsaw coming from the most unexpected of sources.

Decker is basically a powerful and assured character, but this case strikes right at the heart of his new family, when they are at their most vulnerable, eventually even threatening their safety.

Peter is still able to hold things together long enough to get under the skin of both his victim and suspects, until the truth is revealed, but he is then determined that having witnessed the pretence and dysfunctionality of both the victim and her family, he should set about putting his own house in order, to create a happy home with stable relationships, for the benefit of everyone.

He seriously sets about reviving his lapsed Jewish faith, with the emotional rollercoaster of feelings that this entails and you leave the book with the feeling that the relationship between Pete Decker and Rina Lazarus, can only grow stronger in the future.

Overall, this is a good solid story and an absorbing read.

Worth a rating of 3.5 out of 5