Customer Reviews

The Forgotten (Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Novels)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One of the joys of reading a series is reconnecting with old friends and seeing what changes have occurred from one book to the next.

In THE FORGOTTEN, Lieutenant Peter Decker is investigating a hate crime involving the desecration of a synagogue. Decker manages to solve the case but he's left with an uncomfortable resolution. After being caught, the guilty party does restitution and then six month later goes to a summer camp for troubled rich kids. It is then that he is killed together with his therapist. Naturally, Decker feels that this is retribution from the cohort who may also have been involved in the act of vandalism. Lets just say that it does not turn out that way.

The second plot in the book is of more interest that involves Decker's youngest stepson Jacob. Since the beginning of Kellerman's Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series he has been troubled due to certain circumstances in previous novels. He is now a recovering drug-addict who is trying hard to make amends for everything he's done. The bad part about it in this book is that he is familiar with the players involved in Peter's case. Something he is not to thrilled about. In the end he manages to help the police solve the case and have some one-on-one time with his stepdad. They talk in the end and it end in a funny note. In essence I liked the book and I recommend it.

I used to be a fan of Faye Kellerman, but I stopped reading her books a while back. I picked up her new novel, "The Forgotten," to see if she has regained her touch. She hasn't. This latest installment in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series starts with a horrible act of vandalism. A synagogue is trashed and defiled. Swastikas are painted on the walls and photos of concentration camp victims are left atop torn holy books. Peter Decker, who is a Lieutenant with the LAPD, goes into action and eventually finds the perpetrator of this vandalism. He is seventeen-year-old Ernesto Golding, a rich kid with a very sick mind. The case is closed out, but a series of brutal murders prove that there is more to this story than meets the eye. Golding may have had a grandfather who was a Nazi passing himself off as a Jew. In addition, Golding had ties to a hate group with a shadowy leader. The members of this group, called "Preservers of Ethnic Integrity," may have been involved not only in the vandalism, but in other crimes as well. The biggest problem with "The Forgotten" is that it flits from one plot line to another without any transition. Kellerman actually mixes up a plot about people who hate Jews with a plot about psychologists who help rich kids cheat on their SAT's. Also thrown into the mix is a story line about Peter Decker's stepson, Jacob, who has been mixed up with some of the baddies in the past, and who is now trying to straighten himself out. Peter struggles to come to terms with his responsibilities and his guilt, since he has neglected the boy in the past. The novel has little in the way of character development. The characters are distasteful, dysfunctional and dull. The ending is anticlimactic and very slow in coming. I do not recommend this muddled mystery.

I have read all of the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Novels. Kellerman writes great novels balancing a good detective story with the warm personal relationships between Rina and Peter and their children Cindy, Sammy, Jacob and Hannah, and the team Peter works with in the LAPD. They normally dwell as well on their religious life - the Jewish customs of the devout orthodox Jew, and its affect on their involvement in the secular world - especially Peter's.

This book centers around Rina's son Jacob who knew and had been involved with many of the teens in the story during his rebellion year of drug/sex parties. His brothers and sisters are hardly even mentioned, and we don't see Peter's department team coming for dinner to his home nor any of their private life. We don't see much of Peter's religious life either. I missed the personal full family and team involvement. It brought warmth to the novels in the past.

I had to ask myself - Why was the LAPD homicide department handling a synagogue vandalism case? It didn't make sense, and it was months before there was any homicide.

Still, Kellerman writes an exciting story. If you have read any of the past novels in the series, you knew the characters and the references to happenings in the former books. Something was lacking though, it just wasn't as good as the rest of the series.

First, let me get a pet peeve off of my chest regarding this author. It seems that in almost every book she has some personal bias against others yet at the same time she wants the reader to believe that she has all the answers to to the eternal questions of every countries standing against the Holocaust.In this book there comes a point where she has the main character (Rina) speaking about Poland's part during the Holocaust. I should say the Polish peoples part in the Holocaust. Not the Germans who invaded Poland.

Ms. Kellerman states that the Polish people basically rolled over and joined the Germans terror of the Jews. This is not true. I am a descendant of a family that lost a four people in my immediate to the Nazis.

My grandmother and her mother escaped to Switzerland during the Holocaust. My grandmother lost her father and three brothers in the Holocaust. They were Polish Catholics. Her brothers died fighting the Germans. Her father died in a concentration camp in Germany.

Let's not forget that many other non-Jews gave thier lives to fight Hitler also.

O.K. this book was much better than the last one. It did run on a bit with the differing plots and such. I thought having the killers involved in racism and the SAT scandal was a bit over the top. All in all, aside from my personal pet peeve which brought the story down alot for me personally, I would give it a C. I would also like to add that I really enjoy learning about the Jewish religion. It is fascinating to me. I also wished there was more of a story with Peter and Rina's home life. I love to read about that.

