Works by
Faye Kellerman
(Writer)
[July 31, 1952 - ]

Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus Series

1. The Ritual Bath (1986)
   Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed. The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking that they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.

2. Sacred and Profane (1987)
   Los Angeles Police Detective Peter Decker had grown very close to Rina's young sons, Sammy and Jake, as he had to their mother, and he looked forward to spending a day of his vacation camping with the boys. A nice reprieve from the grueling work of a homicide cop-until Sammy stumbles upon a gruesome sight... Two human skeletons, charred beyond recognition, are identified by a forensic dentist as teenage girls--and for Decker, the father of a sixteen-year-old daughter, vacation time is over. Throwing himself professionally and emotionally into the murder case, he launches a very personal investigation: a quest that pulls him deep into the crack dens of Hollywood Boulevard and painfully close to the children of the streets and a nightmare world he must make his own.

3. Milk and Honey (1990)
   In the silent pre-dawn city hours -- alone with his thoughts about Rina Lazarus, the woman he loves, three thousand miles away in New York -- LAPD detective Peter Decker finds a small child, abandoned and covered in blood that is not hers. It is a sobering discovery, and a perplexing one, for nobody in the development where she was found steps forward to claim the little girl. Obsessed more deeply by this case than he imagined possible, Decker is determined to follow the scant clues to an answer. But his trail is leading him to a killing ground where four bodies lie still and lifeless. And by the time Rina returns, Peter Decker is already held fast in a sticky mass of hatred, passion, and murder -- in a world where intense sweetness is accompanied by a deadly sting.

4. Day of Atonement (1991)
   L.A.P.D. Detective Peter Decker doesn't know quite what to make of Lilah Brecht. The beautiful, eccentric spa owner and daughter of a faded Hollywood legend, Lilah was beaten, robbed, and raped in her own home -- and claims to have psychic powers that enable her to see even more devastating events looming on the horizon. With his heart and mind on his pregnant young wife, Rina Lazarus, at home, Peter finds it hard to put much credence in the victim's outrageous claims, or to become too deeply involved with her equally odd brothers and aging film star mom. But when Lilah's dark visions turn frighteningly real, Decker's world will be severely rocked -- as the "false prophet's" secrets and obsessions entrap the dedicated policeman ... and point a killer toward Decker's own vulnerable family.

5. False Prophet (1992)
   L.A.P.D. Detective Peter Decker doesn't know quite what to make of Lilah Brecht. The beautiful, eccentric spa owner and daughter of a faded Hollywood legend, Lilah was beaten, robbed, and raped in her own home -- and claims to have psychic powers that enable her to see even more devastating events looming on the horizon. With his heart and mind on his pregnant young wife, Rina Lazarus, at home, Peter finds it hard to put much credence in the victim's outrageous claims, or to become too deeply involved with her equally odd brothers and aging film star mom. But when Lilah's dark visions turn frighteningly real, Decker's world will be severely rocked -- as the "false prophet's" secrets and obsessions entrap the dedicated policeman ... and point a killer toward Decker's own vulnerable family.

6. Grievous Sin (1993)
   Peter and Rina are delighted with their newborn baby girl, but the scene at the Los Angeles hospital is a nightmare. Budget cutbacks and staff shortages so compromise security in the nursery that Peter, the ever-anxious cop, worries about his family's safety.
   
   Then a baby is kidnapped and a respected nurse vanishes along with her. Peter, his tough-talking partner Marge, and Peter's eager older daughter Cindy pursue a twisted path of hospital politics, misplaced passions, and tortuous mind games of guilt and redemption that bring them face-to-face with the most grievous sin. . . .

7. Sanctuary (1994)
   diamond dealer and his entire family have mysteriously disappeared from their sprawling Las Angeles manor, leaving the estate undisturbed and their valuables untouched. Investigating detective Decker is stumped--faced with a perplexing case riddled with dead ends. Then a second dealer is found murdered in Manhatten, catapulting Decker and his wife, Rina, into a heartstopping maze of murder and intrigue that spans the globe...only to touch down dangerously in their own backyard.A diamond dealer and his entire family have mysteriously disappeared from their sprawling Los Angeles manor, leaving the estate undisturbed and their valuables untouched. Investigating detective Decker is stumped--faced with a perplexing case riddled with dead ends. Then a second dealer is found murdered in manhattan, catapulting Decker and his wife, Rina, into a hearstopping maze of murder and intrigue that spans the globe. . . .only to touch down dangerously in their own backyard.

