Faye Kellerman's 11th Peter Decker-Rina Lazarus mystery takes police lieutenant Decker into the enclave of a Heaven's Gate-style pseudoscientific religious cult, the Order of the Rings of God. The cult's leader, a former world-class physicist who styles himself Jupiter, has died of an ungodlike combination of liquor and prescription drugs, but whether it was accident, suicide, or murder is suspiciously murky. The death is mysteriously reported by Jupiter's estranged daughter Europa, a scientist who has nothing to do with the cult, and when the police arrive on the scene, they find that Jupiter's followers, particularly his four unpleasantly ambitious personal attendants, range from uncooperative to downright hostile. Decker's suspicions kick into high gear when two other cult members go missing and another body turns up. But with the tense situation threatening to unravel as explosively as Jonestown or Waco, it's Marge, Decker's professional sidekick, who penetrates the cult's inner sanctum and effects a scary eleventh-hour rescue.

For Decker, as always, the mystery serves to offset the tempestuous Orthodox Jewish family life that he married into. Sammy, Rina's older son, wants to study in a politically unstable region of Israel, and Jake, the younger, is teetering on the edge of a most unorthodox social scene of girls, porn movies, and pot. Kellerman knows how to craft a compelling mystery, but it's the honesty of Decker's unique religious and family struggles that keeps mystery fans interested book after book. If you're new to this series, you'll want to begin at the beginning with The Ritual Bath. --Barrie Trinkle

Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Narrator Jordan Lage uses his diverse background in theater, film, and television for all it's worth, creating a menagerie of quirky character voices and pumping the spooky meter to 11. But it really isn't necessary. Faye Kellerman's story, centering on the suspicious death of a charismatic cult leader and the deadly reactions of his followers, is mysterious and entertaining enough without all the vocal gymnastics. When playing it straight, Lage does a credible job with an intriguing and compelling plot. Next time, he might consider leaving out "dis, dat, and de uddah ting." (Running time: 4.5 hours, 4 cassettes) --George Laney

From Publishers Weekly
In her 11th Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus mystery (Moon Music, etc.), Kellerman develops the theme of parent-child relationships along two fronts. Before Father Jupiter became the head of a religious cult called the Order of the Rings of God, he was a renowned astrophysicist named Dr. Emil Euler Ganz. Though Jupiter has long been out of touch with his family, when he dies mysteriously his estranged daughter, Europa, becomes a pivotal help to LAPD detective Decker's investigation. Jupiter's death looks like suicideAuntil the autopsy reveals small amounts of arsenic in his body. Then two of the four remaining cult leaders are killed, prompting the cops to suspect that a serial killer is lurking among the group's members. When the police and FBI try to storm the cult's compound, Brother Bob, Jupiter's old attendant, wires the buildings and threatens to blow up everyone, leaving Decker to figure out how to save the lives of the compound's 96 children. Meanwhile, because of the pressures of the case, Decker is failing to give his two teenage stepsons the attention they need to weather the upheavals of adolescence. He relies on the help of his wife, Rina, to understand the rules of the boys' Jewish orthodox upbringing, but there are aspects of their lives he must take the time to find out on his own. Kellerman writes spine-tingling suspense and defines her characters well, but the scenes in which experts lecture the cops on physics and cult psychology are overlong and sometimes superfluous. Although the Decker/Lazarus family relationship strengthens in this novel, this is not the strongest of the series. (Aug.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
When Emil Euler Ganz, a brilliant former astrophysicist turned cult leader, is found dead with an empty fifth of vodka under his bed, it looks like suicide. But LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker is suspicious and begins to ask questions about the man who disappeared 25 years ago only to turn up ten years later as Father Jupiter, the charismatic leader of the Order of the Rings of God. While trying to find out how Father Jupiter died and worrying about the safety of the children in the unstable cult, Decker must also deal with a crisis in his own family when he finds his stepson Jacob in bed with a girl from school. Jupiter's Bones is Kellerman's 13th bookAthe 11th in the best-selling series featuring Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus. Despite a rather awkward prose style, this is a page-turner. Recommended for public libraries.-AJane La Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Lage brings all the horror of murders in a cult enclave to life. Faye Kellerman is at it again, bringing in Lieut. Peter Decker of the LAPD to deal with murder, kidnapping, mystery and more murder. Jupiter, a renowned astrophysicist turned cult leader, is dead by suicide or perhaps murder. Was it slow poison or his own hand? Regardless, it tips the balance of power, and mayhem erupts. The gruesome aspects of Kellerman's tale are made more vivid through Lage's unrelenting narration. However, he mangles Decker's Hebrew phrases (the only trace of the original theme of Kellerman's series). M.B.K. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Since virtually everything Kellerman writes turns up on the best-seller lists, there's little doubt her latest Pete Decker^-Rina Lazarus mystery will land there, too. Capitalizing on the media frenzy surrounding Heaven's Gate, Waco, and Ruby Ridge, Kellerman crafts a tense thriller that has Decker investigating the death of Dr. Emil Ganz, a brilliant but eccentric astrophysicist who gave up worldly success, transformed himself into revered cult leader "Brother Jupiter," and founded Jupiter's Order, a secretive compound where he and his loyal followers live in seeming peace. A mysterious phone call alerts the LAPD to Jupiter's death. The Order wants to be left alone to mourn their leader, but since Ganz died in suspicious circumstances, the cops are obligated to investigate. As Decker and his colleagues probe the life and death of the elusive and mysterious Dr. Ganz, they find he had some powerful enemies even among his own followers, enemies who may have hated him enough to murder him. Before the case is closed, there are threats of mass suicide, a tense standoff, and a dramatic and heart-wrenching rescue. The gifted Kellerman has pulled together elements of suspense, violence, humor, pathos, and love and wrapped them into a potent plot certain to captivate genre fans. Emily Melton

