Grievous Sin

Grievous Sin (1993) Faye Kellerman

The 6th Peter and Rina mystery opens with the birth of their daughter.

The hospital is understaffed, and the nurses that are there are overworked, so Peter’s older daughter, Cindy, offers to stay with the baby.

Cindy nodded solemnly, thinking that Bellson would have been a great Puritan. She could picture the woman in a Pilgrim’s hat, her reedy body covered by a black dress with a starched white apron, fingers kneading stiff bread dough in a one-room shack heated by a black iron cauldron.

Unfortunately, when a newborn is kidnapped, Cindy is not only involved in the case, but becomes fascinated with the police work. (She is in her first year of college, studying criminal justice, so this isn’t a huge surprise.)

Marge paused. “What do you want to do with Cindy?”

“She’s with Rina. You can interview her just as soon as my ex– father-in-law gets in.”

“Don’t you think you’re overdoing it by getting her a lawyer?”

“It’s not her lawyer, Marge, it’s her grandfather. Jack was adamant that she not say anything until he comes down.”

What possessed men to do this to themselves? Spend hour after hour lifting backbreaking weights? Getting their butts shot up with anabolics that could potentially cause cancer or sterility? Then again, what possessed women to starve themselves to flagpoles and barf up their meals?

Because he was there when it happened, Peter takes on the case, even though he should be home with Rina, who is having a hard time after her emergency story.

That’s the part that I had a hard time with. The story is very much about pregnancy and fertility and the struggle women go through when they can’t have kids and I… I just don’t get that. At all. I recognize that is a personal failing rather than a failing of the story, but it still made me feel weird.

Plus, Peter is dealing with Rina’s two sons who now have a new sibling.

Jake said, “You want to go riding with me, Sammy?”

“I’ve got a lot of homework.”

Decker watched his stepson’s frustration grow. “Jake, give me about an hour, and I’ll take you out, okay? It’ll be cooler, and I’ll be more settled. In the meantime, grab a snack and do your homework.”

The boy’s blue eyes sparkled. “Thanks, Dad!”

“I’ll go, too,” Sammy announced.

“Who needs you if Dad’s coming?” Jacob said.

It’s an interesting mystery, and I liked that the ending wasn’t neat and tidy the way American mysteries often are.
Rating: 7/10

Published by William Morrow

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