The Theory of Death

Faye Kellerman has written another in a long line of mystery novels about Rina Lazarus and Peter Decker, the wonderful Jewish couple who solve crimes.  The series started with Peter coming to solve a murder case at a mikvah where Rina was working.  He solves the case, protects Rina and of course falls in love.  Over the course of time and books, Rina and Peter have married, blended their families and had children of their own all while living in Los Angeles, Ca.   They now have retired and are starting again in New York state with grown children and grandchildren.

They have moved from Los Angeles to upstate New York for their retirement and to be near all their children and grandchildren who are the New York City area.  But of  course Peter cannot sit around and he takes on a part time role in the local police department.  In the last novel he also takes on a young partner who comes from a wealthy family.  The young partner was shot in solving a crime and his father has given him an ultimatum to go to law school if he wants to inherit.

In this novel Tyler McAdams, the young assistant, is visiting the Deckers in Greenbury, NY to study for his finals at Harvard.  He is a sarcastic young man with a distaste for money and doesn't live the fancy lifestyle he could be.  He is hard working and loves working to solves mysteries with Peter.

Rina also gets involved because she loves to take in strays, as in young adults, and mentor them.
She is always feeding the detectives with good kosher meals.  Along with the delicious food she also offers advice.  Peter relies on her for support and appreciates her input.

This time the case they are working on looks like a suicide of a college student but when a college professor who this student was working with also turns up dead the questions turn from suicide to murder.  There are a few red herrings as you are led to question the behavior of a few of the students and professors who are still on campus.  There is a lot to learn both about the characters in the story and Kellerman adds in complicated information about what the students are studying, and writing their thesis on.  We enter the world of vectors and math theories and secret cyphers that are very complicated.  McAdams gets to shine as he explains these enigmatic formulas to Decker and helps him solve the crime.