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After an airplane crashes into an apartment house in a busy neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, Lt Peter Decker of the LAPD works with his staff to keep the area under police protection as they try to rescue people. At first it is feared that terrorists might be behind the accident, but as the authorities investigate, they decide that mechanical problems were at fault. All the people on the plane were killed and little by little what's left of the bodies are being identified. One day Peter receives a call from a man who says that his stepdaughter, who was thought to have been on the plane and killed in the crash, had never boarded the plane and was, in fact, actually killed by her husband. At first Peter doesn't think there is much truth to the phone call, but as he looks into the case some things don't make sense. The woman, Roseanne Dresden, was a flight attendant and so wasn't given a ticket but was evidently allowed to simply hop on the plane to get to her next assignment, but there's no record of her getting on board whatsoever. In fact, they can't find any evidence of her body on the plane. She wasn't on the first list of crash victims that the airline gave out, but was added later, after her husband insisted that she was a passenger. Meanwhile the husband, Ivan Dresden had been cheating on his wife and it was well known she wanted a divorce. The divorce would leave him penniless since she made the money and had everything in her name. Ivan also had been known to have run up a $15,000 bar bill in a strip club that he needed to pay. All in all, Peter starts to think that there might be some facts behind the report and assigns some of his best detectives to the case. Before long yet another surprise shows up as one more body is discovered in the wreckage. It's a skeleton and is the 30-year-old remains of someone who was buried underneath the building the plane crashed into! And so it is up to Peter and his staff not only to find out what really happened to Roseanne Dresden, but also to find out who the skeleton was and what happened for it to be unearthed after the plane crash. This the latest in the successful Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus novels by Faye Kellerman. As an investigative novel, this book is fine. We get to follow the many detectives as Peter Decker leads them through the case as they gather clues and try to find the truth to give the victims some justice. Unfortunately, THE BURNT HOUSE lacks the reason people are drawn to this series. There is almost no trace of Rina in this book other than to offer Peter a meal and some rest from his work. By Rina's absence and no storyline that includes the couple's life together, the longtime fans of this series will be sorely disappointed. The book also has one terrible flaw in it; it contains a completely implausible coincidence that defies all logic. I still can't understand why the author included it. Factor that along with a conclusion that lacks intensity and THE BURNT HOUSE doesn't satisfy and falls flat. If you're a first time reader of this series, you'll enjoy the well-written investigation but might be very put off by the huge coincidence in the story. If you're a long time fan of the series, THE BURNT HOUSE is only worth reading because you get to visit some characters you adore. I hope any new addition to this series will once again incorporate the couple and their family into its main storyline.
Reviewed by A. L. Katz, August 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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