The Ritual Bath
Faye Kellerman, , read by Mitchell Greenberg. . HarperAudio, $19.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-06-144181-3
Like the series it inspired, Kellerman's award-winning 1986 debut novel combines police procedure, via hard-boiled LAPD detective Peter Decker, with Judaic rites and rituals courtesy of its heroine Rina Lazarus, an ultra-Orthodox widowed mother of two. Decker and Lazarus are brought together by the brutal rape of a young bride-to-be at the mikvah (a bathhouse used in the purification ritual) that Rina manages in the Hollywood hills. Mitchell Greenberg nicely vocalizes the story from Decker's point of view, with the detective struggling to stick to his sleuthing in spite of his developing feelings for Rina. The novel continually rings true, from explaining various Orthodox beliefs and customs to Decker and his crew's no-nonsense unmasking of the villain. Greenberg moves in and out of the novel's elements smoothly and efficiently. He paces the police work with just the right sense of urgency and frustration; handles the romantic sequences with the proper emotion and without a hint of sentimentality; and breezes through the many Jewish-centric passages with the confidence and clarity of a yeshiva graduate.
Reviewed on: 01/28/2008
Genre: Audio
Downloadable Audio - 978-0-06-157304-0
Downloadable Audio - 978-0-06-157303-3
Hardcover - 368 pages - 978-0-7838-9046-3
Hardcover - 282 pages - 978-0-87795-771-3
Mass Market Paperbound - 368 pages - 978-0-06-199924-6
Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-449-45814-3
Mass Market Paperbound - 384 pages - 978-0-380-73266-1
Mass Market Paperbound - 384 pages - 978-0-380-81156-4
Mass Market Paperbound - 978-0-449-21373-5
Open Ebook - 368 pages - 978-0-06-149071-2
Other - 368 pages - 978-0-06-149078-1
Other - 368 pages - 978-0-06-149072-9
Paperback - 978-0-449-00306-0
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 384 pages - 978-0-06-149076-7
