Justice (1995)

A teenage girl is found dead in a motel and her mafia-connected on/off boyfriend confesses to the murder in order to keep another girl out of the public eye. This is a bit different than the previous installments in the series in that part of the story is told from another character's point of view and that Decker's family is almost entirely absent. At times, it seems a YA love story and at times a mafia story, before returning to be a standard Decker-mystery. Although the plot occasionally teeters on the brink of improbability and the characters (especially the ones we already know) behave somewhat cardboardy, it is quite engaging and keeps the interest up until the (surprisingly) open end. ( )

More explicit than I expected after having read only The Ritual Bath, the book not only works as a mystery but also raises questions about love and trust and what is forgivable. ( )

In Faye Kellerman's Justice, homicide detective Peter Decker investigates the murder of a popular high school girl at a seedy motel. While well-written, for a pulp novel, I didn't enjoy this one as much as I might have, because the story was split between the (rather perfunctory) investigation of Decker and the story of another high school girl's romance with a mysterious, dangerous boy, and so neither story got the attention it deserved. I was also unsure who the protagonist was supposed to be, and so couldn't really invest myself in the story. Although the back cover blurb suggests otherwise, the crime is unremarkable in that it plays a rather secondary role in the story. The same blurb actually gives away a plot point that isn't really revealed until two-thirds of the way through the story, and in fact the story seems to end at that point, but peters out painfully for another hundred pages. I've been told that Justice is, in fact, one of Kellerman's weaker novels, but if I had only this one to go by, I probably wouldn't pick up another. ( )

Entertaining...Terry seemed to be a bit too wise for her high school age. ( )

Another good book in the series by this author. Never had a duff one so far.

Back Cover Blurb:
Called to investigate the shocking murder of a high-school student, Detective Sergeant Peter Decker finds himself face to face with a world of casual drunkenness, sex, and, it seems, violence - the world of suburban Los Angeles's affluent, rootless teenagers. And, as the father of a nineteen year old daughter, Decker must deal with not only the brutality of the killing but with his own parental terror.
When a disturbed young man with a mysterious history is identified as the prime suspect , everyone is relieved - except for Decker, whose professionalism and integrity lead him to startling and controversial conclusions. ( )