From Kirkus Reviews
Once again, LAPD lieutenant Pete Decker and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus (Serpents Tooth, 1997, etc.) find themselves needing unorthodox solutions to hard-pressing problems. Domestically, it's their younger son Jacobbrilliant, charming, and oh so bored who's giving his parents heartburn. For instance: Decker arrives home unexpectedly to find Jacob there before him. It's midafternoon, and where Jacob, 16, should have been is at school. Instead, he's in bed. With Shayna, also 16, studying matters extra-curricular. What to do about restless Jacob? And what to do about the mysterious death of Dr. Emil Euler Ganz, a.k.a. Father Jupiter? Once a renowned astrophysicist, Ganz was, until his untimely passing, the leader of a notorious cult called the Order of the Rings of God. But is his passing the suicide it seemed at first, or did someone urge him into that ``better world'' he so often preached about? Did Guru Pluto, or Guru Nova, or Guru Bobmembers of the Ring's inner circleaspire, prematurely, to Ring-leadership? Decker has his work cut out for him, as he searches for answers while misunderstandings and tensions proliferate almost as fast as dead bodies mount up in the cult's compound. Finally, almost inevitably, there's a standoff as cult members (and their children) are besieged by the police and FBIand here, as in Waco, despite Decker's best efforts, the end is both explosive and painful. Writing that borders on the slipshod in places, though the whole is greater than its parts. And, as usual, Decker, Rina, and their children will generate sufficient interest to keep series fans happy. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
The mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate cult fascinates me. Being an unruly sort myself, I can't imagine convincing that many egos to go along with anything as final as suicide. Nonetheless, the event struck me then, as it strikes me now, as a wretchedly sad commentary on the spiritual torpor of our time.

Faye Kellerman apparently shares my fascination, for her latest novel is a spellbinder about a cult much like Heaven's Gate, led by the quixotic former scientist Dr. Emil Ganz, a.k.a. Father Jupiter.

Kellerman manages to make this a particularly southern California story, the background noisy and vibrant with the community reaction to the suspicious death of Father Jupiter. If such cults bloomed in New Hampshire, say, we'd have a different ambience here.

The death is an excuse for Kellerman (and her fictional sleuths Pete Decker and Rina Lazarus) to look inside the cult, which she does with great and earnest skill and not without a certain sympathy for what she finds there. A lesser writer would have turned the book into an attack or low comedy. But Kellerman isn't afraid of serious religious speculation, and her look at the cult is both challenging and disturbing. In fact, in places Jupiter's Bones reminds me of Nathanael West's chagrined pity whenever he dealt with the monstrously pathetic.

