10 unabridged cds (on the road back and forth to school)
2012, William Morrow & Co.
Harper Audio read by Mitchell Greenberg - very well
375 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 5/3/2015
Goodreads rating: 3.82
My rating: 3.5
TPPL
Setting: Contemporary LA
My comments: Actually, 3.5. Reason? About 50% of the story is about Decker's 15-year-old foster son, piano prodigy Gabe Whitman, who meets a shy 14-year old LA/Persian Jewish girl, falling, apparently and mutually, head-over-heels for each other. He's a horny, 15-year old boy, but she's been raised as an Orthodox Jew in a very strict home, and the sex talk...then scenes...are more graphic and in-your-face than what I remember of previous books in this series. I'm not a prude (at all!), but she was so young and innocent that in some ways her capitulation was believable, but in other ways not. Of course, their story intersects with the case that Decker is working on (what a coincidence!) and everything turns out okay.... it was all okay - likable and interesting - but a little unbelievable.
Goodreads synopsis: Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus are back in this gripping mystery involving a secret cabal of some of Los Angeles' most wealthy--and vicious--teens
LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep--witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city's most exclusive prep schools.
Gregory's mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen--evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student--a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.
Before it's over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return.
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