The book opens with the discovery of a hate crime. The shul Rina and Peter Decker attend has been desecrated with Nazi propaganda and hateful graffiti. Peter's investigations lead him to collaring a student at a wealthy and influential private high school. The plot thickens when this student and his therapist are found murdered at a rehabilitation camp.
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"The Forgotten" marks a return to the family life of the Deckers. We watch as the family struggles to help each other even while there are layers of distrust and uncertainty. Jacob, Rina's teenage son and Peter's stepson, must share information about many of his classmates and the teens he has partied with, some of whom end up enmeshed in this murder mystery.
The review of this Book prepared by Bridgette Redman
Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus try to find out who desecrated their synagogue and why. It leads them on a trail of murder, betryal and a finding of identity.
The review of this Book prepared by Newsgirl
Faye Kellerman
Morrow, Aug 2001, 25.00, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0688156142
The Los Angeles police call orthodox Jew Rina Lazarus to come to the synagogue that has been badly vandalized. Not long afterward the police, led by Rina's spouse Lieutenant Peter Decker, arrest teenager Ernesto Golding, a friend of Rina's son Jacob, for defacing the place of worship. Ernesto is sent to counseling camp under the care of psychologists Mervin and Dee Baldwin.
The case turns bizarre when someone first murders Ernesto and then his two doctors. Believing that Ernesto had help with his wanton damage to the synagogue, Peter and his staff make inquiries into hate groups. Meanwhile Rina learns more about her son's struggle with his Jewish identity in a fast food assimilation environment while Peter and his stepson become closer to one another.
No one will forget the name of author Faye Kellerman after her powerful police-procedural-family drama, THE FORGOTTEN. The story line is equally filled with a powerful investigation and the struggles and pressures of a teen to accommodate his religion while fitting into the wider mainstream society. Though Ernesto's ties to the Holocaust through his grandfather seems an unnecessary subplot, readers will know that this is a strong mystery with deep characters worth reading.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
