Books by Faye Kellerman

Day of Atonement (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 4)

by Faye Kellerman

Peter Decker of the L.A.P.D. never dreamed he'd be spending his honeymoon with his new wife, Rina Lazarus, in an Orthodox Jewish enclave in Brooklyn, New York -- or that a terrible event would end it so abruptly. But a boy has vanished from the midst of this close-knit religious community, a troubled youth fleeing the tight bonds and strictures he felt were strangling him. The runaway, Noam, is not traveling alone. A killer has taken him under his wing to introduce Noam to a savage world of blood and terror. And now Decker must find them both somewhere in America before a psychopath ends the life of a confused and frightened youngster whose only sin was to want something more.

Milk and Honey (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 3)

by Faye Kellerman

Available for the first time in a Premium edition, one of New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Faye Kellerman’s fan-favorite Decker/Lazurus novels.

Serpent's Tooth: A Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 10)

by Faye Kellerman

A man walks into a trendy Los Angeles restaurant -- a disgruntled ex-employee with an automatic weapon -- and seconds later, thirteen people are dead and thirty-two more have been wounded. It is a heinous act of mass slaughter that haunts Homicide Detective Peter Decker.
But, though eyewitnesses saw only the lone gunman -- who apparently took his own life after his bloody work was done -- evidence suggests more than one weapon was fired. It is a disturbing inconsistency that sends Decker racing headlong into a sordid, labyrinthine world of Southern California money and power, on an investigation that threatens to destroy his reputation and his career.

Stalker: A Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Novel

by Faye Kellerman

Determined to hide the truth about her being stalked from her overprotective lieutenant father, rookie cop Cynthia Decker is forced to reconsider when things heat up and she realizes their two cases may be related. Reprint.

Street Dreams

by Faye Kellerman, K'wan

Detective Peter Decker teams up with his wife and daughter to solve a crime rooted in both the past and present.

While on routine patrol, LAPD Officer Cindy Decker rescues a newborn abandoned in an alley dumpster. But she can't call it a night until she sees the infant safe in a hospital, cared for by a professional -- in this case a male nurse with soulful eyes and lots of charm.

Now the hunt is on for the mother. Armed with advice from her overworked father, Detective Peter Decker, Cindy plunges into her inner-city Hollywood district, a world of helpless people and violent gangs. Pursuing each new lead batters her complex relationships and endangers her life.

On one side: Decker and Decker, a brilliant but combative pair. On the other: a vicious killer ready to strike again. While on routine patrol, LAPD officer Cindy Decker rescues a newborn abandoned in an alley dumpster. Cindy searches for the mother in inner -city Hollywood, following a treacherous trail filled with drug lords. But with each new lead, the twisted journey gets darker -- and endangering her very life. When Decker and Decker join forces, can this edgy duo put personal issues aside to catch a vicious culprit before he strikes again?

Street Dreams

by Faye Kellerman, K'wan

Love, Betrayal and Loyalty on the Streets of Harlem

Daruis, a.k.a. Rio, the only child of a singer turned alcoholic, feels he has nothing to hold on to except the idea of escaping the ghetto. Years ago, he took a gun charge for a friend and did some prison time. Unable to find a job when he gets out, Rio turns to hustling as a way out. In the meantime, Rio finds escape in the arms of his soulmate, Trinity.

When Trinity's mother died, her abusive father looks to her to play the role of house wife and bedmate. Trinity finds strength to endure in Rio's arms. Together they vow to do whatever it takes to make it out of the ghetto. But soon they find their backs against the wall when the streets come to claim their due.

Double Homicide

by Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman

For the first time ever, bestselling novelists Jonathan and Faye Kellermen team up to deliver the launch book in a thrilling new series of short crime novels. This book--printed as a reversible volume with two different covers--contains two stories featuring different detectives solving crimes in different cities.

Straight into Darkness

by Faye Kellerman

In the wake of a series of high-society murders in 1920s Munich, homicide detective Axel Berg investigates suspicions about the killer's motivations in a case involving dangerous political factions and the rise of Adolf Hitler. By the author of Street Dreams. 200,000 first printing.

