Once again, LAPD lieutenant Pete Decker and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus (Serpent's Tooth, 1997, etc.) find themselves needing unorthodox solutions to hard-pressing problems. Domestically, it's their younger son Jacob'brilliant, charming, and oh so bored' who's giving his parents heartburn. For instance: Decker arrives home unexpectedly to find Jacob there before him. It's midafternoon, and where Jacob, 16, should have been is at school. Instead, he's in bed. With Shayna, also 16, studying matters extra-curricular. What to do about restless Jacob? And what to do about the mysterious death of Dr. Emil Euler Ganz, a.k.a. Father Jupiter? Once a renowned astrophysicist, Ganz was, until his untimely passing, the leader of a notorious cult called the Order of the Rings of God. But is his passing the suicide it seemed at first, or did someone urge him into that ``better world'' he so often preached about? Did Guru Pluto, or Guru Nova, or Guru Bob'members of the Ring's inner circle'aspire, prematurely, to Ring-leadership? Decker has his work cut out for him, as he searches for answers while misunderstandings and tensions proliferate almost as fast as dead bodies mount up in the cult's compound. Finally, almost inevitably, there's a standoff as cult members (and their children) are besieged by the police and FBI'and here, as in Waco, despite Decker's best efforts, the end is both explosive and painful. Writing that borders on the slipshod in places, though the whole is greater than its parts. And, as usual, Decker, Rina, and their children will generate sufficient interest to keep series fans happy.

In her 11th Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus mystery (Moon Music, etc.), Kellerman develops the theme of parent-child relationships along two fronts. Before Father Jupiter became the head of a religious cult called the Order of the Rings of God, he was a renowned astrophysicist named Dr. Emil Euler Ganz. Though Jupiter has long been out of touch with his family, when he dies mysteriously his estranged daughter, Europa, becomes a pivotal help to LAPD detective Decker's investigation. Jupiter's death looks like suicideÄuntil the autopsy reveals small amounts of arsenic in his body. Then two of the four remaining cult leaders are killed, prompting the cops to suspect that a serial killer is lurking among the group's members. When the police and FBI try to storm the cult's compound, Brother Bob, Jupiter's old attendant, wires the buildings and threatens to blow up everyone, leaving Decker to figure out how to save the lives of the compound's 96 children. Meanwhile, because of the pressures of the case, Decker is failing to give his two teenage stepsons the attention they need to weather the upheavals of adolescence. He relies on the help of his wife, Rina, to understand the rules of the boys' Jewish orthodox upbringing, but there are aspects of their lives he must take the time to find out on his own. Kellerman writes spine-tingling suspense and defines her characters well, but the scenes in which experts lecture the cops on physics and cult psychology are overlong and sometimes superfluous. Although the Decker/Lazarus family relationship strengthens in this novel, this is not the strongest of the series. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Since virtually everything Kellerman writes turns up on the best-seller lists, there's little doubt her latest Pete Decker^-Rina Lazarus mystery will land there, too. Capitalizing on the media frenzy surrounding Heaven's Gate, Waco, and Ruby Ridge, Kellerman crafts a tense thriller that has Decker investigating the death of Dr. Emil Ganz, a brilliant but eccentric astrophysicist who gave up worldly success, transformed himself into revered cult leader "Brother Jupiter," and founded Jupiter's Order, a secretive compound where he and his loyal followers live in seeming peace. A mysterious phone call alerts the LAPD to Jupiter's death. The Order wants to be left alone to mourn their leader, but since Ganz died in suspicious circumstances, the cops are obligated to investigate. As Decker and his colleagues probe the life and death of the elusive and mysterious Dr. Ganz, they find he had some powerful enemies even among his own followers, enemies who may have hated him enough to murder him. Before the case is closed, there are threats of mass suicide, a tense standoff, and a dramatic and heart-wrenching rescue. The gifted Kellerman has pulled together elements of suspense, violence, humor, pathos, and love and wrapped them into a potent plot certain to captivate genre fans. --Emily Melton

When Emil Euler Ganz, a brilliant former astrophysicist turned cult leader, is found dead with an empty fifth of vodka under his bed, it looks like suicide. But LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker is suspicious and begins to ask questions about the man who disappeared 25 years ago only to turn up ten years later as Father Jupiter, the charismatic leader of the Order of the Rings of God. While trying to find out how Father Jupiter died and worrying about the safety of the children in the unstable cult, Decker must also deal with a crisis in his own family when he finds his stepson Jacob in bed with a girl from school. Jupiter's Bones is Kellerman's 13th bookÄthe 11th in the best-selling series featuring Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus. Despite a rather awkward prose style, this is a page-turner. Recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 4/15/99.]ÄJane La Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.