Milk and Honey

On a summer night in a housing development near Los Angeles, police sergeant Peter Decker finds a winsome two-year-old girl playing on a swing set--and wearing blood-soaked pajamas. Unclaimed, ``Sally'' is placed in a foster home while Decker and partner Marge Dunn try to learn her identity. Bee stings on her arms lead them days later to the scene of a bloody multiple murder at a honey farm. While piecing together a bizarre puzzle of betrayal and revenge which includes adultery, infertility and land development plans, Peter is also investigating rape and assault charges brought against an old army buddy from Vietnam. The pressures of the murder case and doubts about his friend's innocence compound Peter's anxiety as he waits for young Orthodox Jewish widow Rina Lazarus to decide if she will marry him--an older man who's only recently embraced his Jewish heritage. Kellerman weaves these threads into a believable, intricate mystery in which series hero Decker is revealed as even more complex, interesting and sympathetic than in earlier appearances ( Sacred and Profane ). Mystery Guild selection; Literary Guild alternate; author tour. (Apr.)