Book Review: Gun Games by Faye Kellerman

Gun Games by Faye Kellerman

Publisher: William Morrow

Publish Date: January 3, 2011

Hardcover, 384 pages 
Fiction, Suspense
 ISBN: 978-0062064325
Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus #20

My Review:
Gun Games is my first Faye Kellerman novel.  I have meant to read her for years.  I have read her husband and have even read her son, but for some reason haven't read her.  I use to have this thing where I had to start the series from the beginning, but I have finally gotten over that.  Yes you do miss character growth and some background, but I've found a lot of these suspense series, each book stands on it's own and that's how I feel about Gun Games.  It's the 20th novel in the Rina  and Peter Decker series and as I stated before the first I have read.

Gun Games seems to center around two separate stories, Gabe, the foster son that Pete and Rina are keeping who is a piano prodigy is the center of one of the stories.  He meets a girl who is a year younger and is a Persian Jew.  Gabe is white and not a Jew at all.  A romance ensues secretly.  Gabe keeps up his piano studies and is trying to decide what to do with his life.  All-in-all I really enjoyed this story line.  I liked Gabe and Yasmine.  They were cute and sweet and everything young love is when you are 15 and 14.

The second story centers around a suicide that Pete and his detectives have been asked to look into at an exclusive private school.  The mom just doesn't think her son could have committed suicide.  Crazy things start showing up.  I really enjoyed this storyline.  The detective work and the way things unfolded really made the story.  And I always enjoy reading about exclusive prep or boarding schools.

And then the storylines intersect like you would not believe and I won't give anything more away.  But thing go completely crazy.  If you think you couldn't put the book down before this point, there is no way you are putting it down after this point.

I think Ms. Kellerman does an excellent job creating believable characters and scary characters.  She interweaves a plot that is so crazy that it is believable.  I was enthralled.  It's one of those books that is so calm and easy going in the beginning that it sucks you in and before you know it you just cannot put it down.

Overall I think this was an amazing book and if the others in this series are anything like it I am definitely starting at the beginning and working my way through.  In fact I'm going to my library website now to reserve The  Ritual Bath.  I can't wait to get more of Peter and Rina Decker.

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

Advisory note: Not for the faint of heart, there is bad language, though it is not overdone. There is also sex and plenty of sexual references especially between the teenagers.  Also Gabe's biological father owns brothels, so references are made to that and they are often crude.  All of this seems to be in the character of Chris, the father, but if you don't like that kind of thing in the books you read, this book may not be for you. It wasn't all the time, more time was spent on the suspense plot, but it is in there so I feel I should mention.


About the Book:
LAPD lieutenant detective Decker and his wife, Rina, have willingly welcomed fifteen-year-old Gabriel Whitman, the son of a troubled former friend, into their home. While the enigmatic teen seems to be adapting easily, Decker knows only too well the secrets adolescents keep—witnessed by the tragic suicide of another teen, Gregory Hesse, a student at Bell and Wakefield, one of the city’s most exclusive prep schools.

Gregory’s mother, Wendy, refuses to believe her son shot himself and convinces Decker to look deeper. What he finds disturbs him. The gun used in the tragedy was stolen—evidence that propels him to launch a full investigation with his trusted team, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver. But the case becomes darkly complicated by the suicide of another Bell and Wakefield student—a death that leads them to uncover an especially nasty group of rich and privileged students with a predilection for guns and violence. Decker thought he understood kids, yet the closer he and his team get to the truth, the clearer it becomes that he knows very little about them, including his own charge, Gabe. The son of a gangster and an absent parent, the boy has had a life filled with too much free time, too many unexplained absences, and too little adult supervision.

Before it’s over, the case and all its terrifying ramifications will take Decker and his detectives down a dark alley of twisted allegiances and unholy alliances, culminating at a heart-stopping point of no return.

About the Author (from Goodreads.com): 
Faye Kellerman was born in St Louis, Missouri. She began her career as a dentist but turned to writing after the birth of her eldest child in 1978. As well as the highly popular Peter Decker series she has also written one historical mystery. In between writing, she tries to find the time to enjoy her two favourite hobbies, gardening and music. She has four children and lives with them and her husband, novelist and psychologist Jonathan Kellerman, in Los Angeles.

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FTC Information: I received this book from the publisher for an honest review.  I do make money from purchases made at The Book Depository and B&N.com, but all money is used to fund giveaways and shipping for giveaways from the blog.