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After the horror and danger of his last big case, Los Angeles Police Department Homicide Lieutenant Peter Decker, was so unsettled that Rina, his wife, suggests a vacation in Munich. Itıs true that Rina wants Peter to get away from his LAPD homicide job, but she also wants to get to the bottom of her grandmotherıs murder which took place there 75 years ago, just before the war. Rina thinks that the police had little time to spend on the murder of a Jewish woman, and she has an urge to try and settle this mystery from her motherıs past. She goes to the correct police station in Munich and collects all the documentation they still have on the crime. When they get back to their home in Los Angeles, Rina hopes that her homicide lieutenant husband will help her solve the case. Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, on her normal night's rounds, two year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Cindy Decker, is flagged down behind a restaurant. She's made aware of the sound of a baby crying from within the depths of a dumpster and she dives in to investigate. To her horror she comes across a newborn infant, the umbilical cord still attached. As she calls in the detectives and the ambulance while holding the child, she is elated to have saved a life and is also thrilled to know that it's going to be a big story and a huge plus to her career. Fast thinking gets the full term infant to the hospital and into the charge of Critical Care Pediatric nurse Yakov "Koby" Kutiel, an Ethiopian born Jew. Yet another high point in Cindy's life occurs as they instantly click. Cindy Decker is determined to find the baby's mother, knowing that she had to have been frightened and in dire need of medical attention to have given birth in an alley and to have put her baby in the garbage. Because she lusts for her gold shield, as much as she lusts for the tall and enigmatic Koby, Cindy toes the line and gets advice on how to work the case from her father, the lieutenant. Before long she finds the mother of the child, a mentally and physically challenged girl, and from there Cindy jumps into a case that will once again put her life in danger. It seems that something horrendous happened in the last novel of the series to Cindy and her father, but it's never explained. It's touched on, blamed for Cindy's lack of trust for her fellow cops and Peterıs continued feelings of depression, and it's the reason Cindy will push herself into this assignment as she works to get her gold shield. But the readers are never told anything about the previous case, only enough to detail the aftermath and to furnish the name of book. Street Dreams refers to the nightmares of violence and personal injury that new cops have stemming from their job on the streets. STREET DREAMS is the fifteenth of Faye Kellerman's series featuring LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus, but the lead in this story is very much shared with Decker's 28 year-old tall, fiery, redheaded first born from a previous marriage, Cindy. With Peterıs help, Rina discovers that two of the women who knew her mother as a girl before the war have survived. She contacts them to see what they remember of the time surrounding her grandmother's murder, all the while keeping everything about the inquiry a secret from her mother. Also with Peter's help, Cindy discovers the identity of the child's mother right away, and from a side comment made by an interviewee, manages to open up a Pandoraıs' box of rape, murder, attempted murder, and an interracial gang of thugs. We are also privy to her on again and off again romance with Koby, with their long discussions of interracial, but same religion, love and we get to see how their heated attraction for each other builds. Koby lets Cindy into the details of his life and the lives of religious Ethiopian Jews as they had to leave their country to live in Israel. Since Kobyıs family in Israel is made up of a multitude of races, the fact that heıs not Cindyıs color means little to him, and since heıs Jewish, Cindy is certain that Rina will adore him. But Cindy is afraid that her father might not be able to happily accept her very serious relationship with Koby. Faye Kellerman is at her best with the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series. The police investigation section of this book becomes a little like a meandering stream that picks up felons along the way. In the end, much of Cindyıs case has little to do with the original problem. But with Peterıs guidance, everything in this novel is wrapped up well. All of Rinaıs family is updated in this book and itıs wonderful to get to see all of them again. Itıs also lovely to see that Cindyıs future in the series is locked in. I zipped through this book, itıs fast reading. People well acquainted with this series will get pleasure from this installment and new readers will also be able to enjoy this novel.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, July 2003
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