The Mercedes Coffin: A Decker and Lazarus Book (Peter Decker & Rina… (edition 2008)

The story was okay. I really disliked some of the dialogue, though. Do people really say "fortuitously" and "malarkey" in conversation? And the attempts at ghetto speak were just hideous. Does F. Kellerman really think people talk like that? ( )

Always enjoyed these books Lt. Decker and the Jewishness of it. ( )

Now this book had some real promise, and right until the end it had me guessing who dunnit...but gues what? You finish the book not knowing...well, not for certain. While the ending had a different twist to it, it seemed to have been written in such a way that indicated that Kellerman was rushing for the bus or something as it went from high drama and excitement (involving naked girls in a seedy hotel no less) to a picnic of no fixed abode...very odd. In fact I would go so far as to say that Kellerman herself didn;t know who committed the murder(s) and is still trying to solve it.

It follows a senior LAPD Detective as he seeks the killer of a popular school teacher 15 years before the story is set...and if he does, there is a cool million on the table. But when another murder happens in the neighbouring precinct with startling similarites, yet no obvious connection, Decker (as that is his name) goes on a chase resembling a pup chasing its tail.

This was well written and thought out which had you double-guessing the investigators and the suspects in every chapter, but the ending was oh so bad...and to ram a point home, as bad as my 'mate' Richard Laymon! Now that's a criticism if there ever was one. ( )

NIL

I was excited to get this as an Early Reviewers and it was my first one. I ended up being disappointed in it. Part of what makes the series as a whole brilliant is the combination of the overall slow story arc of Peter, Rina, his history, their relationship, the other members of their family and particularly Rina. This was a perfectly ok mystery, worth reading, but Rina was a minor part of it. I was even fine with the one book about Peter's daughter. This was just "meh."