Double Homicide Santa Fe Boston

by Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman

For the first time ever, bestselling novelists Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman team up to deliver the launch book in a thrilling new series of short crime novels!Its a readers dream come true: a new series co-written by the royal couple of crime fiction--Jonathan and Faye Kellerman! Each book contains two novels jointly written by the duo, featuring different detectives solving crimes in different cities. In the Land of the Giants has Boston homicide detectives Michael MacCain and Doris Sylvestor investigating the suspicious death of a college basketball star. And in Still Life, the co-worker of a Santa Fe art gallery is murdered, forcing detectives Darryl Two Moons and Steve Katz to put aside holiday celebrations and set things right. Jonathan and Faye Kellerman live with their children in Southern California.PAGES: 256

Prism

by Faye Kellerman, David St. John

A time-shattering supernatural thriller
Aida Hutchenson, Zeke Anderson, and Joy Tallon: three teens with nothing in common, thrown together by an explosive accident that turns their class trip into a desert nightmare. And the next morning . . . a return to their ordinary lives with everything just as it was before. Or is it? Increasingly unnerved by the distorted world around her, Kaida must band together with Zeke and Joy in hopes of making it back to the reality she remembers . . . and surviving the one she's fallen into.
New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman teams up for the first time with her teen daughter, Aliza Kellerman, to deliver this breathlessly suspenseful paranormal thriller.

Prism

by Faye Kellerman, David St. John

Poetry. This book of new poems by David St. John includes fourteen vibrant photographs by Lance Patigian. One of the finest poetic craftsmen of his generation, David St. John has recevied regular and lavish praise from his contemporaries. Speaking of his poetry, Robert Hass has said, "It is not just gorgeous, it is go-for-broke gorgeous. It is made out of sentences, sweeping through and across his meticulous verse stanzas, that could have been written, for their velvet and intricate suavity, by Henry James. But that doesn't quite describe them, since they are also full, almost past ripeness, of a floating, sometimes painful, sometimes wistful, intense, dark and silvery eroticism that feels as if it comes out of some cross between late nineteeth-century symbolist lushness--vague and specific at once--and the kind of '60s and '70s European film that talked about eroticism with a wistfulness so intense that it seemed experience and the melancholy recollection of experience were the same th

Blindman's Bluff (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 18)

by Faye Kellerman

“A well-tangled web of intrigue and murder.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Kellerman invariably rides high in the bestseller lists…Blindman’s Bluff shows why.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
One of the popular couples in contemporary crime fiction, LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus are back in Blindman’s Bluff—and placed in harm’s way in the wake of a horrific home invasion and brutal multiple murder. Author Faye Kellerman, whose novels perennially live on the New York Times bestseller list, proves once again that “no one working in the crime genre is better” (Baltimore Sun) with this twisty, surprising shocker.

Hangman: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 19)

by Faye Kellerman

“No one working in the crime genre is better.”
—Baltimore Sun

L.A.P.D. Homicide Detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus are back on a case in Hangman—an electrifying new novel of suspense from Faye Kellerman, New York Times bestselling author of Blindman’s Bluff, The Mercedes Coffin, The Burnt House, and many other masterful thrillers. A stunning tale of crime and detection featuring the brutal death of a “party girl” health care worker, a mysterious disappearance, and the chilling return of an all-too-familiar sociopath, Hangman is Kellerman’s 21st bestseller to feature Decker and Lazarus, “Hands down, the most refreshing mystery couple around.” (People)

Blindman's Bluff: A Decker and Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 18)

by Faye Kellerman

“A well-tangled web of intrigue and murder.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Kellerman invariably rides high in the bestseller lists…Blindman’s Bluff shows why.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
One of the popular couples in contemporary crime fiction, LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus are back in Blindman’s Bluff—and placed in harm’s way in the wake of a horrific home invasion and brutal multiple murder. Author Faye Kellerman, whose novels perennially live on the New York Times bestseller list, proves once again that “no one working in the crime genre is better” (Baltimore Sun) with this twisty, surprising shocker.

False Prophet (Decker/Lazarus Novels)

by Faye Kellerman

L.A.P.D. Detective Peter Decker doesn't know quite what to make of Lilah Brecht. The beautiful, eccentric spa owner and daughter of a faded Hollywood legend, Lilah was beaten, robbed, and raped in her own home -- and claims to have psychic powers that enable her to see even more devastating events looming on the horizon. With his heart and mind on his pregnant young wife, Rina Lazarus, at home, Peter finds it hard to put much credence in the victim's outrageous claims, or to become too deeply involved with her equally odd brothers and aging film star mom. But when Lilah's dark visions turn frighteningly real, Decker's world will be severely rocked -- as the "false prophet's" secrets and obsessions entrap the dedicated policeman ... and point a killer toward Decker's own vulnerable family.

