Faye Kellerman: The Forgotten

By MICHELE HEWITSON

Faye Kellerman continues her interest in things Jewish in The Forgotten, a thriller which looks back to the death camps of Nazi Germany for answers about the present. When the Deckers (Rina and her husband Pete the detective) discover that their synagogue has been vandalised, the shock takes them on a shared journey which will uncover a scam - and expose the identity of a man who claimed to be a concentration camp survivor.

But that's all peripheral to Kellerman's main concern, which is with family. She's good on plot but there's something trite about her key characters: Rina's so pious. Pete tries too hard to be the perfect stepfather, fails, beats himself up, tries again ... This is their 13th appearance and familiarity has not improved them. There is, too, a nagging moralistic tone (rich kids with too much money need parenting not cash, tsk, tsk) which gets very irritable indeed.

Hodder Moa Beckett

$19.95