The Forgotten begins with an early morning phone call. Rina Lazarus is distressed to hear from the police that her community’s small, makeshift Orthodox temple has been vandalized. When she arrives to survey the damage, she finds walls painted with swastikas and the floor littered with concentration camp photos. Her husband, Peter Decker, works on homicides, not hate crimes, but he can’t help becoming personally involved with this situation because of Rina. Besides, in the wake of the recent Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting, hate crimes are taken very seriously.

But unfortunately, Decker soon has another reason to take on this case. The police nab a high school student as the probable vandalism culprit. More troubled and misguided than evil, the youth confesses and agrees to seek counseling. The boy’s therapist, chosen by his ambitious parents, has a record of not only turning around rebellious youth, but also managing to get them into top-notch colleges. But when the boy and his therapist are found murdered at a wilderness camp, Decker is now in his all-too-familiar element, homicide. The search for the murderer leads through a tangled trail that includes white supremacy organizations, recollections of a concentration camp survivor, pushy parents, more dead bodies - and Decker’s own step-son, Jacob.

The second son of Rina and her late husband has had a troubled few years. Unlike his older brother, Jacob has frequently questioned the restrictions of his Orthodox Jewish religion, and for a short time ran with a fast crowd that liked to party. Lately Jacob has settled down, but in his wild days he was an acquaintance of the youth accused of vandalizing the temple. How much does he know that could help Decker crack the case? How much can he admit without upsetting his mother and step-father?

When Faye Kellerman is running on all 8 cylinders, her novels are fascinating blends of police procedure and family drama. The Forgotten is Kellerman at her best. Watching Decker piece together the seemingly unrelated pieces of the case together is fascinating, although readers unfamiliar with the series may be confused by the numerous detectives on his team. The climax of the investigation is suitably exciting, creepy and gruesome.

But the family dynamics make the book memorable. Decker has tried to be a good step-father to Jacob, but as he realizes the extent of the teenager’s problems, he wonders if he has tried hard enough. His soul-searching is in contrast to other parents Decker encounters who only see their children as Ivy-League-bound status symbols. The reader sympathizes with Jacob, who is trying to do the right thing but is still haunted by his previous mistakes. It’s not easy being an Orthodox Jewish teenager in the 21st century, and Jacob has seen enough of the secular world to know what he is missing.

The affluent lifestyles of many players in the case also contrast sharply with the suffering of the concentration camp victims who were mocked so cruelly in the temple’s vandalism. Rina plays her part in the case by digging up material on various hate crime groups for Decker’s team. Her work made fresh again for me the horrors of the Holocaust, and will help the reader understand why hate groups are so potentially dangerous.

After finding the last few Decker/Lazarus books disappointing, I was glad to see Kellerman firmly back on track with The Forgotten. Readers familiar with her work, and new readers as well, will welcome the return of this unusual and unforgettable couple.

--Susan Scribner