The Mercedes Coffin [Paperback]

Faye Kellerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2008

Paperback large print

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061685976
• ISBN-13: 978-0061685972
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,871,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Faye Kellerman is the author of twenty-six novels, including nineteen New York Times bestselling mysteries that feature the husband-and-wife team of Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. She has also penned two best selling short novels with her husband, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, and recently has teamed up with her daughter, Aliza, to co-write a teen novel, entitled PRISM. She lives in Los Angeles, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to like this book, but I didn't., August 25, 2008

By 

Judith C. Oswood (Marshalltown, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book (Hardcover)

I have been a long-time fan of Faye Kellerman. Peter and Rina and their family have been familiar characters for many years through many books. This one started out with a compelling mystery--two men were killed 15 years apart in a very similar manner. Both of them were found dead in the trunks of their Mercedes automobiles. Peter Decker tries to solve the two murders. About half-way through the book, the endless talking of the characters starts. The detectives were working very hard trying to come up with viable suspects who had a motive to kill both men. There were so many names to discuss--where they went to school, how they knew the murdered men, where they were when the crimes were comitted, what they were doing now, etc. For the last half of the book, that's all they did--discuss. I was so glad to see the end of the book, that I'm not sure I could even tell you how these different characters were involved. To quote the book, the author said on page 331, "That was detective work: hours of mind-numbing tedium followed by that compensatory, glory-hallelujah, once-in-a-blue-moon, shot-in-the-veins adrenaline rush." I never got beyond the mind-numbing tedium.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ...too much talk, minimal action, August 17, 2008

By 

police procedural groupie "patricia" (midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book (Hardcover)

This is the first Faye Kellerman that I have been able to put down.

This is the first time that, upon picking it up, I cannot find the spot

where I stopped reading - it's all talk, all the time.

She needs a Milo. That would spark things. I miss the family connection,

the dynamics at home that inspire Peter Decker, and I miss Rina's considerable (Torah driven) insights into various investigations. It's just, somehow, heartbreakingly, flat and uninspired.

I love Faye's novels as much as Jonathan's, and anxiously await publication. His keep me up all night on arrival. This one, hers, is a true soporific. And a "Milo" would lighten up all that talking, keeping things in perspective.

More disturbing to me, having watched Scott Oliver through ALL the books, I had the feeling he was "a kid", mentored by Marge, relegated to the scut work - now he's apparently a grandfather?? When did that happen? Feels as if I missed half a dozen volumes in the middle somewhere, but I did not.

Never mind, Faye Kellerman's fans will love it unconditionally. I am quite likely the only disappointed reader out here.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Like Visiting With Old Friends, August 13, 2008

By 

R. A. Taylor "avid reader" (FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book (Hardcover)

The Mercedes Coffin by Faye Kellerman is the seventeenth Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus mystery. Having read most of the preceding mysteries, this is like visiting with old friends and very enjoyable.

Peter Decker is asked to investigate a fifteen year old murder that is now a cold case, that of a very popular guidance counselor from a Los Angeles school who was found in the trunk of his Mercedes shot in the back of the head execution style. Interest in the case has been raised because someone else has been murdered in the same fashion and found in the trunk of their Mercedes.

Faye Kellerman always writes a well plotted, interesting mystery and The Mercedes Coffin is no exception. I enjoy reading about the Decker and Lazarus family as much as I enjoy the mystery. The only fault I found with this book is that Rina Lazarus did not play as important a role in this book as she has in others I've read. But that said, I enjoyed The Mercedes Coffin very much and it kept me turning pages until the end. Highly recommended to mystery lovers