The Burnt House: A Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 16)

by Faye Kellerman

At 8:15 in the morning, a small commuter plane carrying forty-seven passengers crashes into an apartment building in Granada Hills, California. Shock waves ripple through Los Angeles, as L.A.P.D. Lieutenant Peter Decker works overtime to calm rampant fears of a 9/11-type terror attack. But a grisly mystery lives inside the plane's charred and twisted wreckage: the unidentified bodies of four extra travelers. And there is no sign of an airline employee who was supposedly on the catastrophic flight.
Decker and his wife, Rina, have personal reasons for being profoundly shaken by the tragedy, since the "accident" occurred frighteningly close to their daughter Hannah's school. Luckily, their child and her schoolmates escaped unscathed. But the fate of the unaccounted-for flight attendant—twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden—remains a question mark more than a month after the horrific event, when the young woman's irate stepfather calls, insisting that she was never onboard the doomed plane. Instead, he claims, she was most likely murdered by her abusive, unfaithful husband. But why, then, was Roseanne's name included on the passenger list?
Under intense pressure from the department to come up with answers, Decker launches an investigation that carries him down a path of tragic history, dangerous secrets, and deadly lies—and leads him to the corpse of a three-decades-missing murder victim. And as the jagged pieces slowly fall into place, a frightening picture begins to form: a mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker's and Rina's own beliefs about guilt and innocence and justice.
Combining relentless suspense with intense, multilayered human drama, The Burnt House is Faye Kellerman at her mesmerizing best.

The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book

by Faye Kellerman

Billionaire genius Genoa Greeves never got over the shocking death of her favorite teacher, Bennett "Dr. Ben" Alston Little, murdered execution-style and stuffed into the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz. No arrests were ever made, no killer charged for the brutal crime. Fifteen years later, the high-tech CEO reads about another execution-style murder; this time the victim is a Hollywood music producer named Primo Ekerling. There is no obvious connection, but the case is eerily similar to Little's and Genoa feels the time is right to close Dr. Ben's case once and for all—offering the L.A.P.D. a substantial financial "incentive" if justice is finally served for Little.
Lieutenant Peter Decker resents having to commit valuable manpower to a fifteen-year-old open case simply because a rich woman says "Jump!" Still, the recent murder of Primo Ekerling does bear a disturbing resemblance to Little's case, even though two thug suspects are currently behind bars for the Ekerling murder. Decker can't help but wonder about a connection. His first phone calls are to the two primary investigators in the Little case, retired detectives Calvin Vitton and Arnie Lamar. Lamar is cooperative, but Vitton is not only reluctant to talk, he winds up dead of a suspicious suicide twelve hours later. Plunging into this long-buried murder, Decker discovers that even though the two slayings are separated by a decade and a half, there is still plenty of greed, lust, and evil to connect the dots.
Decker's team of top investigators not only includes his favorite homicide detectives, Scott Oliver and Marge Dunn, but also his newly minted Hollywood detective daughter, Cindy Kutiel, whose help proves to be invaluable. His wife, Rina Lazarus, continues to be his backbone of support, offering a cool, rational outlook despite her growing concern for her husband's welfare and safety. Rina's worries and fears begin to build at a fevered pitch as past and present collide with a vengeance, catapulting an unsuspecting Peter Decker closer and closer to the edge of an infinite dark abyss.
A relentlessly gripping tale spun by a master, Faye Kellerman's The Mercedes Coffin races through a dangerous urban world of fleeting fame and false dreams, making heart-pumping hairpin turns at each step of a terrifying journey, where truth and justice are fine lines between life and death.

The Burnt House (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 16)

by Faye Kellerman

At 8:15 A.M., a small commuter plane carrying forty-seven passengers crashes into an apartment building in Granada Hills, California. Among the dead inside the plane's charred and twisted wreckage are the unidentified bodies of four extra travelers. And there's no sign of an airline employee whose name was on the passengers list.
L.A.P.D. Detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina, areprofoundly shaken by this terrible "accident" that has occurred frighteningly close to their daughter's school. And an irate call from the unaccounted-for flight attendant's stepfather further tangles an already twisted mystery. The man insists twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden was never on the doomed flight, but was probably murdered by her abusive, unfaithful husband—a revelation that propels Decker down a path of tragic history and deadly lies toward an unimaginable evil that will challenge his and Rina's cherished beliefs about guilt and innocence and justice.