8. Justice (1995)
   The cruel and bizarre slaying of a beautiful teen leads Detective Decker into the dark heart of an exotic subculture: the seamy, sometimes violent world of Southern California's rootless, affluent youth. But even the confession of a disturbed kid with cold "killer eyes" cannot soothe Decker's inner torment. For he knows in his gut this crime goes much deeper and higher than anyone expects -- and that true justice, brutal and complete, has yet to be done.

9. Prayers for the Dead (1996)
   The brutal murder of Dr. Azor Sparks in an alley behind a restaurant is greeted with public outrage and a demand for swift, sure justice. But the investigation into the well-known surgeon's death is raising too many questions and providing too few answers for homicide detective Lieutenant Peter Decker.
   
   Why, for example, would the family of a man so beloved respond to his slaying with more surprise than grief? And what linked a celebrated doctor with strict fundamentalist beliefs to a gang of outlaw bikers? But the most unsettling connection of all is the one that ties the tormented Sparks family to Peter Decker's own -- and the secrets shared by a renegade Catholic priest...and Decker's wife, Rina Lazarus.

10. Serpent's Tooth (1997)
    A man walks into a trendy Los Angeles restaurant -- a disgruntled ex-employee with an automatic weapon -- and seconds later, thirteen people are dead and thirty-two more have been wounded. It is a heinous act of mass slaughter that haunts Homicide Detective Peter Decker.
    
    But, though eyewitnesses saw only the lone gunman -- who apparently took his own life after his bloody work was done -- evidence suggests more than one weapon was fired. It is a disturbing inconsistency that sends Decker racing headlong into a sordid, labyrinthine world of Southern California money and power, on an investigation that threatens to destroy his reputation and his career.

11. Jupiter's Bones (1999)
    Dr. Emil Euler Ganz was considered a preeminent astrophysicist, a brilliant professor with a world-renowned reputation. Then, without warning to his family or colleagues, he vanished. For ten years, no one knew of his whereabouts until he suddenly reappeared as "Father Jupiter," the founder of a pseudoscientific cult--the Order of the Rings of God. For fifteen years, Ganz ruled his hundreds of disciples with spiritual words as well as an iron fist. Now, suddenly, the aging charismatic leader is found dead, a fifth of vodka and a vial of pills by his bedside.

    Ganz's abrupt demise brings about official questions for LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker and his team of Homicide detectives. Is Ganz's death an accident, a suicide or even a homicide? Suspicions abound. But when the police enter the premises to investigate, the cult becomes resentful of the intrusion. Those closest to Father Jupiter--his four "privileged" attendants---are especially indignant, turning overtly hostile when two cult members--including a child--appear to be missing. The irate attendants all but accuse the police of masterminding a kidnapping.

    The situation becomes threatening and ugly, but Decker, with the support of his wife, Rina, and his detectives refuse to back down. Amid disturbing forensic evidence, mangled murdered bodies, hidden pasts and deadly secrets, the team continues its relentless probe of the bizarre cult, even as the Order turns violent, erupting into mayhem so deadly that it threatens not only the lives of its nave adult members but also scores of helpless, innocent children.

12. Stalker (2000)
    Cynthia Decker became a cop against her father's wishes.  But police work is in her blood, and she's determined to make it on her own.  She begins to feel a nagging sense that she is being watched.  The feeling of dread escalates when she finds some personal effects have been crudely destroyed.  It'd a harrowing trip down a dark canyon road that substantiates Cindy's worst fear: for some unknown reason, someone fiendishly relentless is stalking her. Cindy begins to covertly probe her personal and professional lives for identity of the person who wants her frightened, harmed -or dead.  As her stalker grows bolder and more devious, Cindy finds her options limited and her friends and colleagues offbounds as the well-concealed rages and dark secrets of those surrounding her slowly come to light and threaten to pull a nightmare out of the shadows and in for the kill.

