Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of time
Review: One of the worst books I've ever read
Rating: 
Summary: WARNING
Review: audible.com audiobooks may or may not work. may or may not take longer than reading the book. tech dept keeps banking hours and has one phone line.
Rating:
Summary: Error
Review: This is going to sound strange since I have not yet read the book. My wife has possession and I am awaiting my turn.The reason that I am writing is that, despite the fact that I am an avid Faye Kellerman fan, I fear that this book will be spoiled for me. My wife has pointed out (and we have confirmed with serious authorities) that there is a serious error. Kellerman states that an uncle / neice liaison is Halachically forbidden and is the equivilant of incest. In fact, an uncle-neice liaison/marriage is perfectly acceptable. On the other hand, an Aunt / nephew liaison is absolutely prohibited. I was truly surprised that such an obvious error was allowed to creep into one of her books. I hope to contribute a complete review if I can get past this error. My rating is strictly preliminary.
Rating:
Summary: I'm lukewarm....
Review: on Faye Kellerman's 14th book in the Decker/Lazarus series, "Stone Kiss". "Justice", an earlier novel, featured a colorful character named Chris Donatti. While I applaud Kellerman for bringing him back -- a complex character, with a love/hate relationship with Peter Decker; I wish she hadn't chosen New York as the setting. Kellerman has moved Decker to the Big Apple to help family before; but this one's a stretch. He's there to help his half-brother Jonathan's family find Jon's neice -- a girl by the name of Shayndie Lieber (whose brief appearance does nothing to make her character believable!) Decker's dealing with ultra-Orthodox Jews, and, unfortunately, there is little positive about the sect he tries to help, and far too much detail in this plot. Although it is the primary plot, it grows boring, and the reader turns to the evolving clash between Decker and Donatti, who is surprisingly involved on the fringes of Shayndie's disappearance. Over the top, as well, are the tales of Rina and her endless quest for shopping in the Big Apple - and the contrived plot of his staying in New York, well past the time he should have gone south with her. Weaving in a relationship between Rina and Donatti didn't help the novel, it hurt. I still love this series, and love to explore what I can learn about the Jewish faith from Kellerman's characters. But Peter's a homicide Lieutenant in southern California....and there should be many, many untold stories to be resolved there, surrounded by the interesting people in his squad. Things that saved 3 stars, other than Donatti were the amount of time Kellerman spent fleshing out the character of Randy, Decker's real brother...and I couldn't help but enjoy the twist at the end of the novel on another former Kellerman villain...Steven Gilbert. Enough said! Wait for the paperback, or go to the library for this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Another Excellent Addition to the Decker/Lazarus Series
Review: One of the reasons I love this series is that the author blends so very well the main characters' devotion to their religion with their basic flawed humanity. Because of the series' very essence, I don't see Ms. Kellerman's use of the Yiddish vernacular as proselytizing--far from it--it simply makes the series more believable. Ms. Kellerman has done an excellent job with the gray shading of the plot in Stone Kiss, a pleasant departure from the usual black and white plots of most novels. (Chapter 15 provides insight to the title.) I highly recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best characters in modern day literature!
Review: Yes, this is another Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus story. But, its Christopher Sean Whitman Donatti (encountered first in Kellerman's "Justice" that takes control of this book. Once again, Kellerman gives a clinic on conflicted and complicated, yet fascinating, characters. The story is good, the mystery is good, but Kellerman really shines in her characterizations. The relationships take on a life of their own, outside of the story, until the story becomes back burner. I highly suggest you read "Justice" before encountering this book. It isn't necessary, but the back story is part of what makes this so compelling. I hope we don't have to wait another seven years to see C.D. again. He's like an addiction.
Rating:
Summary: Oh Faye: You Gotta Read Joseph Telushkin
Review: In "Words that Hurt, Words that Heal, Using Words Wisely and Well," Rabbi Joseph Telushkin discusses the emotional, moral, psychological and religious repercussions of both slander and gossip. I wish Faye Kellerman, whose avid fan I used to be, had read Rabbi Telushkin's book before savaging the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in such an unjust,incomprehensible, unconscionable and irrevocable way. Unlike Shakespeare's Shylock, who has a foil in his gentle and good daugher Jessica, and is redeemed by his own speech "Hath Not a Jew Eyes," Faye's orthodox jewish villains in the story have no peers in the book who serve as diametrical opposites. The impression left by her vituperative portrait is that ALL ultra-Orthodox Jews are embezzlers, philanderers and drug addicts, which couldn't be farther from the truth. As someone who lives among orthodox Jews, I KNOW that her portrait is the exception, not the rule, and is spiteful and unfair. What damage has she wrought with such a portrait? In an age when both anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric is escalating, Faye Kellerman has done a tremendous disservice to the orthodox Jewish community. What makes her position so puzzling is that rumor has it that she herself is a
"modern" orthodox Jew. If she has her own personal prejudices, surely she should have kept them to herself. In "Words That Hurt, Words That Heal," Joseph Telushkin uses the metaphor of a pillow of feathers that has been released into the air, and a man goes scrambling in hot pursuit of them. Sad to say, once he has released those feathers, he will never be able to get all of them back. That is what Faye Kellerman has done to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community with her unbalanced and malicious portraitures. Even if she tries to do "Teshuva" (repentance), she will never be able to undo the terrible wrong she has committed.
Rating:
Summary: Good to see Chris and Terry back.
Review: I adore Faye Kellerman's books, and my favorite in this series has always been Justice, so I was delighted to see Chris and Terry back.
That said, the parts of the book without either Chris or Terry, were not as well plotted or as exciting as usual.
I found the book a bit plodding as the whole drug angle unfolded, and I thought the final showdown left something to be desired. By the end of the book, I didn't care about who had actually committed the murder. I was much more interested in the second-tier storyline.
I do not feel that each book must stand on its own and I think returning to characters from another book is like a reward for her loyal readers.
Rating:
Summary: Keep Them Coming!
Review: I could hardly wait for this book to arrive and was not disappointed! Faye Kellerman continues to write a great series, while at the same time educating the reader about Orthodox Judaism. This time she gave insights on the tension between Othodox Jews and those who choose to be "Reform" or "Conservative." At the same time, I was riveted to my seat by the exciting action and plot twists and turns. Furthermore, one gets insights into the mind of a psychopath, including some "humor"-Nothing is "black and white"-Mr. Donatti (the case in point) does have some real, redeeming qualities-Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: where did she go wrong?
Review: I have read the entire Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series and am a huge fan, but this book was by far the WORST one out of them all. I kept reading, waiting for it to start getting good, never happened (and the addition of "cd" into the story was just all too convenient). Nonetheless, I still highly recommend all of the other books in the series.
| 