Murder 101: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 22)

by Faye Kellerman

New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman's beloved Decker and Lazarus embark on a new life in upstate New York—and find themselves entangled in deception, intrigue, and murder in an elite, picturesque college town.
As a detective lieutenant with the LAPD, Peter Decker witnessed enough ugliness and chaos for a lifetime. Now he and his spirited wife, Rina Lazarus, are ready to enjoy the quiet beauty of upstate New York, where they can be closer to their four adult children, grandchildren, and their foster son, Gabe.
But working for the Greenbury Police Department isn't as fulfilling as Decker hoped. While Rina has adapted beautifully to their new surroundings, Decker is underwhelmed and frustrated by his new partner, Tyler McAdams, a former Harvard student and young buck with a bad attitude. Just when he thinks he's made a mistake, Decker is called to an actual crime—a possible break-in at the local cemetery.
The call seems like a false alarm until it's discovered that a mausoleum's stunning Tiffany panels have been replaced by forgeries. Soon the case escalates into murder: a co-ed at an exclusive consortium of liberal-arts colleges is brutally slaughtered. Poking into the hallowed halls of academia to find a killer, Decker and McAdams are drawn deep into a web of nasty secrets, cold-case crimes, international intrigue, and ruthless people who kill for sport.
Suddenly Decker's job is anything but boring, and the case might be too much to handle for a sleepy town that hasn't seen a murder for nearly a quarter century. Decker will need to use every bit of his keen mind, his thirty years of experience as a homicide cop, and much-appreciated help from family and old friends to stop a callous killer and uncover a cabal so bizarre that it defies logic.

The Beast: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 21)

by Faye Kellerman

The professional and the personal intersect in treacherous ways in this compelling and eerie installment in Faye Kellerman's thrilling New York Times bestselling Decker/Lazarus series
Throughout his years with the LAPD, Peter Decker has handled a number of tough cases and strange killers. But few of his previous assignments compare to his latest case—the most bizarre of his storied career.
When Hobart Penny is found dead in his apartment, the cops think that his pet cat—an adult female tiger—attacked the reclusive elderly billionaire. But it soon becomes clear that the beast that killed the eccentric inventor is all too human. Digging into the victim's life, Decker and his colleagues, Detectives Marge Dunn and Scott Oliver, discover that Penny was an exceptionally peculiar man with exotic tastes, including kinky sex with call girls.
Following a trail of clues that leads from a wildlife sanctuary in the San Bernardino Mountains to the wild nightlife of Las Vegas, the LAPD detectives are left juggling too many suspects and too few answers. To break open a case involving the two most primal instincts—sex and murder—Decker wrestles with a difficult choice. Should he turn to a man with expert knowledge of both, Chris Donatti, the dangerous man who also happens to be the father of Decker's foster son, Gabriel Whitman, a boy not without his own problems?
As their work and intimate worlds collide, Decker and his wife, Rina, find themselves facing tough questions. It just might be that family crises and work-related responsibilities prove too much for Decker's career. A confluence of ordeals can stress even the most intact of families. And when all these shocking truths comes out, exactly how well will Decker and Rina cope, and survive?

The Beast: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 21)

by Faye Kellerman

Peter Decker's latest case with the LAPD is the most bizarre of his storied career. When the elderly, eccentric billionaire Hobart Penny is found dead in his apartment, the cops think that his pet Bengal tiger must have turned against him. But as Decker and his colleagues, Detectives Marge Dunn and Scott Oliver, dig into the victim's life, they discover that Penny had all kinds of exotic and kinky tastes. It soon becomes clear that the beast that killed the peculiar inventor is all too human.
Following a trail of clues that leads from a wildlife sanctuary in the San Bernardino Mountains to the wild nightlife of Las Vegas, the LAPD detectives are left juggling too many suspects and too few answers. To crack a case involving the two most primal instincts—sex and murder—Decker wrestles with a difficult choice. Should he turn to someone with expert knowledge of both, Chris Donatti, the dangerous man who also happens to be the father of Decker's foster son? As his work and personal life collide, Decker finds himself facing tough questions and wondering if the conflict between family crises and professional duties will be the undoing of his career.

