I've been reading Faye Kellerman's books for at least 7 years and The Burnt House is her best yet. In my opinion she has become a "page-turner" author and I just couldn't put this book down! The Burnt House has everything a reader of mystery wants.

Shortly after 8 a.m. a commuter plane takes off from Burbank airport. It will never reach cruising altitude. Instead it will crash into an apartment building, incinerate it, and both cover up and uncover two murders-one that happened that day, and one that happened over twenty years earlier.

Pete Decker is an LAPD Detective Lieutenant. It will be up to him and his team to figure out who died, and when. And as things progress Decker has more suspects, not less. Roseanne Dresden, a WestAir flight attendant went missing the same time as the plane crash and her stepfather is convinced that her husband is to blame for her death and that her body will be found in the ashes. He's equally convinced that the police don't care and the only way to get action is to stay in Decker's face.

Then there's Dresden's mysterious paramour. Her husband constantly played around, so why shouldn't she? She had broken off the affair-or had she? Mix that in with a twenty-year-old, defunct pot-smoking, free-love church group that lived commune-like in the apartment building that burned in the crash. Two members that went missing and there's plenty to keep both you and Lt. Decker guessing-and chasing.

Kellerman surrounds Decker with a cast of characters that add depth to the story. I felt that the story got bogged down with overly long explanations of the family celebrations of religious holidays and the meals that go with them. I'd welcome these stories in another type of book but here I felt they slowed the action without adding much meaning. On the other hand the character development of family and friends involved in providing thinking and resources used to solve the case added to the story for me.

Armchair Interviews says: Lt. Decker is back in the thick of things again.

The return of Peter and Rina Decker is always welcome. It combines good police procedure and the smell of good food. This novel is no exception. It begins with the crash of a small commuter plane out of Burbank (Bob Hope) airport early one morning and the supposed death of an airline steward. When all the victims are accounted for, her body is not identified, although the remains of bones beneath the destroyed structure into which the plane plunged are discovered.

Thus begins the hunt for the truth behind the disappearance of two women. The skeleton is finally identified as someone gone missing thirty years before. The stewardess' body remains the subject of a continued search. Is the husband somehow responsible for her disappearance or even her possible murder? Or is it a contractor in San Jose with whom she had a brief affair? What started out as two unrelated incidents draws Decker and his team back and forth to San Jose and New Mexico in an effort to uncover 30-year-old information in attempt to solve the cases.

With more questions than answers the investigation unearths more dead ends than answers. But perseverance is virtue that pays off in the end. And the interrelationship of Peter and Rina is on display deeply, as she provides a sounding board to guide him both supernaturally and professionally. Tightly plotted and well-written, the series remains a joy to read.

This is my first Kellerman book, and it won't be my last! I really enjoyed the character of Decker and look forward to reading the earlier novels featuring him and his wife. Decker reminds me a lot of my favorite crime detective, Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly.

Overall the story was very suspenseful and kept me turning the pages wondering what was going to happen next, as I was trying to also figure it out on my own. Many twists and turns prevented that from happening, but the story got more intriguing as pages flew by. In between the mystery of the crimes, the characters made this novel enjoyable. I don't think the way the two mysteries in the novel intersected (as was revealed at the end) was believable, but it still made for great reading! Suspenseful with great characters, that's about all it takes to keep me happy and this book did it for me!

It was like coming home to jump back into the familiar characters. I completely enjoyed her new book, (I really loved how long it was, it felt like watching a really good movie). The characters are full and rich and I especially enjoyed reading about Jewish traditions. Ms. Kellerman has a gift and kept the solution hidden until the end. Boo to the naysayers, they should read a dime store novel and complain about that. This book was worth the wait, and I will keep watching for the next novel...no matter how long it takes!

This book is one of her best. It will keep you guessing until the end. Highly recommended if you liked her others.

I have enjoyed the Rina Lazarus/Peter Decker stories from the beginning, but it seems that the quality of the recent stories have significantly deteriorated. This one is based on a set of coincidences that are simply not believable. I read the book through to its conclusion, hoping and expecting a more credible solution to the story's central mysteries, but it was not to be. I also would ask that if there are more Rina/Peter stories, that more focus is put back on their relationship. That also seemed to be missing in this story, although as I write these words, it occurs to me that perhaps the author has taken that piece of things asfar as it can go.

