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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780380732661
ISBN number: 0380732661
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: August 01, 1999
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: June 26, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 50393
Studio: Avon
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Product Description:
Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.
The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking that they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman is the book where Detective Decker very first meets Rina Lazarus, who in later books becomes his wife. Rina Lazarus lives in a Jewish commune tucked away from the world most of us live in. All the Decker/Lazarus stories are great whodunits, but what make them even more enjoyable are the peeks into the lives of Jewish orthodox community. The ancient customs that are part of their daily lives, (you need three sets of dishes) and how they cope, meshing tradition and law in a modern world, (It is immodest for women to show their hair, so they wear wigs). This one is pretty tight and once started it's hard to put down.
Rated by buyers 
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The Ritual Bath, by Faye Kellerman is about a rape that takes place outside of a Mikvah in a Jewish community. This is the very first book in the series, where Rina and Peter meet. This is a very quick read, without alot of twists and turns. It is just a so-so book. The story lacked a little something throughout.
Rated by buyers 
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I've actually read this book several times, and have enjoyed it even more each time.
Rina Lazarus makes a sympathetic character, one that draws the reader into the story, even if they've never personally known any Orthodox Jews. As a woman, it's easy to identify with this character. A widowed mother of two little boys, she supports her family by teaching school and working as the mikveh lady at the ritual bath.
Author Faye Kellerman also deftly handles some cultural issues that exist within the Jewish community: Rina's less religious parents aren't happy with her choice to live as an Orthodox Jew. Even in later books in the series, her parents remain distant, bit players in the lives of their daughter and her two sons.
Without spoiling the heart of the story, LAPD cop Peter Decker comes into her life after investigating a crime that happens outside the mikveh, the ritual bath house. The story between them unfolds in a reasonable and believable way, and sets the pace for the entire series of books, which have stretched over twenty-two years. None of them are as much fun to read as 'The Ritual Bath.'
Rated by buyers -
When I started to read this book and saw that there weren't cell phones and if you have an emergency you have to go to a payphone or call at your office anytime you were paged I remembered my childhood. I liked this part because now nobody can do anything without cells and that's really sad.
The book's plot is fast paced but you must know at least a little bit of Jewish religion to fully understand it -I mean the quips and quibbles in Hebrew or Yiddish. For being the very first book written by FK she deserves the whole five stars.
Rated by buyers -
In this, the very first Pete Decker book, Faye Kellerman displays deft proficiency in both characters and settings-two of the most important facets of a detective novel. It's not only the very first Decker book, it's also Kellerman's debut, a truly amazing fact when evaluating how sure-handed she is.
The story centers around Detective Decker investigating a rape at a mikvah at an Orthodox Jewish School (yeshiva) in Southern California. Concurrently, there are a series of rapes being committed nearby and it's not clear if they are connected. From the beginning, Decker finds himself drawn to Rina, a teacher at the school whose strict religious convictions won't allow her to even entertain the notion of dating a goy like Decker. But she, too, finds herself attracted to the unattainable in Decker. The book plays out as much about the mystery as the subtle love story between the two who can never consummate despite their mutual feelings. Best of all, it's satisfying in both aspects. The mystery is suitably filled with possible suspects though no obvious blue herrings and the love story plays out slowly and realistically. Helping things along dramatically is the setting of the yeshiva, an environment most will find quite foreign. But Kellerman understands this and through the Decker character, makes understandable and even beautiful. The love affair is extremely satisfying, despite the book ending without real resolution between the two, making the reader want to follow the couple in their subsequent moves. Something I will surely do.
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