13. The Forgotten (2001)
    Rina Lazarus and her husband, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Peter Decker, are shocked by an outrage that cuts close to the spiritual heart of their family. Rina's small storefront synagogue has been desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti and grisly Nazi death camp photographs. The alleged perpetrator is seventeen-year-old Ernesto Golding, a "rich kid" obsessed with haunting suspicions about the origins of his Polish paternal grandfather. Then Ernesto is found brutally murdered, along with his therapist, Dr. Mervin Baldwin, at an exclusive nature camp that caters moneyed, troubled children. For Decker and his wife, unraveling the truth behind Ernesto's violent death becomes more terrifying with each sinister twist. For lethal secrets with roots in the horrors of a past genteration are coming to the surface, propelling Peter and Rina into a ghastly world of ruthless parents and damaged youth -- and toward a dark evil and its ultimate retribution.

14. Stone Kiss (2002)
    Bestselling author Faye Kellerman makes her Warner debut with an edge-of-your-seat suspense novel starring the popular husband and wife team of Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus.Rina Lazarus has some shocking news for her husband, LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker. A horrible murder has occurred in the family of his half-brother, Rabbi Jonathan Levin. The rabbis brother-in-law was found slain in a seedy hotel room in upper Manhattan, and the victims 15-year-old niece, with whom he was spending the day, is missing. Decker, with Rina at his side, immediately heads out to New York to assist in the investigation. But what starts out as simple inquiries soon evolves into a twisted and perilous journeyfrom the darkened slums of New Jersey and the deserted industrial streets of New York to the recesses of sexual perversity and the hidden meeting places of Hasidic outcasts. Thrust into a deadly maze of deceit, lies, and danger, the couple can no longer trust anyonefriend or family. And when salvation is finally within Deckers grasp, it can only be delivered by a depraved lone wolf, hell-bent on his own personal vengeance.

15. Street Dreams (2003)
    While on routine patrol, LAPD Officer CindyDecker rescues a newborn abandoned in an alley dumpster. But she can't call it a night until she sees the infant safe in a hospital. Now, the hunt is on for the mother, more than likely a desperate girl in need of medical attention. Armed with advice from her overworked detective father, Cindy searches through inner-city Hollywood, following a treacherous trail filled with drug lords. But with each new lead, the twisted journey gets darker, battering Cindy's complex personal relationships-and endangering her very life. When Decker andDecker join forces, can this edgy duo put personal issues aside to catch a vicious culprit before he strikes again?

16. The Burnt House (2007)
    At 8:15 in the morning, a small commuter plane carrying forty-seven passengers crashes into an apartment building in Granada Hills, California. Shock waves ripple through Los Angeles, as L.A.P.D. Lieutenant Peter Decker works overtime to calm rampant fears of a 9/11-type terror attack. But a grisly mystery lives inside the plane's charred and twisted wreckage: the unidentified bodies of four extra travelers. And there is no sign of an airline employee who was supposedly on the catastrophic flight.
    
    Decker and his wife, Rina, have personal reasons for being profoundly shaken by the tragedy, since the "accident" occurred frighteningly close to their daughter Hannah's school. Luckily, their child and her schoolmates escaped unscathed. But the fate of the unaccounted-for flight attendant—twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden—remains a question mark more than a month after the horrific event, when the young woman's irate stepfather calls, insisting that she was never onboard the doomed plane. Instead, he claims, she was most likely murdered by her abusive, unfaithful husband. But why, then, was Roseanne's name included on the passenger list?
    
    Under intense pressure from the department to come up with answers, Decker launches an investigation that carries him down a path of tragic history, dangerous secrets, and deadly lies—and leads him to the corpse of a three-decades-missing murder victim. And as the jagged pieces slowly fall into place, a frightening picture begins to form: a mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker's and Rina's own beliefs about guilt and innocence and justice.
    
    Combining relentless suspense with intense, multilayered human drama, The Burnt House is Faye Kellerman at her mesmerizing best.

17. The Mercedes Coffin (2008)
    Billionaire genius Genoa Greeves never got over the shocking death of her favorite teacher, Bennett "Dr. Ben" Alston Little, murdered execution-style and stuffed into the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz. No arrests were ever made, no killer charged for the brutal crime. Fifteen years later, the high-tech CEO reads about another execution-style murder; this time the victim is a Hollywood music producer named Primo Ekerling. There is no obvious connection, but the case is eerily similar to Little's and Genoa feels the time is right to close Dr. Ben's case once and for all—offering the L.A.P.D. a substantial financial "incentive" if justice is finally served for Little.
    
