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The Ritual Bath
First in the Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Series

by Faye Kellerman



      The Ritual Bath isn't the same genre as the later thrillers in the series. The primary focus is the comparison of Rina and Peter's two lifestyles and how they splash together - a multifaceted romance that includes violence, civil rights, religious dedication, revelation, and primers on Judaism and police procedures. I call it a romance because if you take out any of the other features of the story, it can still stand on that. If you take out the relationship between Peter and Rina, there is no story left to read.

Rina Lazarus is a widow with two young sons, living and working at Yeshivat Ohavei Torah near LA. Hers is an awkward position because single women don't normally live at the all-male school. Respect for her dead husband and the halacha provide for the family with Rina teaching high school boys and tending the mikvah, the ritual bathhouse.

Enter Detective Peter Decker, goyem in this sacred Jewish community. A woman leaving the bathhouse is beaten and violated on the grounds of the yoshiva. Peter and his partner answer the call and he feels drawn to the calm, beautiful witness with the long, dark hair. He is attentive to the case, and soon even more attentive to Rina.

I have been reading Faye Kellerman's Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series for several years, but it wasn't until the re-print of The Ritual Bath that I realized I hadn't read it from the beginning. I can't say that I would recommend this book to others who started the series in the middle, as the story has been touched upon in later works. For others, what are you waiting for?

The Book

Avon
Reprint edition June 26, 2007
Mass Market Paperback
0380732661 / 978-0380732661
Mystery / Police Procedural
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE: Dirty words and racial slurs

The Reviewer

Beth E. McKenzie
Reviewed 2008
NOTE:
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