I really enjoyed this story which is almost two stories in one. A plane crashes just after take-off, into an apartment building, incinerating everybody on the plane and in the building. A question arises about whether or not an off-duty stewardess was aboard as an unlisted passenger which is what is claimed by her husband. There's a discrepancy about all of this and so Detective Peter Decker and his team are called in to investigate. The husband of the missing stewardess would have been made penniless by his impending divorce and, by swearing that he knew that she was aboard, benefits greatly from her will and insurance. When the team finds another body in the burned out building, the trail goes back 30 years and another murder mystery is uncovered. It's an exciting, fast paced read with lots of interesting detail and even descriptions of Jewish and Mexican food and rituals.

I keep coming back for a glimpse of these characters and what they used to bring to Kellerman novels. The series continues to disappoint. Ridiculous and contrived plot aside, laughably stilted writing aside, is it really too much to ask for a basic editing--perhaps even a simple run-through by any real cop or lawyer? For example, are readers not entitled to the respect of not having Pete Decker, a character purported to have decades of experience in law enforcement, spout such silly mistakes as (p. 388) that a wife is not "required to expose any crimes that [her] husband may have done and confided" as a matter of......"the Fifth Amendment"? Please. Just about anyone who's ever even watched an episode of Law & Order could have explained to Ms. Kellerman the evidentiary concept of marital privilege/disqualification, and that it has nothing to do with the Fifth Amendment.

I've given up on expecting great writing and insightful character development. I've now given up on thinking that the author is even interested in giving the barest attention to her writing. Please do not waste any more time on this series.

This book will delight those who like mysteries that are very difficult to solve before the author reveals the story's resolution.

If you mainly read the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus books to focus on their life together, you'll think this is one of the worst books in the series. If you like puzzles, however, you'll feel fully rewarded by the challenging of determining what happened to flight attendant, Roseanne Dresden. Along the way, you'll pick up some unexpected twists that also make for good mystery reading.

This plot relies on a lot of coincidences. That can be troubling for a reader to swallow, but in real life coincidence occurs so often that we often don't even bother to remark on it. There is a subgenre of police procedural that relies on having more than one case mixed up in an investigation. I thought that the premise for this mystery was stronger than most books in that subgenre. But what distinguished the book was that the resolutions proved to be so difficult to anticipate. I dislike mysteries where you can see the solution beginning to take shape around page 50. In this case, Ms. Kellerman did an excellent job of keeping the resolution hidden until very near the end.

From reading this book, I hope that Ms. Kellerman will write more books that contain difficult puzzles whose solutions only gradually reveal themselves through police investigations.

Bravo, Ms. Kellerman!

I love seeing Peter Decker and Rina again on this mytery book. Two thummbs up.

I've read all the previous Decker/Lazarus novels and to say that this one is a disappointment is a true understatement. The writing in particular is disapointing: unsophisticated, almost juvenile in comparison to earlier volumes. I keep asking myself which one of the younger Kellermans actually wrote this book. And for heaven's sake, where was the editor?

I found this book disappointing. Had I not had a feel from Faye Kellerman's earlier novels for the characters, I would have ranked it even lower. I missed Rina's insights especially about religion and the story lacked suspense or excitement. Had I known how disappointing it would be, I would have skipped reading this mystery.

I read this book as an audio CD while walking. I enjoyed the characters but found the plot to get a little "plotted". It was an okay book but not one to keep anyone up at night wondering about it. I may try another one of her books to see if the other reviewers of this book are correct and she can do better.

This latest Faye Kellerman book was just okay. Editing, however was terrible. As others have said, the cover "blurb" bears no resemblence to story and far too many pages were spent on endless details which added almost nothing to the enjoyment of the story.

Even more annoying were simple spelling/grammar errors which should have be corrected during editing: "sight" was used twice for "site" and Tampax was spelled incorrectly. Pretty amateurish for a seasoned writer and major publisher.

The coincidences in the plot were not really believable and the resources/expenses spent on a cold case seemed excessive.

Overall, an okay read but certainly not her best book

Being an intense fan of Rina and Peter Decker, I was really looking forward to reading this new book in the series. In Burnt House, the writing is top-notch, as usual, but the plot is held together by what can only be described as a series of improbable coincidences. The book starts out literally and figuratively with a bang, as a passenger airliner crashes into an apartment complex in suburban Los Angeles.

The reader prepares for a three-hundred page mystery thriller with overtones of terrorism, but instead this book turns into a weak and disappointing experience, especially for fans used to a higher caliber of writing from this talented author.

In past books, Kellerman weaved the details of Rina and Peter's life as religious Jews into the main story. In Burnt House, Peter has an obsession with the lard content of the food he's offered away from home, but the reason isn't clarified until the last pages of the book.

