Faye Kellerman The Burnt House

The Burnt House

Faye Kellerman

Morrow, Aug 2007, $25.95

ISBN: 9780061227325

During the morning rush hours, a commuter plane leaving Burbank Airport crashes into a Granada Hills apartment building; all forty-seven passengers die. The country is stunned with most people assuming the World Trade center scenario on a smaller scale.

LAPD Police Lieutenant Peter Decker leads the investigation while the media and public demand instant answers. He and his wife Rina Lazarus dig deep to determine who and what caused the crash; why more corpses are in the rubble than on the passenger list; and finally what happened to flight attendant twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden, whose husband Ivan says she was on the tragic flight and her name is on the manifesto, but her body is not.

The latest Decker-Lazarus police procedural is an exhilarating fast-paced thriller that starts off with the horrific crash and never slows down until the final twists. The action keeps coming throughout as the lead couple struggles with all three interrelated mysteries while the country fears further incidents; the media and the government keep the pressure high to resolve the case. Although plausibility and critical coincidence is higher than the federal debt, fans of the series will enjoy the return of the pair as they work a complex convoluted case.

Harriet Klausner