    Lieutenant Peter Decker resents having to commit valuable manpower to a fifteen-year-old open case simply because a rich woman says "Jump!" Still, the recent murder of Primo Ekerling does bear a disturbing resemblance to Little's case, even though two thug suspects are currently behind bars for the Ekerling murder. Decker can't help but wonder about a connection. His first phone calls are to the two primary investigators in the Little case, retired detectives Calvin Vitton and Arnie Lamar. Lamar is cooperative, but Vitton is not only reluctant to talk, he winds up dead of a suspicious suicide twelve hours later. Plunging into this long-buried murder, Decker discovers that even though the two slayings are separated by a decade and a half, there is still plenty of greed, lust, and evil to connect the dots.
    
    Decker's team of top investigators not only includes his favorite homicide detectives, Scott Oliver and Marge Dunn, but also his newly minted Hollywood detective daughter, Cindy Kutiel, whose help proves to be invaluable. His wife, Rina Lazarus, continues to be his backbone of support, offering a cool, rational outlook despite her growing concern for her husband's welfare and safety. Rina's worries and fears begin to build at a fevered pitch as past and present collide with a vengeance, catapulting an unsuspecting Peter Decker closer and closer to the edge of an infinite dark abyss.
    
    A relentlessly gripping tale spun by a master, Faye Kellerman's The Mercedes Coffin races through a dangerous urban world of fleeting fame and false dreams, making heart-pumping hairpin turns at each step of a terrifying journey, where truth and justice are fine lines between life and death.

18. Blindman's Bluff (August 11, 2009)
    As a lieutenant in the LAPD, homicide detective Peter Decker doesn't get many calls at 3 a.m. unless a case is nasty, sensational—or both. Someone has broken into the exclusive Coyote Ranch compound of billionaire developer Guy Kaffey and viciously gunned him down, along with his wife and four employees.
    
    A well-known figure on both the business and society pages, Kaffey, with his sons and his younger brother, Mace, built most of the shopping malls in Southern California and earned a reputation for philanthropy, donating millions to worthy causes. It doesn't take long for Peter, his trusted detectives Scott Oliver and Marge Dunn, and the rest of his homicide team to figure out that the gruesome killings must be an inside job. Things become even more entangled when they discover that Kaffey's largesse had included organizations that extended second chances to delinquents, many of whom Kaffey had hired for his personal security. But was the job pure murder/robbery or something even more twisted? A developer of Kaffey's magnitude doesn't make billions without making more enemies with blood grudges.
    
    With leads taking the team across L.A., up and down the Golden State, and into Mexico, Decker is plenty busy—and plenty thankful not to have to worry about his wife, Rina Lazarus, getting caught up in this deadly case. Rina is out of harm's way, serving on a jury at the courthouse.
    
    But then a chance encounter with a court translator who needs her help leads Rina into the terrifying heart of her husband's murder investigations—and straight into the path of a gang of ruthless killers. To protect Rina, Decker must find his prey before death unites his two worlds.
    
    A fast-paced tour through the urban landscape of L.A., Blindman's Bluff is a riveting mile-a-minute thrill ride from a formidable master of her craft.

• The Quality of Mercy (1989)
  Rebecca Lopez enjoys a life of privilege in Elizabeth's England -- yet she guards secrets she dares not reveal. The beautiful, tempestuous daughter of the queen's own physician, Rebecca is also a converso -- a Jew who practices her prohibited religion clandestinely -- helping others of her banned faith escape persecution and death. And her insatiable hunger for excitement often takes her to the bustling streets of London in male garb to experience the kind of adventure available only to men. But one such outing is leading her into a dangerous viper's nest built of intrigue and foul murder in the company of a dashing young actor who inflames her romantic passions, even as he escorts her toward peril, a charming and fearless would-be playwright who calls himself Will Shakespeare.

