The hunt

Faye Kellerman

Book - 2022

Detective Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus return to Los Angeles when a kidnapping hits close to home--in this breathtaking new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman. Peter and his partner, Detective Tyler McAdams, are thrown into an unsolved case and propelled into action when a body is found in the very woods where a man previously went missing in upstate New York. But that's not the only crisis that Peter has to deal with. Teresa McLaughlin, the biological mother of Peter and his wife Rina's foster son, Gabe, has fled to Los Angeles with her two children in tow, hoping to avoid a court injunction amid a messy divorce. But LA is no escape from her problems--she is found by ruthless men and beaten mercilessl...y. When she wakes, barely conscious, Teresa discovers that both of her children are gone and frantically calls Gabe for help. With his mother on the verge of death, Gabe contacts Peter and Rina, as well as his biological father, the notorious Christopher Donatti, a former hit man from a known criminal family who's now a millionaire in Nevada. By bringing Donatti into the fray, Gabe, Peter, and Rina know they have made a deal with the devil--but they may not be able to recover the kids without him. As these unlikely allies rally to find the kidnappers before things end tragically, they race headlong toward an explosive confrontation from which no one will emerge unscathed...

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Subjects
Genres
Detective and mystery fiction
Thrillers (Fiction)
Novels
Published
New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers [2022]
Language
English
Main Author
Faye Kellerman (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
483 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN
9780062910493
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Pete Decker and Rina Lazarus are mainly supporting players in this twenty-seventh installment of Kellerman's ever-popular series. This one focuses on Teresa "Terry" McLaughlin, Pete and Rina's old friend and the biological mother of their foster son, Gabe. Facing an ugly divorce, Terry has fled to L.A., where she is attacked, and her two kids are abducted. She calls Gabe for help, and he enlists Rina, Pete, and Terry's ex-husband (and his biological father), the hitman-turned-brothel-owner Christopher Donatti. Fans of the Decker and Lazarus novels are familiar with both Terry and Chris; they've been in and out of the series for years. But we've never seen them quite like this: Terry is fragile to the point of breaking, and Chris, who freely admits he's a despicable person, is vulnerable and appears to be making a good-faith effort to be gentle and welcoming. Of course, Chris has anything but a heart of gold, and we can't help waiting for him to explode into violence at any moment. And, even though they're mostly in the background, Pete and Rina remain among the genre's most appealing partnerships.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Brothel owner Christopher Donatti, a self-described psychopath, takes center stage in bestseller Kellerman's disturbing 27th novel featuring Peter Decker, a police detective in Greenbury, N.Y., and his wife, Rina Lazarus, whose interests include cooking, gardening, and religion (after 2021's The Lost Boys). Donatti's ex-wife, Terry, who's the biological mother of Decker and Rina's foster son, has fled to L.A. from India with her two young children, Sanjay and Juleen, fearing reprisals from her current husband. Indeed, two goons arrive at the apartment where they're staying, kidnap Sanjay, and beat Terry to within an inch of her life. Juleen manages to escape. Who can save Terry and the kids? Only Donatti and his small platoon of henchmen. Meanwhile, Decker and Rina, after returning from a vacation in Israel, are immediately swept up in the case of Pauline Corbett, whose body has been found in the woods near Greenbury. Decker is certain that Corbett's death is related to an unsolved missing persons' case. Readers should be prepared for traumatic scenes of rape, sodomy, and misogyny. This one's for hardcore fans only. (Aug.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Even as Det. Peter Dexter discovers a body in the woods, Teresa McLaughlin, the biological mother of Peter and wife Rina's foster son, Gabe, needs him. She's fled to Los Angeles during a complicated divorce from a former hitman, whom Peter and Gabe reluctantly call on for help when Teresa is beaten up and her children snatched. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus' 27th outing is also their last. Peter, who's already retired from LAPD Homicide, doesn't want to step down from the Greenbury, New York, police until he's closed one last case: the murder of Pauline Corbett, found in the woods not far from where disabled Loving Care client Bertram Lanz disappeared three weeks earlier along with his caretaker, Elsie Schulung, who was Pauline's lover. But this assignment is upstaged by a crisis closer to home even though it's taken place in California. Emergency room physician Teresa McLaughlin, the mother of Peter and Rina's foster son, Gabe Whitman, has been attacked and seriously wounded by villains who've kidnapped her 5-year-old boy, Sanjay. The obvious suspects are Terry's estranged husband, Devek, a cardiac surgeon whose gambling has left him owing $2.5 million to the mob, and Devek's impatient creditors. When Terry's transcontinental phone call to Gabe ends in a cliffhanger, Peter advises him to call his father, Christopher Donatti, who's not a nice guy but who's still in love with Terry even though she left him 10 years ago. Donatti swoops down in his private jet, carries Terry off to his Nevada superbrothel, showers her in gifts and amorous declarations, and rapes her repeatedly. Kellerman cuts conscientiously back and forth between the two stories, but Peter's murder case, which is never all that mysterious, can't hold a candle to Terry's even less mysterious but shockingly toxic tango with her abusive ex, and Rina is left standing on the sidelines with nothing to do but hug her children. Come for the promise of mystery, stay for the long goodbye. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.