I have read all the books in this series, and they have been going steadily downhill. In this one, the plot is rather weak, the killer linear, Jacob's involvement rather forced, and most of all, Rina's character has become intolerable. she started being a charming widow, and now comes accross as a nagging, ill-tempered, obssesive, impossible wife. One wonders what keeps Decker married, and the author fails to show it. it was not a satisfactory read; slow, weeeak plot,unsubstantial killer,no interesting side characters (Cindy, Marge,etc) and putting up with Rina on top of all that was TOO much! Change her or eliminate her, please! Maybe the plots will improve then

From the beginning, the best part of this series has always been, to this reader, the complex relationships among Peter, Rina, and their children/step-children, along with the interweaving of Jewish rituals and traditions as part of the plot. Because both of these elements are so strongly presented in this book, I found it one of the most satisfying of the series, even as I was somewhat disappointed that what began as a complex plot with seeemingly great potential petered out at the end. The contrast between the many disfunctional parent/adolescent relationships and the relationship of Peter and Jacob and their difficulties was especially moving.

All in all, an excellent addition to the series; but beware, this is one series that should be read in order beginning with the Ritual Bath if it is to be fully appreciated.

Faye Kellerman poaches a bit from her hubby in this Rina/Pete outing, dabbling a bit in adolescent psychology and the nasty hijinks of mental health providers. It mostly works and kept me turning pages until the characters' motivations unraveled and the sanctimony around Rina's cleanup of a descrated synagogue got too excessive. A nastily misogynistic portrait of a young femme fatale also had me wondering about Faye's own mental health. Must women be either trollops or sainted orthodox housewives in her world? Entertaining but still far short of her best.

Faye Kellerman is a marvelous writer, and I haven't given up on the Lazarus series. This, the 13th book, showed a lot more promise than the 12th book, "Stalker".

It was interesting to see where time has taken the relationship between Peter and Rina, but even better to watch Kellerman weave the complex relationship between son Jacob and his parents into the novel.

The premise, senseless vandalism and violence at the Deckers' temple, is a strong one. One of the perpetrators, Ernesto Golding, an affluent young man with strong signs of adolescent OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) is caught, but does not give up his partners. This is where Kellerman departs from the firm foundation of the novel and stretches needlessly into several murders, sexual obsession and fraudulent SAT preparation. Had she stayed with the story of Ernesto and explored his relationship with his ancestors, parents and brother; perhaps had him struggle with other crimes based on his obsessions, we might have had a fine book.

Instead, she introduces the character of Ruby, and the story and plotline go downhill from there. The assignation of Ruby and Jake is truly a ridiculous plot contrivance.

Unlike other readers, the unraveling of the Judaic customs and beliefs that accompanies every Lazarus story, for me, is a welcome counterpoint to the police line. The learnings and fabric this setting gives to the series helps it stand apart from all the others.

Three stars based on an interesting plot setting and Kellerman's writing style...but no more. I've recently given up reading Jonathan Kellerman, because recent entries in his Alex Delaware psychologist series have been pale shadows of his former work. Hopefully, that will not be the case with Faye's Lazarus series; it appears the author simply has to put in as much effort and creativity in the conclusions of her books as she does in the premise.

I'm a big fan of this series, but the coincidences we are expected to swallow in the book are just too much. First of all, we're expected to buy that the very first and only hate group that Decker investigates after the synagogue trashing is the one involved with the crime and subsequent murders - and the first prep school he goes to after the crime turns out to yield the perpetrator. Then the kid who does the crime ends up magically going to the therapist who ends up being linked to this hate group, etc. etc. etc. And Decker's step son magically knows all of these people. Wait a second, is this a small town? I thought it was Los Angeles! You expect some coincidences in mystery novels but this is just too much. It's not a well-crafted novel, and although the familial relationships are still quite interesting and endearing (although Decker's love/distrust relationship with stepson is a bit overdone)... I think you can do better, Ms. Kellerman...

Even as the daughter of concentration camp victims Rina Decker was ill prepared to see the horrific desecration of her beloved storefront shul. All the walls had been painted with diabolic epithets, countless ways of killing Jews, eggs and ketchup clouded the plaster. Perhaps most unnerving of all were the ripped holy books peppered with ghastly photos of the dead and dying incarcerated by the Nazis.

The police called Rina because she was the "synagogue's unofficial caretaker - the buck-stops-here person who called the contractors when a pipe burst...." So abhorrent was the sight that Rina felt herself becoming dizzy, and leaned against a wall for support.

Thus begins Faye Kellerman's 13th thriller featuring LA police Lieutenant Peter Decker and his orthodox Jewish wife, Rina. It is, as are its predecessors, an exciting read serving to cement Ms. Kellerman's status as one of today's top crime writers.

This act of vandalism hits close to home and heart for Peter, and a suspect is soon found. It is Ernesto Golding, a 17-year-old son of privilege in gold-plated LA. He's haunted by suspicions about his Polish grandfather who fled to Argentina after Hitler's regime fell.

A deal is cut - Ernesto is sent to counseling with two psychologists who are known for their care of wayward rich teens. The boy will spend the summer at their nature camp in the mountains.

This is too pat an answer for the intuitive police sleuth whose hunch is proved on target some months later when Ernesto and his therapist are found murdered. Before long Rina and Peter find themselves probing for answer's among overly protective, vainglorious parents and I-can-do-anything-I-want youth. But, the road to the truth could also lead to Jacob, their handsome, intelligent son.

Faye Kellerman has once again fashioned an intelligent, fast-moving drama. "The Forgotten" is electrifying, a topnotch thriller with heart.