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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I don't know why I keep picking up books that are far along in a series. I'm going to have to start looking on Goodreads before I bring them home.
Unlike others I've read, this one (book 11) wasn't so bad for a series book. I've read none of the other books in this series so I had no prior knowledge of the characters or the previous stories that got them to where they were in this book. And it actually didn't matter so much. There was a bit of back story I was obviously missing out on but, in this case, it only made me want to find out more by reading the previous books. I liked the characters and the stories they referred to intrigued me so I would definitely visit this series again. The story in this book didn't hinge on knowing all that other backstory, so I was happy with that.
Unlike others I've read, this one (book 11) wasn't so bad for a series book. I've read none of the other books in this series so I had no prior knowledge of the characters or the previous stories that got them to where they were in this book. And it actually didn't matter so much. There was a bit of back story I was obviously missing out on but, in this case, it only made me want to find out more by reading the previous books. I liked the characters and the stories they referred to intrigued me so I would definitely visit this series again. The story in this book didn't hinge on knowing all that other backstory, so I was happy with that.
September has been a hectic month for me, so I wanted some familar characters with an interesting but straightforward plot that didn't demand too much from me as a reader. This hit the spot. Peter and Decker are cute together, I like the references to Jewish culture to learn something new, and a cult is always an interesting premise to base a story around.
Got this from a free library on a whim and couldn’t put it down! Love a good cult story and murder mystery
I've been reading this series intermittently for the past 10-12 years and this has got to be the most riveting so far.
I've been a fan of Faye Kellerman for a while, but this book really disappointed. It felt disjointed, events jumped all over the show and it was at times just dragging along. No, not one of her better works
Vega's Future
Ignore the text on the back cover.
Emil Euler Ganz used to be a renowned astrophysicist. After disappearing for ten years, he returned as Father Jupiter, founder of a religious cult called the Order of the Rings of God, teaching science and promoting time travel. Now he is dead. LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker is rather sent along due to the deceased’s former fame. Everything looks like an ordinary suicide, but then, the behavior of the members of “the Order“ makes Peter’s stomach churn. So, he has his team investigate further.
This is book number 11 from the series but might be read stand-alone – except for rather the first of the series, “The Ritual Bath“: some private issues relate back to what had happend then, concerning Peter’s family. That first book was when he got to know Rina as a witness of a crime scene, a young widow and mother of two young boys. She now is his wife, mother of his stepsons and their young daughter together, he also has a grown-up daughter from his previous marriage, Cindy.
The story is a straight police procedural related to the investigations around a cult site, and as always, author Faye Kellerman throws in a lot of background information on the religious background of the Deckers, which are orthodox Jews. All of the last books had much less of that topic than the first ones, this time it is on jewish kittels, kindness to animals, sexual regulations. I found the book a good and solid read, one of the good ones from the series, though not one of the best. The discussion around “what might have happened, is…“ were entertaining and seemed realistic enough an approach. There even was some final showdown with a whole lot of action.
Dislike: my edition is a 1999 Headline Feature (i.e. the publisher) paperback – the print goes very far towards the spine so that you really have to bend the book’s spine to read it. I HATE that. More gutter margin, please!
Solid 4 stars (would be 4 ½ if I could)
Ignore the text on the back cover.
Emil Euler Ganz used to be a renowned astrophysicist. After disappearing for ten years, he returned as Father Jupiter, founder of a religious cult called the Order of the Rings of God, teaching science and promoting time travel. Now he is dead. LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker is rather sent along due to the deceased’s former fame. Everything looks like an ordinary suicide, but then, the behavior of the members of “the Order“ makes Peter’s stomach churn. So, he has his team investigate further.
This is book number 11 from the series but might be read stand-alone – except for rather the first of the series, “The Ritual Bath“: some private issues relate back to what had happend then, concerning Peter’s family. That first book was when he got to know Rina as a witness of a crime scene, a young widow and mother of two young boys. She now is his wife, mother of his stepsons and their young daughter together, he also has a grown-up daughter from his previous marriage, Cindy.
The story is a straight police procedural related to the investigations around a cult site, and as always, author Faye Kellerman throws in a lot of background information on the religious background of the Deckers, which are orthodox Jews. All of the last books had much less of that topic than the first ones, this time it is on jewish kittels, kindness to animals, sexual regulations. I found the book a good and solid read, one of the good ones from the series, though not one of the best. The discussion around “what might have happened, is…“ were entertaining and seemed realistic enough an approach. There even was some final showdown with a whole lot of action.
Dislike: my edition is a 1999 Headline Feature (i.e. the publisher) paperback – the print goes very far towards the spine so that you really have to bend the book’s spine to read it. I HATE that. More gutter margin, please!
Solid 4 stars (would be 4 ½ if I could)
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Margie <3
my hero 😍😍😍
my hero 😍😍😍
Different pacing and tone for a Decker/Lazarus mystery, which, overall, was a good thing. I really liked that finally Sammy and Jacob are shown to be real kids with very real traumas, not just Rina's holier than thou sons.
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish