lørdag den 19. december 2009

K for Kellerman

This is a very late post for our weekly alphabet meme, but I have been quite busy for days, trying to arrange my Global Reading Challenge.

I own two books in Faye Kellerman´s American series about Sergeant Peter Decker and his sidekick, the teacher and orthodox Jew, Rina Lazarus, and have read a handful from the library in the 1990s when the series was published in Danish.

The first story is The Ritual Bath, published in 1986 (dansk titel: Det rituelle bad, 1997). A Jewish woman, Sarah Libba, is assaulted and raped inside the Jewish community, an enclosed area within Los Angeles. Peter Decker and his female colleague, Marge Dunn, are put on the case. They feel strange and uncomfortable among the orthodox Jews, but do their best to help the victim and solve the case.

Apart from it being a well-written and interesting police procedural series, the attraction of this one is the depiction of an environment which – to me at least – is a novelty. I enjoyed meeting Rina Lazarus, the young widow, who struggles to be loyal to her own religion and culture, but who is also attracted to Decker, the sympathetic and conscientious policeman who belongs to a non-Jewish, modern American world.

On my shelf is also the second novel, Sacred and Profane, published in 1987 (dansk: Helligt og profant, 1998). In this one, Peter Decker is camping together with Rina Lazarus´ two sons when they find the bodies of two young girls. Decker seems to have figured out how to gain access to a mother´s heart.

An enjoyable series with a couple of detectives I want to read more about.

9 kommentarer:

Anonym sagde ...

Dorte - Thanks for this review, as alwayw : ). I think it's really interesting when a series takes one into a world one's not really familiar with, as The Ritual Bathdoes for those who aren't familiar with Orthodox Judaism.

Dorte H sagde ...

Margot: You are welcome. Yes, this one really had an extra appeal with a rather unusual environment.

Elizabeth Spann Craig sagde ...

These sound interesting, Dorte! Thanks for the mentions. I'm getting a great to-be-read list from you!

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

Dorte H sagde ...

Elizabeth: I am glad I can also tempt Americans with this series :D And it may be easier for you to get the recent volumes which have not been translated into Danish. We have only got five, I think.

R/T sagde ...

FYI from R.T.
http://novelsandstories.blogspot.com/

Kerrie sagde ...

Thanks for the contribution Dorte. Just in the nick of time

Kerrie sagde ...

RT your list is very similar (in style) to the one I compile at the end of the year where I'll be asking crime bloggers to contribute their best 10 for 2009 - last year the 2008 list was quite intersting

Kiwicraig sagde ...

\high-achieving family the Kellermans. Both \faye and husband jonathan are bestselling mystery writers, and son \jesse is now also an acclaimed literary crime writer. they're really nice too - i had the pleasure of interviewing both faye and jonathan a few weeks ago, for an article coming out in the february issue of good reading

Dorte H sagde ...

Kerrie: but I did it! :D

- I have been rather busy writing my Christmas story these last days.

Craig: yes, isn´t it amazing what one family can achieve? One wonders what is environment, and what is inheritance :D