Faye's Books

The Hunt

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 mercilessly. 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…

The Lost Boys

Faye Kellerman returns with an atmospheric, fast-paced mystery set in bucolic upstate New York, full of unexpected twists and turns that build to a shocking and surprising end—the latest thrilling entry in her New York Times bestseller Decker/Lazarus series.

When Bertram Telemann goes missing from a local diner near Greenbury, the entire community of the small upstate New York town volunteers to search the surrounding woods in hopes of finding him. Bertram had been on a field trip with the staff and fellow residents of the Loving Care Home when he vanished.

When no trace of the man is found, the disappearance quickly becomes an official missing persons case and is assigned to detectives Peter Decker and his partner Tyler McAdams. As their investigation deepens, the seasoned Decker becomes convinced that Bertram hadn’t lost his way, but had left with someone he knew. Soon Decker discovers that Elsie Schulung, a recently fired nurse who had worked at the home, seemed to be especially interested in Bertram. But answers proves elusive when Elsie disappears and human blood is found in her kitchen.

But the complications are only beginning. While combing the woods, searchers discover the remains of one of three young men who had vanished during a camping trip. And for Decker, personal problems are adding pressure as well. After a ten-year absence, the biological mother of Decker’s and Rina’s foster son, Gabriel, has suddenly appeared in New York, children in tow, wreaking emotional havoc on the young man.

Juggling the personal and professional, a hot case and a cold case, Decker and McAdams race to find answers, sifting through cabinets of old files, a plethora of clues and evidence, and discouraging dead ends. As on-going searches for Bertram and the campers’ missing remains continue, the frustrated detectives begin to wonder if the woods will ever give up its dark secrets . . . and if these intertwining cases will be solved.

Walking Shadows

Detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, risk life and limb to solve a pair of brutal murders that may be tied to a crime from more than twenty years ago in this intense and addictive mystery from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman

On a gorgeous early summer morning in the small upstate college town of Greenbury, New York, Peter Decker is called to investigate some vandalized mailboxes on a rural street. Searching for evidence of adolescent mischief in the leafy woodlands adjacent to an empty vacation home, he discovers the body, dead from a blow to the back of the head.

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Killing Season

Compelling and sharply written – Booklist

New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman delivers an electrifying novel of suspense as a young man’s investigation into his sister’s death draws him into the path of a sadistic serial killer.

He went searching for the truth. Now a killer has found him.

The more you know, the more there is to fear.

Three years ago, fifteen-year-old Ellen Vicksburg went missing in the quiet town of River Remez, New Mexico. Ellen was kind, studious, and universally liked. Her younger brother, Ben, could imagine nothing worse than never knowing what happened to her until, on the first anniversary of her death, he found her body in a shallow grave by the river’s edge.

Ben, now seventeen, is committed to finding the monster who abducted and strangled Ellen. Police believe she was the victim of a serial killer known as the Demon. But Ben knows better as his keen analytical mind sees patterns that don’t fit the Demon’s homicides. In his sister’s files, Ben notices tiny threads that link to other unsolved murders. As he continues to pore over the evidence at the local police precinct, he gains an unlikely ally: Ro Majors – the new girl at his high school  – who has secrets of her own. As the body count rises, a picture emerges of an adversary who is as cunning and methodical as he is twisted.

Ben’s obsession will mark him as a threat to a killer. And uncovering the truth may not be enough to keep Ben and those he loves safe from a relentless psychopath who has nothing left to lose.”

Bone Box

On a bright and crisp September morning, while walking a bucolic woodland trail, Rina Decker stumbles upon human remains once buried deep beneath the forest grounds. Immediately, she calls her husband, Peter, a former detective lieutenant with LAPD, now working for the local Greenbury Police. Within hours, a vista of beauty and tranquility is transformed into a frenetic crime scene. The body has been interred for years and there is scant physical evidence at the gravesite: a youthful skeleton, a skull wound and long dark strands of hair surrounding the bony frame. As Decker and his partner, Tyler McAdams, further investigate, they realize that they’re most likely dealing with a missing student from the nearby Five Colleges of Upstate—a well-known and well-respected consortium of higher learning where Rina works.

