From Publishers Weekly
On a summer night in a housing development near Los Angeles, police sergeant Peter Decker finds a winsome two-year-old girl playing on a swing set--and wearing blood-soaked pajamas. Unclaimed, "Sally" is placed in a foster home while Decker and partner Marge Dunn try to learn her identity. Bee stings on her arms lead them days later to the scene of a bloody multiple murder at a honey farm. While piecing together a bizarre puzzle of betrayal and revenge which includes adultery, infertility and land development plans, Peter is also investigating rape and assault charges brought against an old army buddy from Vietnam. The pressures of the murder case and doubts about his friend's innocence compound Peter's anxiety as he waits for young Orthodox Jewish widow Rina Lazarus to decide if she will marry him--an older man who's only recently embraced his Jewish heritage. Kellerman weaves these threads into a believable, intricate mystery in which series hero Decker is revealed as even more complex, interesting and sympathetic than in earlier appearances ( Sacred and Profane ). Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild alternate; author tour. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description

In the silent pre-dawn city hours -- alone with his thoughts about Rina Lazarus, the woman he loves, three thousand miles away in New York -- LAPD detective Peter Decker finds a small child, abandoned and covered in blood that is not hers. It is a sobering discovery, and a perplexing one, for nobody in the development where she was found steps forward to claim the little girl. Obsessed more deeply by this case than he imagined possible, Decker is determined to follow the scant clues to an answer. But his trail is leading him to a killing ground where four bodies lie still and lifeless. And by the time Rina returns, Peter Decker is already held fast in a sticky mass of hatred, passion, and murder -- in a world where intense sweetness is accompanied by a deadly sting.


From the Publisher
Part of my responsiblities as mass market managing editor of Ballantine includes handling reprints. In addition to updating front and back matter in order to keep everything up to date, I make sure that any text changes that need to be made are indeed made. This could include anything from factual information that an author wants to change to simple misspellings (although we pride ourselves in having many books with zero typos). Well, recently I received a letter that had originally been sent from a reader to Faye Kellerman, who sent it on to us. The reader wrote about how much she loves Faye's books, and she was shocked to find a few typos in one of the books. I reviewed her list of "errors," and lo and behold, a couple of them absolutely had to be changed. Whenever a reader does something like this, I like to respond with a letter of my own, along with a copy of the book with the corrections made. But in this case there was only a return address; nowhere was there a name. I looked at the address again; it sounded awful familiar. I searched the remnants of my limited brain and suddenly realized that the letter had come from one of my best friends' mothers. And I could see Mrs. R's style all over it. I immediately called my friend and told him about it; we decided to do nothing until the next reprint comes out, with the corrections. Then I'll send a copy of the book, with a note from me, thanking Mrs. R for all her help. I guess the world gets a little smaller every day. . . .

Mark Rifkin, Managing Editorial

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With his Orthodox Jewish girlfriend, Rina Lazarus, thousands of miles away in New York wrestling with his marriage proposal, LAPD detective Pete Decker is lonelier than usual on his morning drive. Until he sees a two-year-old child covered in blood and bee stings.

The child doesn't belong to anyone in the housing complex she's found near, but Decker assumes she must have a family. By the time Rina comes back to town, Decker is obsessed with the case—especially when he stumbles onto a grisly quadruple murder scene and learns what can happen when passion turns into a fatal blood feud. . . .

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly