As series fans know, Detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, left L.A. and enjoy their semi-retirement in the college town of Greenbury, New York. The murder of 26-year-old Brady Neil is a rare homicide for the small-town police department where Decker now works. Brady was the son of one of the men arrested for a jewelry-store robbery 20 years earlier. More murders follow, with more ties to the jewelry-store robbery. All the while, the chief of police who handled the case back then is less than forthcoming about the connected crimes and abruptly pulls his own police-officer daughter off the case. Decker continues to enjoy his role as perpetual mentor, offering support to every young cop he meets. Rina is visiting her mother in Florida for most of the book, so those who relish the couple's warm relationship will have to wait for the next installment. Still, another solid entry in a long-running and always-popular series.--Karen Keefe Copyright 2018 Booklist

The bludgeoning murder of Brady Neil, a 26-year-old electronics store employee, drives bestseller Kellerman's formulaic 25th novel featuring Peter Decker, a police detective in Greenbury, N.Y., who has spent most of his career in L.A., and his wife, Rina Lazarus (after 2017's Bone Box). Since the victim lived in the neighboring town of Hamilton, Decker needs to cooperate with the Hamilton police chief, which means his reluctantly accepting the assignment of the chief's spoiled daughter, Lennie Baccus, to the case. A former Philadelphia PD officer, Lennie used to work for Decker's detective sergeant daughter in that city-a contrivance that serves no particular purpose. When Decker learns that Neil's father was doing time for a double homicide, he probes whether the bludgeoning was somehow connected with those murders. Some banter between Decker and Lazarus in praise of Kellerman's husband and fellow author, Jonathan, and his creation, psychologist Alex Delaware, may strike some readers as too cutesy. Still, series fans will enjoy spending time in the company of old friends. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

An unwelcome discovery on the grounds of an empty house brings Detective Peter Decker, who retired from the LAPD, to the allegedly quiet town of Greenbury, New York, up against a criminal plot that stretches back 20 years.The thrill-seeking kids who smashed seven mailboxes on Canterbury Lane admit under questioning that they found the body of Brady Neil in the yard of an absent vacationer before Decker did but insist they didn't kill him even though he also seems to have been attacked with a baseball bat. Since Decker's not about to credit the punks with either the animus or the enterprise to have clubbed Brady to death, he has to look elsewhere. And there are so many places to look that Decker's soon ruefully observing, "Sometimes crimes have too few pieces to solve. I have too many." Brady's father, Brandon Gratz, has been in prison for 20 years for robbing and killing jewelers Lydia and Glen Levine. New evidence suggests that Brandon, though clearly a lowlife, may have been innocent and that at least some of the cops in neighboring Hamilton may have known it. As he digs deeper for evidence, Decker has to walk a narrow line between antagonizing the current Hamilton police chief, Victor Baccus, whose department has access to information Decker needs, and serving as his lackey by putting his daughter, Officer Lenora Baccus, on the case. Fortunately, Lennie turns out to be an excellent detective. Unfortunately, as soon as she starts to get results, her father abruptly pulls her off. Decker continues working anyway. So does Lennie, setting up a charged relationship that's the headline story here.As usual, Kellerman (Killing Season, 2017, etc.) is more interested in the big scenes than in the cartilage that binds them together. The result is a methodical procedural whose method is to look everywhere, ask everything, and deal with the inevitable disappointment when the pieces just refuse to come together. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.