Book Review: Stone Kiss

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Stone Kiss     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Faye Kellerman
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Ethnic   Police Procedural
Series: Peter Decker / Rina Lazarus
Warner, Aug 2002, $25.95, 390 pp.

New York Conservative Rabbi Jonathan Levine calls his half-brother Los Angeles Police Lieutenant Peter Decker for help. Jon explains that someone executed his Orthodox brother-in-law Ephraim Leiber in a run down New York hotel room. However, the reason Jon wants Peter to come to the Big Apple is to find his teenage niece Shaynda a probable witness to the murder whom has vanished.

Though not eager to cross into someone else’s jurisdiction, Peter comes to New York. Neither NYPD, nor Shaynda’s parents, nor the townsfolk where the Leibers live welcome Peter on the scene. Still Peter makes in roads and finds Shaynda in the Manhattan apartment of a Mob-connected criminal. However, Peter’s inquiries are not finished as Shaynda’s story is just beginning and that tale will not end happily.

Peter’s normal co-star in this wonderful series, his wife Rina Lazarus, hardly appears in STONE KISS. However, though Rina makes only a cameo appearance, the novel remains an exciting entry as one of the better ones in several years. The investigation is handled quite smoothly especially when Peter is struggling to overcome the objections of NYPD, a small town police chief, and an Orthodox congregation that borders on the Hasidic. Though similar in plot to previous books as family troubles start the latest tzuros for Rina and Peter, series fans will enjoy this look at the East Coast side of the extended brood.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner