Rina Lazarus and her husband, LAPD Homicide Lieutenant Peter Decker, are shocked by an outrage that cuts close to the spiritual heart of their family. Rina's small storefront synagogue has been desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti and grisly Nazi death camp photographs. The alleged perpetrator is seventeen-year-old Ernesto Golding, a "rich kid" obsessed with haunting suspicions about the origins of his Polish paternal grandfather. Then Ernesto is found brutally murdered, along with his therapist, Dr. Mervin Baldwin, at an exclusive nature camp that caters moneyed, troubled children. For Decker and his wife, unraveling the truth behind Ernesto's violent death becomes more terrifying with each sinister twist. For lethal secrets with roots in the horrors of a past genteration are coming to the surface, propelling Peter and Rina into a ghastly world of ruthless parents and damaged youth -- and toward a dark evil and its ultimate retribution.

Once again, LAPD lieutenant Pete Decker and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus (Serpents Tooth, 1997, etc.) find themselves needing unorthodox solutions to hard-pressing problems. Domestically, it's their younger son Jacob brilliant, charming, and oh so bored who's giving his parents heartburn. For instance: Decker arrives home unexpectedly to find Jacob there before him. It's midafternoon, and where Jacob, 16, should have been is at school. Instead, he's in bed. With Shayna, also 16, studying matters extra-curricular. What to do about restless Jacob? And what to do about the mysterious death of Dr. Emil Euler Ganz, a.k.a. Father Jupiter? Once a renowned astrophysicist, Ganz was, until his untimely passing, the leader of a notorious cult called the Order of the Rings of God. But is his passing the suicide it seemed at first, or did someone urge him into that ``better world'' he so often preached about? Did Guru Pluto, or Guru Nova, or Guru Bobmembers of the Ring's inner circleaspire, prematurely, to Ring-leadership? Decker has his work cut out for him, as he searches for answers while misunderstandings and tensions proliferate almost as fast as dead bodies mount up in the cult's compound. Finally, almost inevitably, there's a standoff as cult members (and their children) are besieged by the police and FBI land here, as in Waco, despite Decker's best efforts, the end is both explosive and painful.

The cruel and bizarre slaying of a beautiful teen leads Detective Decker into the dark heart of an exotic subculture: the seamy, sometimes violent world of Southern California's rootless, affluent youth. But even the confession of a disturbed kid with cold "killer eyes" cannot soothe Decker's inner torment. For he knows in his gut this crime goes much deeper and higher than anyone expects -- and that true justice, brutal and complete, has yet to be done.

Sanctuary     3 hours     abridged     Buck Schirner

A diamond dealer and his entire family have mysteriously disappeared from their sprawling Las Angeles manor, leaving the estate undisturbed and their valuables untouched. Investigating detective Decker is stumped--faced with a perplexing case riddled with dead ends. Then a second dealer is found murdered in Manhatten, catapulting Decker and his wife, Rina, into a heartstopping maze of murder and intrigue that spans the globe...only to touch down dangerously in their own backyard.