Sanctuary

A Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus Novel

By: Faye Kellerman

Narrated by: Mitchell Greenberg

Length: 13 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

A diamond dealer and his entire family have mysteriously disappeared from their sprawling Las Angeles manor, leaving the estate undisturbed and their valuables untouched. Investigating detective Decker is stumped - faced with a perplexing case riddled with dead ends. Then a second dealer is found murdered in Manhatten, catapulting Decker and his wife, Rina, into a heartstopping maze of murder and intrigue that spans the globe... only to touch down dangerously in their own backyard.

Solve another case with Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus.

©1994 Faye Kellerman (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishers

Best of the series

I'm not a big fan of the more recent Faye Kellerman books, but this older one has everything you loved in her Peter Decker series -- a whopping good mystery, tidbits of the personal life of Peter and Rina, police lore, plus the fact that Faye Kellerman writes the best dinner-table conversations of any author out there. A couple of dinner scenes in this one made me laugh out loud -- its so darn accurate you can hear it coming out of the mouths of your own family.

Something else I found spellbinding -- this book came out in 1995, and without offering a spoiler, suffice it to say that the plot involves a business trip to Israel for both Rina and Peter. In 1995, I was living in California, so back when I read this book, most of the nuances of their time in Israel probably went right past me. Now I've been living in Israel for ten years, and found Kellerman's storytelling absolutely fascinating. Israel has changed quite a bit since then, but many things remain exactly the same. When Rina finds herself driving to Hebron, all by herself, I literally cringed -- are you kidding? She's crazy! Only to find that a few minutes later, Rina is being soundly chastised by a police officer using virtually the same words I'd have used in telling her off. Kellerman's account of the streets of Israel, some of the people she writes about, are extremely accurate, even today. It was fun to see someone writing about Israel who obviously knew what they were talking about.

Huge credit in this one goes to the narrator, Mitchell Greenberg. He had to master a plethora of languages and accents, everything from Brooklynese to Yeshivish to Hebrew -- broken and fluent -- not to mention Southern California plus the southern drawl of Marge. Very impressive, how he could switch so easily from an aged Ashkenazi rosh yeshiva in Israel to a Sephardic police captain, then to the stumbling attempts at Hebrew by Peter Decker himself. Well done!

True, this book had an unusual number of highly improbable events -- amazing deductions, based on almost nothing, that not only turn out to be true, but were also provable on the first try. That's okay -- this is fiction. Leaps of faith are acceptable.

Darn good book. The best of the series, by any standard.

Jewish Law

this is a very good book, it covers a crime from different points of religious law as well as man's law.

Better than Grievous Sin

Just finished listening to 'Sanctuary,' and am pleased to report that it was much more enjoyable than 'Grievous Sin,' the book in the Rina Lazarus/Peter Decker series published just before it.

The story was intruiguing and held my interest, even though there was an enormous amount of Hebrew & Yiddish words in the text, which are easier for me if I can see them. I recall listening to a book that had a main character who spoke mostly French and I remember that (after listening for a while), it wasn't a problem. I think that same thing happened here.

The story revolves around the diamond business, and after some time in Los Angeles, it takes Peter and Rina to Israel to follow Peter's quarry. Of course, a great number of diamond merchants in the U.S. are orthodox Jews, so Peter's familiarity with orthodox customs comes in handy in dealing with the people surrounding the crimes as well as in unearthing clues.

Mitchell Greenberg does a pretty good job in reading this entry in the series, although he is definitely not my favorite narrator. I really didn't like him when he read 'Grievous Sin,' so this is a marked improvement.

Much better!

Faye Kellerman Grabs You & Won't Let You Go

Rina Lazarus gets into the thick of things again. Twists and turns keep the reader off balance. As usual it is difficult to guess the end.

The Lazarus' have unexpected house guests- the next thing you know Rina and her Detective husband are hip deep in an international crime ring.

Excellent read.

Entertaining and Educational

I chose this book/listen because of its setting-an Orthodox Jewish family/community. I found
it an enjoyable way to learn.

A study of Jewish culture.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would add more mystery and action to the study of Jewish culture.

What was most disappointing about Faye Kellerman’s story?

I wanted to listen to a good mystery and struggled to find it!

Which character – as performed by Mitchell Greenberg – was your favorite?

None.

Do you think Sanctuary needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Follow up would be fine. Just don't list it as a mystery!

Any additional comments?

Misrepresented in genre.

A "Diamond" of a book

After reading a very large intense book, I chose Sanctuary as my “in between” read, thinking it would be easy and light. I was pleasantly surprised to have really enjoyed it. In the beginning I thought it was a little hokey with just too much Jewish background, but I soon came to realize it was all an integral part of the entire plot.

This murder-mystery deals with the diamond industry, and takes the reader from Los Angeles to Israel. When dealing with billions of dollars, there’s bound to be thievery, cheating, murder, suspense, throw in a little middle-east politics and you have a recipe for a great story. I have only read one other Faye Kellerman book which was years ago so I cannot compare, but Sanctuary can stand on it’s own merits. You don’t have to read any of the other Peter Decker/Rina series to enjoy this one. There are enough plot twists to engage any reader.

Having been to Israel and understanding many of the places described in the book was an added bonus. The accurate descriptions of the many different kinds of people from black-hat orthodox, to PLO terrorist, to holocaust survivor, to an L.A. police sergeant – all well done.

There was an extensive overuse of Hebrew and Yiddish words throughout the book, which may be off-putting to someone not familiar with those languages. I also felt there was just too many wasted words about Peter and Rina’s baby Hanna. I assume their side story is the common thread that makes these books a series, but I found it distracting and annoying.

Mitchell Greenberg the narrator was awesome. He pronounced every one of those Hebrew and Yiddish words perfectly, adding authenticity to the story. He changed his accent so many times to suit the characters; everything from Israeli yeshiva boys, to Orthodox old men, to Israeli women and the list goes on. He did a superb job with the inflections of all the characters.

Really good story, maybe her best.

Kept me enthralled the entire time. I always enjoy the Decker & Lazarus series of books.

My personal opinion...

Throughly enjoyed story..storyteller's expertise at changing his voice just a bit to make another character viable. Bravo!

This story must have been on a diet!!

Because it is very thin... the plot is thin, the characters are thin, the police procedures are questionable at best. A good tutorial on Judaism, though. Imagine a plot where a family is missing and no hint of foul play -- Decker and his partner decide to go into the LA foothills and happen to stumble (in the rain, even) on two buried bodies. Come on! Even if the foothills were only 2 or 3 acres this is improbable. Then the scene shifts to Israel (again, thin) and Decker saves that country from bombs and financial chaos. I have never imagined Jonathon Kellerman's character Milo Sturgis as being thin but this authors interjection of Sturgis into this story was thin!!! Obviously, I do not recommend Faye Kellerman's stuff.