The Burnt House, by Faye Kellerman, A. Downloaded from audible.com.This is Kellerman at her best. Peter Decker is called into work for an emergency situation, a small commuter plane with 47 passengers has hit an apartment building and burst into fire. It is unclear at first what caused the plane to crash, and no one expects that anyone on the plane has survived, but Peter and the police are able to rescue many people and animals from their houses and clear the area. Then, Peter begins receiving the calls from hysterical parents and families desperately wanting to know if their loved ones on the plane survived. But one man stands out. A step-father calls daily saying that he doesn’t believe his step-daughter, Roseanne, a flight attendant, was even on the plane. He believes that she has disappeared because she was killed by her husband. At first this seems pretty incredible, but when they have almost finished pulling the bodies out of the destroyed apartment house, they find the body of a young woman who has apparently been under the building for at least 20 years. There is little left of her bone structure, but it appears that she was murdered. When they get ahold of Roseanne’s dental records, they find out it isn’t her. So, who is this second body, and where is Roseanne? Did her husband kill her because she was getting ready to leave him? Did the man she broke up with six months earlier kill her? Or, did she just run away to start another life? This is a wonderful book of forensic thrills in which ultimately both mysteries are solved. It was good to visit with the family again with Hannah starting high school, and Peter’s daughter, Cindy, a cop, married now.
Apart of the first (Cold Case aka Mercedes Coffin) one I've read of Decker/Lazarus stories, I've tended to read them in order. This one is one of the newest ones, and - as Kellerman always has - it had elements that seemed different from the previous stories.A flight crashes not far from where Hannah goes to school, and Peter gets to manage the investigators for the crash - all passengers and crew of a commuter flight died in the accident that also burnt down a residential house. After a few months the father of a flight attendant reported dead starts calling Peter, convinced that Roseanne didn't die in the crash, but was murdered by her husband. When Peter starts to investigate this angle, there are twists and turns and nothing seems to prove Roseanne having been on board - also her body isn't yet recovered. Then they find a female body in the ruins of the crashed building, but that isn't Roseanne, but a Jane Doe whose death they date back at least 30 years. Who was she and what if anything does she have with Roseanne's disappearance?There are elements in the plot that I find hard to believe. And this time Rina's explanations and references to old Jewish and Yiddish sayings with her views of faith seem a bit too excessive. This series is one of the few I've ever read where the Jewishness doesn't generally get too much. Maybe it's just a few dialogs doing it this time: just because someone chooses to believe in something doesn't make them any better than the rest of the people. But as always, there are some interesting characters in the story. This time my favorites would have to be the fathers of Roseanne and the Jane Doe.http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/8...
What do You think about The Burnt House (2007)?
Book 16 in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. Whilst each of the books deals with a separate case I strongly recommend that they be read in order as as well as the crimes themselves the books predictably follow family life in the Decker/Lazarus household, the earlier ones in particular dealing with Peter's journey into orthodox Judaism after he discovers his birth parents were Jewish.With two cases to solve, one of which could have happened any time over the previous thirty years, as is nearly always the case with Faye Kellerman's books The Burnt House is an intelligent, multi-layered crime thriller with the unique addition of a religious aspect in which the author goes to great pains to illuminate the ins-and- outs of every day orthodox life though in this case the domestic (a huge part of the series appeal to me) was not quite as prevalent as in previous books.Gripped from beginning to end. I thought the 'was she actually dead and if so whodunit' aspect riveting, the advances in some of the forensic procedures depicted particularly fascinating.Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper
—Tracy Terry
Burndt HOUSE Excitement, suspense and good police work is always found in Rina and Peter books. This one is no different. A plane crashes into a apartment Dector's district. There is no record of Rosanne Dresden of boarding the plane though she is list as kill in the crash. As the recovery continues Roseanne is not found. Everyone is excited when a woman's body is found. It was first assumed to Roseanne. However it is not. We have unknown victim and 2 murder cases to solve. The twist and turns are great and keep.you entrance.
—Betty
I have been following the Decker/Lazarus novels since the first one and I enjoy watching the changes in the characters over time. That continuity and depth of characters is the advantage of the mystery series genre for me. the plot here is not as interesting as the character development. In fact, the plot is pretty unbelievable and contrived. an airplane accident causes a disastrous loss of life for the travelers and the residents of the house the plane hit. A body is found that opens up a case decades old. Kellerman spends a lot of time describing techno crime detection methods that have no interest for me.
—Lucy
