Part of Series
The brutal murder of Dr. Azor Sparks in an alley behind a restaurant is greeted with public outrage and a demand for swift, sure justice. But the investigation into the well-known surgeon's death is raising too many questions and providing too few answers for homicide detective Lieutenant Peter Decker. Why, for example, would the family of a man so beloved respond to his slaying with more surprise than grief? And what linked a celebrated doctor with strict fundamentalist beliefs to a gang of outlaw bikers? But the most unsettling connection of all is the one that ties the tormented Sparks family to Peter Decker's own—and the secrets shared by a renegade Catholic priest...and Decker's wife, Rina Lazarus.
Author
Faye Kellerman was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up in Sherman Oaks, California. She earned a BA in mathematics and a doctorate in dentistry at UCLA., and conducted research in oral biology. Kellerman's groundbreaking first novel, THE RITUAL BATH, was published in 1986 to wide critical and commercial acclaim. The winner of the Macavity Award for the Best First Novel from the Mystery Readers of American, THE RITUAL BATH introduced readers to Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, termed by People Magazine "Hands down, the most refreshing mystery couple around." The New York Times enthused, "This couple's domestic affairs have the haimish warmth of reality, unlike the formulaic lives of so many other genre detectives." There are well over twenty million copies of Faye Kellerman's novels in print internationally. The Decker/Lazarus thrillers include SACRED AND PROFANE; MILK AND HONEY; DAY OF ATONEMENT; FALSE PROPHET; GRIEVOUS SIN; SANCTUARY; as well as her New York Times Bestsellers, JUSTICE, PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD - listed by the LA Times as one of the best crime novel of 2001; SERPENT'S TOOTH; JUPITER'S BONES, THE FORGOTTEN, STONE KISS, STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, THE BURNT HOUSE, THE MERCEDES COFFIN and BLINDMAN'S BLUFF. . The novels, STALKER and STREET DREAMS, introduced Kellerman's newest protagonist, Police Officer Cindy Decker. In addition to her crime series, Kellerman is also the author of New York Time's bestseller MOON MUSIC, a suspense horror novel set in Las Vegas featuring Detective Romulus Poe, as well as an historical novel of intrigue set in Elizabethan England, THE QUALITY OF MERCY. She has also co-authored the New York Times Bestseller DOUBLE HOMICIDE, with her husband and partner in crime, Jonathan Kellerman. She has also written a young adult novel, PRISM, with her daughter, Aliza Kellerman Faye Kellerman's highly praised short stories and reviews have been anthologized in numerous collections including two volumes of the notable SISTERS IN CRIME SERIES, Sara Paretsky's, A WOMAN'S EYE; THE FIRST ANNUAL YEAR'S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES; THE THIRD ANNUAL BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR; WOMEN OF MYSTERY AND DEADLY ALLIES 11. Her personally annotated collection of her award winning stories, THE GARDEN OF EDEN and OTHER CRIMINAL DELIGHTS, was published in August of 2006. H Her other hobbies include gardening, sewing and jogging if her back doesn't give out. She is the proud mother of four children, and her eldest son, Jesse, has just published his fourth novel, THE EXECUTOR, from Putnam. She lives in Los Angeles and Santa Fe with her husband, Jonathan, their youngest child, and their French Bulldog, Hugo.