Would it have been a stretch for the reader to be clued in with Decker's thoughts to himself about the situation, as he tries to avoid appearing rude to the non-Jews whose home he is visiting, while at the same time staying true to his own religious beliefs and practices?

Even if the reader finds the plot disappointing, there's still enough to keep reading until the last page. It's a good enough book, but I won't count this one among my most favorite book in the series.

I enjoyed this book very much. Would recommend it to all mystery & suspense readers.

I had high hopes for Faye Kellerman's latest publication but the promise far exceeded the reality. Tighter editing of unnecessary and endless discussions of food, the sweating habits of large men and the impact of tampax failure on luminol results would have gone a long way. The plot was somewhat plausible but never really came together in a meaningful way. Rina and Peter have more to offer than this book gave them credit for.

I am a very big fan of Faye & Jonathon Kellerman. I try to read everything they both write.

...it wasn't anywhere near the best book of this series.

For starters, the person who wrote the plot synopsis on the book jacket (and in the Amazon listing) apparently didn't read the book. I kept waiting for the "unidentified bodies of four extra travellers" but they never appeared. And there was definitely no "relentless suspense" or "mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker's and Rina's own beliefs about guilt and innocence and justice." Just the typical motives for murder with a coincidental little twist. After that big build-up, the actual plot was somewhat of a let-down

I enjoy Rina as a character but in this book she was mostly relegated to cooking. More Rina next time, please.

A good mystery will get me to overlook the elements that strain believability. In this book I found myself getting distracted by the thought that it would be no wonder the LAPD has budget problems if they really do fly several people around to different cities when one would be enough. It seemed hard to believe they would send 3 officers and a civilian to another state to show a picture to the parents of the possible victim of a decades old crime.

Even though it was not a great book, it was a decent read and entertaining enough so that I will read the next installment in this series. But I do hope the next one will be better.

I found this book to be very boring compared to her other works. I kept waiting for the bodies of "four additional travelers" (only one extra body is found) and for the "unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker's and Rina's own beliefs...". Nothing in this book could be described as unimaginable evil (in fact, just the opposite.... plain, old, dull reasons for murder....)and no other bodies were found.
The book was a big let down for me... expected more from the description.

Homicide Lieutenant Peter Decker gets drawn into the investigation of Roseanne Dresden. She's listed as a passenger on the plane, but was she working as a flight attendant? Riding jump seat to her Burbank home from San Jose? Or did she run off to start a new life to escape from a difficult marriage?

So far so good. I have to admit I had trouble putting this book down for the first 200 pages or so...up till Kellerman throws her readers a curve with an improbable coincidence. After that I skimmed through to the ending, which definitely does not live up to the first third of the book.

Apart from the ending, the book could have been cut by at least 100 pages. We get details of forensic techniques. We get descriptions of what everyone was wearing, even some minor characters. And we get too much details of police interrogations.

I also can't help wondering if the LAPD would invest substantial resources to fly to another state for a cold case. And some of the airline information didn't seem quite right.

All in all, frustrating to get so interested and then deal with an anticlimax ending. Great writing -- just needed some heavy-handed edits. And I would have to agree with the reviewers who criticized the book jacket. A good mystery -- maybe. Definitely not a "mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker's and Rina's own beliefs..." Not even close.

This book for me was "pick it up, read a few pages, then put it down." While the forensic stuff was interesting, the investigative detail had me skipping sections and abandoning the book altogether. Some of the characters like Decker and Dunn were well drawn, but others like the missing flight attendant's father (who should have been sympathetic) were irritating. Even the dialog had me stumped. For example, the cops go to New Mexico to question a potential murder victim's parents when a debate arises about using oil versus lard in pie crusts. I'm still trying to figure out what part this conversation played in moving along the action.

I like mysteries with hooks that leave you racing to turn the page and keep you on the edge of your seat. Regrettably, this wasn't one of them.

Faye Kellerman creates characters you can care about, and many of her books have been outstanding mysteries. Once again, Lt. Decker is the lead character in this mystery, and it starts off with a bang. A commuter airline has crashed into an apartment building. At first, Decker must calm fears that this is another 9/11. Later, as the rubble is sifted, the mystery revolves around a missing airline attendant. Was she on the flight or not? And what about the other body the searchers find--a body far too old to have been from someone who died in the crash.

Kellerman has written s another fast-paced thriller. However, the answers at the end are unlikely to satisfy careful readers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the latest Fay Kellerman book. I had not enjoyed her foray into a different story with different characters and did not enjoy her last several Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus books.

However, this book is different from recent F. Kellerman novels. Maybe Ms. Kellerman needed a break from this series to come back with this more powerful book.

