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Day of Atonement  By  cover art

Day of Atonement

By: Faye Kellerman
Narrated by: Mitchell Greenberg
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Editorial reviews

This early Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novels finds the couple newly married and honeymooning in Brooklyn during the High Holidays. When a teenage boy from an Orthodox family goes missing, Decker finds himself on the job again - with the trail of the boy and the young man he ran off with leading him back home to Los Angeles. Mitch Greenberg's performance is a wonderful match with the book - he delivers accurate Yiddish and Hebrew pronunciations and great local accents. Nice changes in tempo and pace when the action heats up and excellent voice modulation keep the listener plugged in to the story. For fans of the series, even if they've read the book already, this audiobook is a treat.

Publisher's summary

Peter Decker of the L.A.P.D. never dreamed he'd be spending his honeymoon with his new wife, Rina Lazarus, in an Orthodox Jewish enclave in Brooklyn, New York or that a terrible event would end it so abruptly. But a boy has vanished from the midst of this close-knit religious community, a troubled youth fleeing the tight bonds and strictures he felt were strangling him.

The runaway, Noam, is not traveling alone. A killer has taken him under his wing to introduce Noam to a savage world of blood and terror. And now Decker must find them both somewhere in America before a psychopath ends the life of a confused and frightened youngster whose only sin was to want something more.

©1991 Faye Kellerman (P)2008 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Day of Atonement

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Early book, but not her best

When Faye Kellerman is good, she's very very good. When she's bad, she's horrid. Well, "Day of Atonement" is the fourth Rina/Pete Decker book in the series, and isn't either very very good, nor is it horrid, exactly. it's somewhere in the middle. The problem is that we see a very different kind of Rina and Pete than we see in either the early books or certainly the more recent ones. Some of it isn't pleasant.

Many different times in this book, I -- who thought I personally adored Peter Decker, thought Rina was the luckiest girl in the world -- found myself ready to murder Peter if he kept it up. Wow - what a dictator! Unlike in earlier or later books, Peter here is shouting orders, right and left, expects them to be obeyed. He's short-tempered, unhappy at being where he is -- which is in Brooklyn, being introduced to Rina's former inlaws, the parents/family of her first (and now deceased) husband. Should she have forced Peter into that trip -- which must indeed have been difficult? Maybe not -- or certainly not at a high-stress time like the High Holidays, and not for so long a visit. Perhaps he should have said no to that -- but whatever, it all brings out the worst in Peter. At one point, he even handcuffs Rina to the steering wheel of the car, so she can't get out to meddle when he goes off to investigate something. Should she get out to meddle? No, she shouldn't. He was right to try to keep her away -- but wrong for taking her along on a work errand in the first place.

It gets a little tiresome, actually, the back- and-forth: Rina would be trying to find a way to nose in on his job, Pete trying to find ways to keep her out -- but he always relents a little, and that's when the trouble starts.

The best thing about the first three books in this series is the relatively accurate picture they offer of an orthodox Jewish lifestyle. I think a lot of readers -- Jewish and otherwise -- enjoy that glimpse into a world they otherwise won't see for themselves, and it was good that this series presented an insiders story. But this book has a different story line that makes that difficult -- we've got a lost teenager, one who seemed "weird" even before he got lost, and then went way, way, way off the beaten path when he did, probably not very realistically. And of course the question of misplaced parenthood, which seemed a little forced too.

So? Not her best book, but worth reading, anyway, in the context of the whole story, which started in 1986 and continues to today. Quite a long run -- which is amazing, all by itself.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Love this series! Start from the begining!!

Love Mitch Greenburg’s narration! Definitely start this series from the beginning very little time elapses between books. I am SOOOO excited that Audible has been filling the holes in this series! Keep up the great work!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

good listen

Peter and Rena Decker mystery tale. Easy listen, entertaining. Glad they are filling in the rest of the older novels in the series

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, Fabulous narrator!!

I really enjoy listening to Mitch Greenberg reading this series. I wish he'd done all of them. To me, he's become Peter Decker. Not only that, but his character voices, accents, and Hebrew pronunciation really put these books over the top. Please, please, please, let him complete the series!! I've tried to listen to some of the others and they just aren't "right" after hearing Mitch's treatment of them.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Rina Lazarus must be a saint!

I originally read the first 3 books in the series and recently reread them along with this volume. The series has always interested me because of both the personal relationship between Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, and also because I found the mysteries interesting and compelling. While some of the characters in the books seem best described as "disturbing" I was interested enough to want to go through the volumes again and become reacquainted.

But two things bothered me about this volume. First, Peter Decker acts like a crazy man, not just being bossy with his new wife, but also taking steps that might have brought the marriage to an end with any woman other than Rina Lazarus and, second, the main antagonist seems truly evil, and disturbed in a really sick way, and that made it difficult for me to get through sections of the book. Potential readers should be warned that this book is not for the squeamish. Some of Decker's actions, which I will not describe as I have no wish to add spoilers to this review, do not seem reasonable and ended up getting him in serious trouble, but as the character has developed it is not clear that he will learn from his mistakes. As interested in the character and story development as I am I am also not sure that I want to continue with the next book in the series.

The narration is, as in the previous books, very good and if you have a strong stomach this is a decent addition to the previous novels. Just be warned.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wanted to give Day of Atonement five stars, BUT...

I've read most of this series in print before, but wanted to reread them before picking up the ones that I hadn't read yet. I like the narrator but my husband doesn't. Un fortunately, the music between chapters is HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE. When it begins. it's louder than the text. causing the sound to suddenly blast. It's very frustrating! Then. after the next chapter begins the music doesn't stop, so it's hard to understand what the narrator is saying!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good book

Can't wait to listen to the next one in the Peter Decker Ceres I'm downloading the next one as we speak

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

If it weren’t for the fish!

I LIKE this book. My stars say that. But if the fish tales could have been avoided, the book would be more perfect. The scene where Decker handcuffed Rina in the car was genius.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

undertones of racism

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

not so much....

What does Mitch Greenberg bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

good narration. easy on the ears.

Any additional comments?

the writer, and many writers often introduce white and black people very differently... for example.... the white person gets, 'his large frame was imposing. He had steel blue eyes and short hair with a surfer bleach job. he wore a jc penny suit and had a deep voice.' the black person gets introduced like this.... "Joe was a black man with a full mustache and sensible shoes.' if you are going to list a skin color in the description of a person... do it all the time or perhaps dont do it. many writers do it... but with Fay, it is pretty bad. esp. in her earlier books. I have had to stop reading her books.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great ending!

Faye Kellerman does a super job of fleshing out her characters. Both the job "family" as well as the home family. They all travel seamlessly between books and storylines.
The Jewish community and history easily fits in as part of the storylines. Each book builds upon the last but can stand alone. The problem with a standalone concept is the need to see what happens next. They are all that good!

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