• Moon Music (1998)
  Just outside of the city's neon Strip, in the bleak wastelands of Nevada's desert, Las Vegas Metro police discover the mauled corpse of a young and beautiful showgirl. Even in a city known for its excesses -- from Arab sheiks to casino billionaires -- this crime is particularly shocking because of the animalistic destruction of the body. Called to the crime scene is Detective Sergeant Romulus Poe -- a thirty-five-year-old Vegas native and a seasoned, fifteen-year police veteran. A loner with a love of justice, Poe immerses himself in the horrific case.
  
  The corpse is badly mutilated. Certain organs are gone and the exposure to the harsh desert elements has made forensics very difficult. Poe is particularly struck by its dreaded similarities to a horrendous slaying done by an anonymous monster dubbed "the Bogeyman." Immediately, Poe forms an investigatory team consisting of the handsome detective Stephen Jensen, his colleague but no friend, Detective Patricia Deluca, a homicide newcomer, and forensic pathologist Rukmani Kalil, who is also Poe's part-time, unorthodox girlfriend.
  
  From the start, the team is mired in a web of intrigue. And the urgency of resolution becomes frenzied when another young nighttime desert dump is found a month later.
  
  From Native American mysticism and medieval folk legends to untold twentieth century scientific secrets, Poe must sift through Vegas's sordid past and dark underbelly to solve a series of gruesome murders -- and to save a beautiful woman he had once loved -- before all of them are caught in a deadly dance of Moon Music.

• Straight into Darkness (2005)
  New YorkTimes bestselling author Faye Kellerman takes us on an edge-of-our-seat journey to the past, and a city stalked by a killer so ruthless no one is safe-not even the police. In 1920s Munich, the body of Anna Gross, a young society wife, has been found in the English Gardens, still clothed in finery. Soon a second body is discovered, also a woman of high society. When a third body is found, homicide detective Axel Berg realizes he's dealing with unprecedented evil. Is the murderer politically motivated? Is he a lone madman? Or worse, is the killer possessed by both political and personal demons? Detective Berg soon finds himself entangled in a web of dangerous intrigue, surrounded by potential enemies. As Munich slips further into turmoil, overrun by political factions and the rise of Hitler, a dedicated policeman can never know who to trust-and one simple mistake could be deadly.

• The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights (2006)
  Here the backdrop of contemporary California becomes fertile ground for Kellerman's riveting tales of murder, mystery, and family ties most sinister and deadly.... Among the first-rate short mysteries in this collection, the brand-new "Garden of Eden" and "Open House" feature the famous sleuthing duo Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. "Bull's-Eye" introduced Cindy Decker to the crime-fiction world, and "Mr. Barton's Head Case" appears here for the very first time in English. In addition, two rare personal essays allow readers glimpses into Kellerman's private life, revealing her true grit in "Small Miracles" and childhood memories of working in her father's deli in the exquisite "Summer of My Womanhood." Compiled at last in one volume, the seventeen pieces in this book feature new introductions by the author and contribute to a unique, compelling portrait of one of America's top masters of suspense. A must-have collection for all mystery fans, The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights showcases how ordinary everyday experiences can be the genesis of extraordinary tales that unveil the darkest sins and secrets of the human heart.

• Prism (June 23, 2009) with Aliza Kellerman
  Prism takes us to a slightly alternate universe in which medicine and health care do not exist, and in which sick people are allowed to die without any care. Set in New Mexico and California, the novel features three teens who fall through a cave at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico while on a field trip. They are plunged into a frightening parallel universe—seven weeks in the past, in which their "normal" worlds of family and high school remain the same…except for the fact that no medicine exists and when people die in the street they are picked up and disposed of. Young Adult.

• Double Homicide (2005) with Jonathan Kellerman
  For the first time ever, bestselling novelists Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman team up to deliver the launch book in a thrilling new series of short crime novels! It's a reader's dream come true: a new series co-written by the royal couple of crime fiction--Jonathan and Faye Kellerman! Each book contains two novels jointly written by the duo, featuring different detectives solving crimes in different cities. In the Land of the Giants has Boston homicide detectives Michael MacCain and Doris Sylvestor investigating the suspicious death of a college basketball star. And in Still Life, the co-worker of a Santa Fe art gallery is murdered, forcing detectives Darryl Two Moons and Steve Katz to put aside holiday celebrations and set things right.

