cover image The Hunt: A Decker/Lazarus Novel

The Hunt: A Decker/Lazarus Novel

Faye Kellerman. Morrow, $28.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-06-291049-3

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.)