Fic­tion

The Mer­cedes Coffin

Faye Keller­man
  • Review
By – January 26, 2012

Faye Kellerman’s sev­en­teenth Peter Deck­er- Rina Lazarus mys­tery has Deck­er work­ing on a cold case. Fif­teen years ago, Dr. Ben­nett Alston Lit­tle, a high-school guid­ance coun­selor, was found stuffed into the trunk of his Mer­cedes with a bul­let hole in his head. The case remained unsolved. When music pro­duc­er Pri­mo Eck­er­ling turns up in his Mer­cedes killed in the same way, a Sil­i­con Val­ley exec­u­tive, Genoa Greeves, notes the sim­i­lar­i­ty. She has fond mem­o­ries of Dr. Ben,” who under­stood her when she was an awk­ward high-school stu­dent. When she offers the Los Ange­les Police Depart­ment a large reward to reopen the old case, Decker’s cap­tain tells him to give it top pri­or­i­ty. Work­ing with his best detec­tives, Marge Dunn and Scott Oliv­er, as well as his daugh­ter, Cindy Kutiel, who is now an LAPD detec­tive, too, they uncov­er links between the two cas­es. As they dig into Dr. Ben’s past, they find that not every­one loved him and that his wife, Melin­da, has a secret life. Eck­er­ling had some unsa­vory asso­ciates in the treach­er­ous music busi­ness, too. Rina takes a back seat to the detec­tives in this sto­ry, cook­ing kosher din­ners, and plan­ning a cruise if her fam­i­ly can ever get vaca­tion time. This is not Kellerman’s best work. The plot has too many incon­sis­ten­cies and unre­solved ques­tions, but fans of the series will enjoy it.

Bar­bara M. Bibel is a librar­i­an at the Oak­land Pub­lic Library in Oak­land, CA; and at Con­gre­ga­tion Netiv­ot Shalom, Berke­ley, CA.

Discussion Questions