“Milk and Honey”   

    by Faye Kellerman

A Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Mystery

2011 Book Review #59

Booklist Review

L.A. cop Peter Decker gets a lot of ribbing. He's tough yet laconic, over six feet tall, and well over two hundred pounds. He carries a gun and an attitude, but he also wears a yarmulke because the woman he loves is an orthodox Jew and he's willing to do anything to win her.

The problem is that the lovely Rina is having doubts of her own--perhaps because her pious brother-in-law tried to stick his tongue down her throat. Decker and Rina are a lively and unusual detecting duo, and Kellerman, wife of best-selling author, Jonathan, is a gutsy, forceful writer.

 Her cop talk in the station house fairly crackles, and her plotting style is agreeably perverse. The latter is well in evidence here: witness the 2 year old girl found abandoned with blood smeared all over her PJs and bee stings on her arm. The blood belongs to an entire family, murdered in what appears to be an industrial dispute run well amok.

Add several local bikers, throw in the bees themselves, and things get decidedly sticky. With Decker alternately cracking skulls and praying over a plate of kosher food, it's all a delight.

My Thoughts:  I couldn’t put the book down.  Love these characters!