I like the fact that the characters age in the novel, so the Decker--Lazarus daughter is now a young teen. For those like me who enjoy it, this book has more Jewish content than some of the more recent ones in the series. And, finally, the plot holds together quite well.

I disagree with two other reviewers. Unfortunately, the plot IS plausable. It is amazing that we have had so very few planes crash into residential areas in the US.

I definitely recommend reading the book.

Faye Kellerman's past work has been well-crafted and entertaining. This book was a big disappointment - the plot was just too implausible.

I am a huge faye kellerman fan and i love her peter decker and rita lazerus series. I have waited a long time for this book to be released. Sad to say it was the worst of the series. The plot got sidelined so many times it made it hard for me to stay interested. I did not even finish the book.........too many boring characters..even rita and peter were boring!!! Hopefully the next book will be better. It will probably be another few years till the next one is released. From now on i will buy her books in paperback so i will not waste another 25 dollars!!

Fun-fast read. Kellerman did not dissappoint, but not enough Rina in this book for my taste...

Faye Kellerman has done it again, in writing another excellent Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I hate to say it but I am truly disappointed in Faye's newest book. If this was the first book of hers that I read I probably would not purchase another. I found it very farfetched.

Let me start off by saying I love this series and normally I think that Faye Kellerman is an excellent author, but this book is mediocre at best. When I heard in April that a new book was coming out in August - I could not wait to read it, now I wish I could rewind back to April. Maybe having more time to write would have given these characters and this plot a badly needed pulse.

Fans of the series, who are looking for family interactions and developed plots will be disappointed.

I am constantly amazed at the disconnect between book cover blurbs and the contents of the books they are alleged to describe. This one is more over-the-top than most: "...the unidentified bodies of four extra travelers." Nope. No extra travelers, or their bodies. No "...mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil ...". Just a middling good police procedural, with familiar characters, welcomed back as old friends. Worth the read for that, mind you, if you like Decker and Lazarus, but it's not one of the better stories in the series.

Having read the other books in this series and having waiting almost 2 years for this book, I was really looking forward to this latest entry about Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. Unfortunately, it was somewhat of a letdown. One of Faye Kellerman's strengths is weaving the home life of Peter and Rina in with Peter's professional life as an LAPD Lieutenant. Although some time has passed since the last book, Kellerman fails to fill us in fully on the family. Rina's boys are absent, Hannah's teenage angst is hinted at but never fully developed and Peter's daughter Cindy and her husband make quick appearances. Part of the charm of this series is the description of what it's like living in Peter and Rina's Orthodox Jewish home, but the explanation of customs is missing in this book. As to the mystery, it rests on some pretty far-fetched coincidences. The ending comes with a whimper, after a few red herrings, and is never fully resolved. Hopefully, the next book will be better.

This mystery starts out with great promise but doesn't deliver. The plot is murky and dependent on coincidences. I had to keep rereading to figure out what the heck was going on. Lots of loose ends, too.

I think I've read all of Faye Kellerman's books and this one is the best yet. It kept me in suspense until the very end. I would highly recommend this book.

Since flight attendant Rosanne Dresden's remains were not in the wreckage from the communter plane which crashed into an apartment house in Granada Hills, CA, where is she? That is Homicide Detective Peter Decker's problem to figure out in this great addition to this series. Her husband and lover both look suspicious, but what is their motive? Finally, when a female's body is found in the ashes, Decker has to identify her and discovers another mystery--only this one is 30 years old. This is a great police procedural that kept me reading into the night. This series about Peter Decker just keeps getting better.

During the morning rush hours, a commuter plane leaving Burbank Airport crashes into a Granada Hills apartment building; all forty-seven passengers die. The country is stunned with most people assuming the World Trade center scenario on a smaller scale.

LAPD Police Lieutenant Peter Decker leads the investigation while the media and public demand instant answers. He and his wife Rina Lazarus dig deep to determine who and what caused the crash; why more corpses are in the rubble than on the passenger list; and finally what happened to flight attendant twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden, whose husband Ivan says she was on the tragic flight and her name is on the manifesto, but her body is not.

The latest Decker-Lazarus police procedural is an exhilarating fast-paced thriller that starts off with the horrific crash and never slows down until the final twists. The action keeps coming throughout as the lead couple struggles with all three interrelated mysteries while the country fears further incidents; the media and the government keep the pressure high to resolve the case. Although plausibility and critical coincidence is higher than the federal debt, fans of the series will enjoy the return of the pair as they work a complex convoluted case.

Harriet Klausner