Win, Place and Show

It's been 28 years since readers first met LAPD detective Peter Decker and the woman he would marry, widow Rina Lazarus, in 1986's The Ritual Bath. The pair were married by 1991's Day of Atonement, and over the course of the next 17 books they have raised Rina's sons, their own daughter together, helped guide Peter's daughter Cindy and now are the foster parents for Gabe Whitman, introduced in 2011's Gun Games. Kellerman has always mixed the police procedural world of Decker with the family life centered on Rina and their family's Orthodox Jewish practices, and continues to do so in the 21st Decker/Lazarus novel, The Beast.

Eccentric millionaire Hobart Penny has been found dead in his apartment. Along with him is a fully-grown female Bengal tiger, but the tiger didn't bash Penny's skull or shoot him with a .22. Decker and his team must unravel several layers of mystery about Penny, his more and more bizarre life, and a list of suspects who might have reason to want him dead. In the meantime, he has to cope with Gabe's romance with his girlfriend from Games, whose mother does not approve of her daughter's relationship with him.

Series fans will probably appreciate the no-nonsense procedural elements wrapped around the bizarre circumstances of the case, but they will probably see it as a little Rina-light since most of the home-life part of the story is taken up by Gabe and told from his point of view. Kellerman is apparently going to take her time developing Gabe's character arc, which is much less of a problem than it could have been as she dials down the descriptions of the physical side of their trysts that made Gun Games a rather uncomfortable read in spots. Beast's ending suggests a new direction for the series. Kellerman is too skilled to really be said to be in a rut at this point, but the new take might very well remove some of the deja vu feeling that's been clinging to the series over the last four or five volumes.

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The Roman Catholic church, Freemasonry, the Founding Fathers and the ancient lost continent of Atlantis are settings and groups frequently used as key elements in modern thrillers. Apparently, author Thomas Greanias figured why not throw them all into the mix in his first novel, 2005's Raising Atlantis. Archaeologist Conrad Yeats and Australian linguist (and nun) Serena Serghetti explored evidence of the lost continent found in the inhospitable Antarctic. The sequel, The Atlantis Prophecy, picks up in 2008 as Conrad must solve a puzzle given to him on his own father's tombstone while again joining Serena against the Alignment, a sinister cabal of military and financial leaders who operate behind the scenes to restore Atlantis' brutal dictatorship and extend it throughout the world.

Their clues take them through the major buildings and monuments of Washington, D.C., seeking out a document from George Washington that could spell the end of freedom and democracy in the United States and throughout the world. It's all very silly, and although Greanias writes far better than a lot of other people working in this field, his plot holes, weak characterizations and predictable storyline make Atlantis a mostly empty thrill ride that vanishes from memory not long after the back cover is closed and the book heads to the donation pile.

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Dan Waters was a con man who had so many identities he wound up with none of his own, not even for his son Rollie. Rolllie watched and learned the tricks of his father's trade, but instead of working people for his own sake he's actually doing so as an undercover investigator for the United States Marines. When he's yanked out of an assignment and thrown into the brig, questioned about a large amount of missing money authorities believe Dan took, Rollie will have to confront his own past life without most of the preconceptions and cover-up stories he's told to comfort himself.

Screenwriter David Rich creates the elements of an interesting character in his first novel by giving Rollie his shady progenitor and a background that's a little shady on its own. He can also maintain tension pretty well, create believable dialogue and has a deft hand with action scenes. But he has two problems in making Rollie a regular companion for the thriller novel reader. One, his story in Caravan turns this way and that until it winds itself up in knots. And two, Rollie Waters is a pretty unlikable main character. His devotion to duty and smart mouth redeeem him to a degree, but overall he's nobody you'd spend much time with. Or the $10 paperback price that you have to come up with for the privilege.