The Beast is a story about a horrible murder of an old man with a live tiger. The story covers serial murders, prostitutes, beatiality, money and power. There is a whole lot of discussion about characters who are not part of the case. In fact the reason for only three stars in this review is because too much time was spent on characters who were not part of the story. It is a difficult book to plow through because of the horrible lifestyle of characters in this story. ( )

The gripping next installment of the the Decker/ Lazarus series. It starts out with a dead man keeping a tiger in his apartment as a pet, and grows steadily more bizarre and twisted from there. ( )

Two intense storylines. Peter Decker is called to an apartment building where a female Bengal tiger is angry and nobody has seen the tenant. After Animal Control tranquilizes the tiger, the old man is found murdered. Suspicion falls on his sanctuary friends although he has a kinky past and is regularly visited by masseuses. Meanwhile, Gabe Whitman, Peter and Rina's charge, continues to see his girlfriend Yasmine against her mother's wishes, leading to a nasty scene with the police. Marge and Peter seems ready for life changes. ( )

Gabe Whitman, the piano prodigy, seventeen-year-old foster son of Rina and LA Lieutenant Peter Decker completing a day of testifying for the prosecution in a rape case. It quickly moves on to investigating complaints of neighbors about the smell from an apartment where the police discover a full grown lion and a dead man. The investigation reveals that the victim, an eighty-nine-year-old billionaire recluse named Hobart Penny, was very strange, was willing to pay for whatever he wanted, especially kinky sex, and had no friends. He also had some very unusual collections, part of which lead to other potential victims.

I have been reading the Decker/Lazarus books for years.I was absolutely delighted to read this latest book.The mystery part of the book is interesting. Revisiting the main characters is the best part. ( )

I really loved the series in the beginning but the plots have worn thin. the characters are stale. I don't know if it is a spoiler but it appears Ms Kellerman is setting the characters up for an end of the stories. ( )