Gun Games: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 20)

by Faye Kellerman

“[Kellerman] does for the American cop what P. D. James has done for the British mystery, lifting it beyond its genre.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“No one working in the crime genre is better.”
—Baltimore Sun
In Gun Games, the sensational Faye Kellerman once again showcases Peter Decker of the LAPD and Rina Lazarus, arguably the most popular husband and wife team in contemporary crime fiction. A rash of shocking adolescent suicides at an elite Los Angeles private school is at the heart of this gripping thriller that also focuses on the troubled teen Decker and Lazarus have brought into their home: Gabriel Whitman, the son of a psychopath. Herself one-half of one of noir fiction’s true “power couples”—along with her husband, acclaimed mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman—Faye Kellerman once again demonstrates how American police procedural writing is done to perfection with Gun Games.

Gun Games: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels, 20)

by Faye Kellerman

“[Kellerman] does for the American cop what P. D. James has done for the British mystery, lifting it beyond its genre.”
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“No one working in the crime genre is better.”
—Baltimore Sun
In Gun Games, the sensational Faye Kellerman once again showcases Peter Decker of the LAPD and Rina Lazarus, arguably the most popular husband and wife team in contemporary crime fiction. A rash of shocking adolescent suicides at an elite Los Angeles private school is at the heart of this gripping thriller that also focuses on the troubled teen Decker and Lazarus have brought into their home: Gabriel Whitman, the son of a psychopath. Herself one-half of one of noir fiction’s true “power couples”—along with her husband, acclaimed mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman—Faye Kellerman once again demonstrates how American police procedural writing is done to perfection with Gun Games.

Capital Crimes

by Faye Kellerman, Jonathan Kellerman

Internationally bestselling novelists each in their own right, husband and wife Jonathan and Faye Kellerman team up for a powerful one-two punch with Capital Crimes, a gripping pair of original crime thrillers set in two cities rich in atmosphere, and featuring appearances by the authors’ signature heroes: LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker and psychologist sleuth Dr. Alex Delaware.

MY SISTER’S KEEPER: BERKELEY

Progressive state representative Davida Grayson fits in well with her Berkeley constituents. But some of Davida’s views have made her unpopular elsewhere. Davida’s foes are numerous: politicians on the other side of the aisle, racist hatemongers, even dissenters in her own party. Still, no one suspects that any buttons Davida might push could evoke deadly force.

But now Davida lies brutally murdered in her office, and Berkeley homicide detectives Will Barnes and Amanda Isis must unravel Davida’s complex, surprising life in order to find her killer. As they dig deeper, Will and Amanda realize that the real Davida Grayson was someone the public never knew. The investigation draws the detectives into a labyrinth of hidden sexuality, dark secrets, betrayal, and bloody vengeance that leads tortuously into madness. With time short and the suspect list long, Barnes and Isis must find the answers before the killer pulls off a repeat performance.

MUSIC CITY BREAKDOWN: NASHVILLE

Baker Southerby, the son of musicians, was a child prodigy performer. But something Baker won’t talk about leads him to quit the honky-tonk circuit, become a Nashville cop, and never look back. His partner, Lamar Van Gundy, is a would-be studio bassist from up North who never quite made the cut in Music City, so instead earned himself a detective’s badge. Now both men are members of Nashville PD’s elite Murder Squad, with a solid record for solves. But when they catch a homicide that’s high-profile even for a city where musical celebrity is routine, their skills are tested: Jack Jeffries, a rock legend who cast aside personal demons and emerged from retirement to perform at a charity benefit, has been discovered in a ditch near the Cumberland River, his throat slashed.

It’s a whodunit as heartbreaking as it is baffling. Southerby and Van Gundy understand the rhythms of the music biz as intimately as the streets they work–and know that both have their dark sides. What the detectives don’t realize is just how high the price of success can be. Long before the last notes of Jack Jeffries’s final song have faded, Southerby and Van Gundy will learn about the dangers of concealing a hidden past . . . the hard way. Capital Crimesis page-turning, psychologically resonant suspense–just what we’ve come to expect from two of the world’s most successful crime writers.

