Milk and Honey: A Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Novel [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Faye Kellerman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004

A New York Times Bestselling Author

In the silent pre-dawn city hours, LAPD detective Peter Decker finds a small child, abandoned and covered with blood that is not hers. It is a sobering discovery, and a perplexing one, for nobody in the development where she was found steps forward to claim the little girl. Obsessed more deeply by this case than he imagined possible, Decker is determined to follow the scant clues to an answer.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On a summer night in a housing development near Los Angeles, police sergeant Peter Decker finds a winsome two-year-old girl playing on a swing set--and wearing blood-soaked pajamas. Unclaimed, "Sally" is placed in a foster home while Decker and partner Marge Dunn try to learn her identity. Bee stings on her arms lead them days later to the scene of a bloody multiple murder at a honey farm. While piecing together a bizarre puzzle of betrayal and revenge which includes adultery, infertility and land development plans, Peter is also investigating rape and assault charges brought against an old army buddy from Vietnam. The pressures of the murder case and doubts about his friend's innocence compound Peter's anxiety as he waits for young Orthodox Jewish widow Rina Lazarus to decide if she will marry him--an older man who's only recently embraced his Jewish heritage. Kellerman weaves these threads into a believable, intricate mystery in which series hero Decker is revealed as even more complex, interesting and sympathetic than in earlier appearances ( Sacred and Profane ). Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild alternate; author tour.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Stunning . . . unforgettable."
-- Cleveland Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH Plain Dealer )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 631 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078625517X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786255177
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,920,010 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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relationship between Peter and Rina continues to grow, December 10, 1997

By 

Harold L. Laroff - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milk and Honey (A Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Novel) (Mass Market Paperback)

"Milk and Honey" the third book in the Decker/lLazarus series continues their relationship between Peter and Rina.. By now followers of Kellerman's previous books know Peter Decker is studying with Rabbi Aaron Schulman to become the Jew he never was. His relationship with Rina has grown. He has proposed to her. While she's back east wrestling with his proposal Decker discovers a two year old wandering around. Unharmed and covered with blood she does not belong to anyone in the development where she's found. By the time Rina returns to California Decker is obsessed with the case especially when he stumbles in a grisly a quadruple murder. Exciting as her other books. A must read for Kellerman fans.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of MANY fine books, March 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Milk and Honey (Decker and Lazarus Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

This one was my first Faye Kellerman book, and have read them all since. You really get fooled at the start because it sort of eases along; a little family life with Peter and Rina, a little police work with Peter and Marge (his partner), then she lowers the boom. Great story. If you are new to her, go back and read from The Ritual Bath to here, and then on with the rest. You'll love the series.

24 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From one crime writer to another..., February 22, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (London UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Milk and Honey (Decker and Lazarus Series) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have recently entered the field of crime writing myself and had often been asked if I had read Faye Kellerman, as I am also writing from a Jewish point of view. My crime novel "Dark Tapestry" will be available on amazon.com within a few weeks. OK, plug over!

I started with Jupiters Bones by accident, then moved on to read The Ritual Bath, which quickly told me that here is a writer who knows her onions when it comes to orthodox Jewry. So many writers about Judaism make cringe-making errors, but Faye knows her stuff. In Milk and Honey Peter Decker is making progress as a "Baal Teshuvah" (a born-again) and his relationship with Rina Lazarus is deepening towards marriage. We care about them and about his partners in the police department. My main gripe with this novel is that I personally could not find it in myself to care that much about the victims of the quadruple murder. The two year old daughter of one of them is well cared for and seems untraumatised. The victims themselves seem a most unpleasant bunch and my feelings (at time of writing having not quite finished the book) are that I could not control my apathy about their demise.

It is in the area of the growing relationship between Peter and Rina, which really makes this particular novel come to life, and also the scenes between the detectives themselves.

I do find Rina's indeterminate attitude towards extra marital sex a bit confusing. If she is supposed to be orthodox, then she would not entertain the idea of sleeping with Peter before marriage. Or maybe this is me being naive. Also orthodox women either cover their hair or don't, generally speaking. Once a woman uncovers her hair in public (and particularly in front of a strange man, as she did in front of Abel Atwater, a man who obviously had the hots for her) she is making a statement of intent, and it isn't usual for her to be hit-and-miss about this very important Jewish law. It's a bit like being "a little bit pregnant". You can't. You either are, or you aren't. So you either cover your hair in public, and in front of men, or you don't. How a woman covers her hair, that is the grey area; some will just use a beret or kerchief, some will wear wigs, some of Hassidic sects will wear wigs with hats on top and shave their own hair completely. Some too, would never show their own hair, even in a woman's only situation. Rina is not consistent and to me (an orthodox Jewess who wears a "sheitel" (wig) but not in front of just women) she doesn't add up.

However, most people would not notice these inconsistencies and the novels are gripping and realistic, and the main characters at least (see above, about the victims) arouse sympathy.

Ruthie Pearlman