And when more human remains are found in the same area, Decker and McAdams know this isn’t just a one-off murder case. Short-staffed and with no convenient entry into the colleges, Decker enlists Rina’s help to act as the eyes and ears of campus gossip. Winding their way through a dangerous labyrinth of steely suspects and untouchable academics, Decker, McAdams, and Rina race to protect their community from a psychopathic killer still in the area—and on the hunt for a fresh victim.

Theory of Death

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Poisoned Pen

New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman’s beloved Decker and Lazarus have settled into life in quiet upstate New York, but they soon find themselves entangled in a case of underworld crime and calculating murderers.

It has been almost a year since Greenbury’s last murder. Peter Decker, a former Lieutenant for LAPD, has enjoyed the peace and slow pace of his new job with the sleepy upstate police department. The work has kept him engaged but without much stress. All that changes when he receives a phone call from his captain, Mike Radar.

A male body, nude and nameless, is found deep within the local woods. It appears to be a suicide—single shot to the head, gun by his side—but until the coroner makes the final determination, Decker must treat the scene as a suspicious crime. The first thing he must do is identify the body—no easy task because of the small size of the department and lack of personal effects found with the body. But then Decker gets lucky. Out of the blue, Tyler McAdams, a former Greenbury detective and now a first-year law student, calls Decker up, asking him for free room and board while he studies for first-term finals. Of course, once McAdams hears about the intriguing case, his attentions shift from statutes to corpses.

And when the body is finally identified, Decker and McAdams must penetrate into indecipherable upper echelons of mathematics and mathematical prodigies at Kneed Loft College. It turns out to be a dangerous sphere of scheming academics, secret cyphers, and hidden corruption where even harmless nerds can morph into cold, calculating geniuses. Decker and McAdams will have to employ all of their wits and gray matter to penetrate enigmatic formulas and codes to solve a dark, twisted tale created by depraved and evil masterminds.

The Beast

The professional and the personal intersect in treacherous ways in this compelling and eerie installment in Faye Kellerman’s thrilling New York Times bestselling Decker/Lazarus series

Throughout his years with the LAPD, Peter Decker has handled a number of tough cases and strange killers. But few of his previous assignments compare to his latest case—the most bizarre of his storied career.

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Gun Games

In Gun Games, the sensational Faye Kellerman once again showcases Peter Decker of the LAPD and Rina Lazarus, arguably the most popular husband and wife team in contemporary crime fiction. A rash of shocking adolescent suicides at an elite Los Angeles private school is at the heart of this gripping thriller that also focuses on the troubled teen Decker and Lazarus have brought into their home: Gabriel Whitman, the son of a psychopath. Herself one-half of one of noir fiction’s true “power couples”—along with her husband, acclaimed mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman—Faye Kellerman once again demonstrates how American police procedural writing is done to perfection with Gun Games.

Hangman

High school senior Chris Whitman confessed to murdering his girlfriend to spare beautiful, vulnerable Terry McLaughlin from having to testify at his trial. Years later, when the truth set Chris free, he married Terry, changed his name to Donatti . . . and became a professional killer. Now Terry’s missing, Donatti’s disappeared—and their teenage son, Gabe, has no one to turn to except his mother’s friend, LAPD Detective Peter Decker, and Decker’s wife, Rina Lazarus.

The last thing Decker wants is Terry’s sociopathic husband back in his world. And the hunt for Terry must share center stage with another case when a young nurse’s body is found hanging from the rafters at a construction site. Caught between two troubling investigations and an increasingly precarious home life, Decker and Rina must make a difficult decision about sheltering Terry’s son . . . even as the shadow of a serial killer falls across their own imperiled family.

Blindman’s Bluff

One of the popular couples in contemporary crime fiction, LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus are back in Blindman’s Bluff—and placed in harm’s way in the wake of a horrific home invasion and brutal multiple murder.