Street Dreams (Kellerman, Faye)

by Faye Kellerman

While on routine patrol, LAPD Officer Cindy Decker rescues a newborn abandoned in an alley Dumpster. But she can't call it a night until she sees the infant safe in a hospital, cared for by a professional - in this case a male nurse with intense eyes and lots of charm.
Now the hunt is on for the mother, more than likely a scared and desperate girl in need of medical attention. Armed with advice from her overworked father, Detective Peter Decker, Cindy searches through the mean streets of her inner-city Hollywood district, following a trail filled with helpless people and violent gangs who prey on the innocent.
With each new lead, the twisted journey gets darker, battering Cindy's complex relationships and endangering her very life. When Decker and Decker join forces, can this edgy duo put personal issues aside to catch a vicious culprit before he strikes again?

Quality of Mercy

by Faye Kellerman

"A sprawling historical tale...Entertaining."
THE KIRKUS REVIEWS
Rebecca Lopez, the beautiful, fiery daughter of Roderigo Lopez, Queen Elizabeth's own physician, keeps many secrets. Not only are she and her family conversos, or secret Jews who must practice their religion in secret, but Rebecca craves adventure and walks about London in male dress. One day she actually crosses swords with a fledgling dramatist named Will Shakespeare. And the two embark on an adventure of passion and danger that shakes the very foundations of the Court--and nearly alters the course of history....

Moon Music

by Faye Kellerman

“Fascinating....Fast-paced and dynamic.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Kellerman is taking a big risk here, and I think she pulls it off in fine style.”
—Washington Post
With Moon Music, New York Times bestseller Faye Kellerman leaves Los Angeles and heads to stranger territories: “Sin City” Las Vegas, Nevada. Taking a brief hiatus from her mystery series featuring LAPD Homicide Detective Peter Decker and his Orthodox Jewish wife, Rina Lazarus, Kellerman delivers a masterful stand-alone crime novel that crackles with suspense and tantalizes with a touch of the paranormal. The horribly savaged body of a once-beautiful Vegas showgirl is discovered in the desert not far from the world-famous Strip, plunging Detective Sergeant Romulus Poe into the heart of a bizarre, full moon-soaked mystery that could cost him everything he holds dear in life, including his sanity.

Bone Box A Decker/Lazarus Novel

by Faye Kellerman

“Hands down, the most refreshing mystery couple around.” —People

On a crisp September morning, while walking a bucolic woodland trail, Rina stumbles upon human remains once buried deep beneath the forest floor. Immediately, she calls her husband, Peter Decker, a former detective lieutenant with the LAPD now working for the local Greenbury Police. The body has been interred for years and there is scant physical evidence at the gravesite: a youthful skeleton, a skull wound, and long, dark strands of hair surrounding the bones. As Decker and his partner, Tyler McAdams, investigate further, they realize that they’re most likely dealing with a missing student from the nearby Five Colleges of Upstate—a well-known and well-respected consortium of higher learning.

And when more human remains are found in the same area, Decker and McAdams know this isn’t just a one-off murder case. Short-staffed and with no convenient entrée into the colleges, Decker enlists Rina’s help to act as his eyes and ears on campus. Winding their way through a dangerous labyrinth of steely suspects and untouchable academics, Decker, McAdams, and Rina race to protect their community from a psychopathic killer still in the area—and on the hunt for a fresh victim.

The Theory of Death: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker/Lazarus Novels)

by Faye Kellerman

Now living in upstate New York, former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is plunged into a bizarre web involving academia, underworld crime, and calculating killers in this compulsive novel in New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman's beloved Decker and Lazarus series.
Former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is relishing the quiet and slow pace of his new job with the Greenbury police department. The work is low stress and engaging, and it’s been almost a year since the last murder in this sleepy upstate New York town.
Then the body of a nude man is found deep within the woods, shattering Decker’s peace. The death appears to be a suicide—a single shot to the head, the gun by his side. But until the coroner’s ruling, the scene must be treated as a suspicious crime. Without any personal effects near the body, Decker must dig to uncover his identity, a task made difficult by the department’s tight budget and limited personnel. Luckily, Decker gets some unexpected help when his friend and former Greenbury colleague Tyler McAdams calls, looking for a quiet place to study for his law finals.
The investigation takes Decker and McAdams to Kneed Loft College, where they must penetrate the indecipherable upper echelons of mathematics and mathematical prodigies. Beneath the school’s rarified atmosphere they discover a sphere of scheming academics, hidden cyphers—and most dangerous of all—a realm of underworld crime that transforms harmless nerds into cold, calculating evil geniuses. It will take all of Decker’s experience and McAdams’s brains to penetrate enigmatic formulas and codes and solve a dark, twisted crime devised by some brilliant and depraved masterminds.