• Capital Crimes (2006) with Jonathan Kellerman
  Internationally bestselling novelists each in their own right, husband and wife Jonathan and Faye Kellerman team up for a powerful one-two punch with Capital Crimes, a gripping pair of original crime thrillers set in two cities rich in atmosphere, and featuring appearances by the authors’ signature heroes: LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker and psychologist sleuth Dr. Alex Delaware.

  • My Sister's Keeper: Berkeley
    Progressive state representative Davida Grayson fits in well with her Berkeley constituents. But some of Davida’s views have made her unpopular elsewhere. Davida’s foes are numerous: politicians on the other side of the aisle, racist hatemongers, even dissenters in her own party. Still, no one suspects that any buttons Davida might push could evoke deadly force.
    
    But now Davida lies brutally murdered in her office, and Berkeley homicide detectives Will Barnes and Amanda Isis must unravel Davida’s complex, surprising life in order to find her killer. As they dig deeper, Will and Amanda realize that the real Davida Grayson was someone the public never knew. The investigation draws the detectives into a labyrinth of hidden sexuality, dark secrets, betrayal, and bloody vengeance that leads tortuously into madness. With time short and the suspect list long, Barnes and Isis must find the answers before the killer pulls off a repeat performance.

  • Music City Breakdown: Nashville
    Baker Southerby, the son of musicians, was a child prodigy performer. But something Baker won’t talk about leads him to quit the honky-tonk circuit, become a Nashville cop, and never look back. His partner, Lamar Van Gundy, is a would-be studio bassist from up North who never quite made the cut in Music City, so instead earned himself a detective’s badge. Now both men are members of Nashville PD’s elite Murder Squad, with a solid record for solves. But when they catch a homicide that’s high-profile even for a city where musical celebrity is routine, their skills are tested: Jack Jeffries, a rock legend who cast aside personal demons and emerged from retirement to perform at a charity benefit, has been discovered in a ditch near the Cumberland River, his throat slashed.
    
    It’s a whodunit as heartbreaking as it is baffling. Southerby and Van Gundy understand the rhythms of the music biz as intimately as the streets they work–and know that both have their dark sides. What the detectives don’t realize is just how high the price of success can be. Long before the last notes of Jack Jeffries’s final song have faded, Southerby and Van Gundy will learn about the dangers of concealing a hidden past . . . the hard way. Capital Crimes is page-turning, psychologically resonant suspense–just what we’ve come to expect from two of the world’s most successful crime writers.

• Women of Mystery (1993) with Cynthia Manson and Ruth Rendell
  15 mystery stories by women authors

• Mothers and Daughters: Celebrating the Gift of Love With 12 New Stories (1998) by Jill M. Morgan (ed.)
  Celebrating the gift of love with 12 new stories by Joy Fielding, Diana Gabaldon, Eileen Goudge, Kaye Kellerman, Anne McCaffrey, and Sharyn McCrumb

• Fathers and Daughters: A Celebration in Memoirs, Stories, and Photographs (1999) by Jill M. Morgan (Ed.)
  A celebration in memoirs, stories, and photographs by Noreen Ayres, Carole Nelson Douglas, Eileen Dreyer, Diana Gabaldon, Eileen Goudge, J. A. Jance, Kaye Kellerman, Jill Morgan, Billy Sue Mosiman, Maxine O'Callaghan, Marilyn Reynolds, and Mary Willis Walker

• Naked Came the Phoenix: A Serial Novel (2002) with Anne Perry, Diana Gabaldon, Faye Kellerman, J. A. Jance, J.D. Robb, Laurie R. King, Lisa Scottoline, Marcia Talley, Mary Jane Clark, Nancy Pickard, Nevada Barr, Perri O'Shaughnessy, and Val McDermid
  The promise of discretion and pampering-and a long-overdue reconciliation with her mother-draws Caroline Blessing, the young wife of a newly-elected Congressman, to the fancy Phoenix Spa. But after her first night in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, Caroline wakes to find the rich and famous guests in turmoil and under suspicion: the spa's flamboyant and ambitious owner has been murdered. As the secrets come out-and the body count rises, can Caroline keep herself from becoming the next victim?In the tradition of such collaborative classics as Naken Came the Manatee and The Floating Admiral, each chapter in this serial novel is written by one of today's most talented mystery novelists.