The Lost Boys

 Faye Kellerman is back with another mystery novel in the continuing series featuring Detective Inspector, now semi retired, Peter Decker and his lovely wife, Rina Lazarus  Along the way they have left the mean streets of Los Angeles and are settled down in a small town in upstate New York.  

Though Peter wanted something to keep him busy in retirement, he has found the this sleepy college town is anything but sleepy.  This time as he and his sidekick, Tyler McAdams are called in to helps search for a missing young man from a group home, they also stumble across a body from a cold case.  The body buried int he woods is the remains of a student from the local college who went missing ten years prior to being dug up.

Keeping true to the original theme of these mysteries, with Rina, religiously observant, sharing the lessons and practices of  Orthodox Judaism with her husband who has converted to Judaism and practices the faith as much as his work will allow.  Sprinkled with non Jewish associates who always seem to enjoy sharing in a Shabbat dinner or helping Peter stick to the rules of no work on the Sabbath.  Peter and Rina have surrounded themselves with children, grandchildren and a foster son and his girlfriend and Decker's partner, McAdams, who are always ready to learn about a Jewish practice or share in a celebration.

In this novel, we follow Decker and McAdams as they travel to interview family members of the boys who went missing ten years ago, trying to determine what happened in the woods that fateful weekend.

At the same time they are visiting the group home and finally the parents of a girl who also has disappeared with the young man missing.  The parents are all devastated about what is happening to their children.  But they all also realize that once your children leave home you can worry but you really cannot protect them anymore.  

Kellerman has many balls balanced in the air at one time through this novel.  Two cases and also some family drama.  Bringing back the subject of their foster son, Gabriel, and reminding us how he came to be apart of their lives.  Gabe's mother who gave him up, is back in his life and in trouble again. 

Another fast paced entertaining mystery with some of my favorite characters.  It is nice to catch up and Kellerman leaves a few dangling thread at the end to keep us hanging on until she can write and publish the next novel in this series.  I can hardly wait to find out what happens next.