Did someone inside the cult hate Father Jupiter enough to kill him? Kellerman never forgets that this is a mystery novel and keeps her A plot moving straight ahead at all times. But, like a true novelist, she allows herself and her readers to ruminate on some of the sadder truthsofour time. An excellent novel.

—Ed Gorman

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Once Dr. Emil Euler Ganz was a preeminent astrophysicist with a worldrenowned reputation. But then he vanished without any warning to his family or colleagues. Fifteen years later, he reappeared as "Father Jupiter," the founder and charismatic leader of the scientific cult, The Order of the Rings. And now he's dead—a vial of sleeping pills and an empty bottle of vodka standing near his lifeless body.

Was Ganz's death an accident? Suicide? Or did someone hasten Jupiter prematurely out of this world? These are the questions LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker and his Homicide team are determined to answer as they enter the cult's fortresslike compound. But the dead leader's four "privileged" attendants make it clear that the police are not welcome there—and the mysterious disappearance of two of the Order's members, including a child, turns an already uncomfortable situation even uglier and more incendiary. Decker will need more than the wisdom and support of his wife, Rina Lazarus, to defuse a ticking time bomb of jealousy, greed, bizarre hidden pasts, and deadly secrets—one that could explode at any time into mayhem so pernicious that it threatens to destroy a multitude of misguided lives—and scores of helpless, innocent children as well.

Author Biography: Faye Kellerman introduced L.A. cop Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, to the mystery world fifteen years ago. Since then she has published twelve Decker/Lazarus novels, the most recent being the New York Times bestseller Stalker. She is also the author of Moon Music, a contemporary thriller set in Las Vegas, and The Quality of Mercy, a historical novel ofElizabethan England. Kellerman lives in California with her husband, noted author Jonathan Kellerman, and their four children, three dogs, and fish too numerous to count.

SYNOPSIS

Dr. Emil Euler Ganz was considered a preeminent astrophysicist, a brilliant professor with a world-renowned reputation. Then, without warning to his family or colleagues, he vanished. For ten years, no one knew of his whereabouts until he suddenly reappeared as "Father Jupiter," the founder of a pseudoscientific cult--the Order of the Rings of God. For fifteen years, Ganz ruled his hundreds of disciples with spiritual words as well as an iron fist. Now, suddenly, the aging charismatic leader is found dead, a fifth of vodka and a vial of pills by his bedside.

Ganz's abrupt demise brings about official questions for LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker and his team of Homicide detectives. Is Ganz's death an accident, a suicide or even a homicide? Suspicions abound. But when the police enter the premises to investigate, the cult becomes resentful of the intrusion. Those closest to Father Jupiter--his four "privileged" attendants---are especially indignant, turning overtly hostile when two cult members--including a child--appear to be missing. The irate attendants all but accuse the police of masterminding a kidnapping.

The situation becomes threatening and ugly, but Decker, with the support of his wife, Rina, and his detectives refuse to back down. Amid disturbing forensic evidence, mangled murdered bodies, hidden pasts and deadly secrets, the team continues its relentless probe of the bizarre cult, even as the Order turns violent, erupting into mayhem so deadly that it threatens not only the lives of its na￯﾿ﾽve adult members but also scores of helpless, innocent children.

FROM THE CRITICS

Ellery Queen

When cult leader Father Jupiter, formerly known as a major academic physicist, is reported dead at the Order of the Rings of God compound, the L.A.P.D.'s Lt. Peter Decker heads the investigation. Along with the expected tidbits on Orthodox Jewish life, Kellerman provides fascinating background on cult psychology, deprogramming, and theoretical physics along with superb character interplay.

Entertainment Weekly

A well-tangled web of intrigue and murder.

People

Mystery shrouded in skin-crawling suspense...It doesn't disappoint.

Houston Chronicle

A willy thriller...murder, mystery, action, and drama make this another winner for a popular author who neatly wraps the plot in very human emotions.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch