Customer Reviews

The Mercedes Coffin

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When the police see a crime that's unusual, they check their records to see if there are any other similar crimes. When the details match, they often find that the same person was responsible. Career criminals frequently repeat themselves. What's rare, however, is when 15 years separate the two incidents. What does it mean then?

That's the question that Lieutenant Peter Decker faces when the LAPD is offered a large reward for finding the murderer of a well-beloved teacher, Bennett Little (Dr. Ben to many of his students), that occurred 15 years earlier. To make matters a little simpler (or more complicated?), Decker's daughter caught the squeal on the second murder.

From there, the book settles down into a slow-moving police procedural where you have to keep track of all the connections among the various people to make sense of the mystery. Even then, the results may seem a bit speculative until just near the end.

Normally, I like the slow unpeeling of the onion in a police procedural, but this one just didn't do it for me. Several parts of the story didn't ring true, even after thinking about them for a few days after I read the book. The characters who were introduced just for this story didn't always ring true to me either.

If you don't want to take a chance on this book, there's nothing of series significance that happens. So you have the option to skip this one, even if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Faye Kellerman fan.

I have just reread the whole series and for the most part really enjoyed it, but this book left me cold on both readings. It is seriously convoluted and I had a great deal of trouble keeping the characters clear. Hopefully the next book returns to the authors usual standards.

When the police see a crime that's unusual, they check their records to see if there are any other similar crimes. When the details match, they often find that the same person was responsible. Career criminals frequently repeat themselves. What's rare, however, is when 15 years separate the two incidents. What does it mean then?

That's the question that Lieutenant Peter Decker faces when the LAPD is offered a large reward for finding the murderer of a well-beloved teacher, Bennett Little (Dr. Ben to many of his students), that occurred 15 years earlier. To make matters a little simpler (or more complicated?), Decker's daughter caught the squeal on the second murder.

From there, the book settles down into a slow-moving police procedural where you have to keep track of all the connections among the various people to make sense of the mystery. Even then, the results may seem a bit speculative until just near the end.

Normally, I like the slow unpeeling of the onion in a police procedural, but this one just didn't do it for me. Several parts of the story didn't ring true, even after thinking about them for a few days after I read the book. The characters who were introduced just for this story didn't always ring true to me either.

If you don't want to take a chance on this book, there's nothing of series significance that happens. So you have the option to skip this one, even if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Faye Kellerman fan.