Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
1 of 2 copies available
1 of 2 copies available

New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman spins a gripping tale of a modern-day nightmare that ensnares L.A. Homicide Detective Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus in a web of secrets and murder.

A small commuter plane carrying forty-seven passengers crashes into an apartment building and L.A.P.D. Lieutenant Peter Decker works overtime to calm rampant fears. But a grisly mystery lives inside the plane's wreckage: the unidentified bodies of four extra travelers. And there is no sign of an airline employee who was supposedly on the catastrophic flight. The fate of the unaccounted-for flight attendant—twenty-eight-year-old Roseanne Dresden—remains a question mark more than a month after the horrific event, when the young woman's irate stepfather calls, insisting that she was never onboard the doomed plane. Instead, he claims, she was most likely murdered by her abusive husband. But why was Roseanne's name included on the passenger list?

Under pressure to come up with answers, Decker launches an investigation that carries him down a path of tragic history, dangerous secrets, and deadly lies—and leads him to the corpse of a three-decades-missing murder victim. And as the jagged pieces slowly fall into place, a frightening picture begins to form: a mind-searing portrait of unimaginable evil that will challenge Decker and his wife, Rina's own beliefs about guilt and innocence and justice.

Combining relentless suspense with intense, multi-layered human drama The Burnt House is Faye Kellerman at her mesmerizing best.

  • Creators

  • Series

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 9, 2007
      A coincidence so improbable that a character comments on it renders bestseller Kellerman’s 16th novel to feature Lt. Peter Decker of the LAPD and wife Rina Lazarus (after 2003’s Street Dreams
      ) one of the series’ lesser entries. After a commuter airplane crashes into an apartment building shortly after takeoff from Burbank Airport, Decker and his team investigate what many fear was a terrorist attack. Meanwhile, the parents of Roseanne Dresden, a flight attendant, suspect that their daughter was murdered by her stockbroker husband, Ivan, who claims his wife joined the doomed flight at the last minute. Roseanne was considering divorce, and Ivan stood to lose financially. As the probes into the crash and into Roseanne’s fate converge, readers will find it a challenge to suspend disbelief. Fans of the extended Decker-Lazarus clan will enjoy catching up with old friends, but those looking for a plausible police procedural may be disappointed.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      George Guidall is so comfortable performing the Rina Lazarus/Peter Decker series that even first-time listeners will feel right at home. In the sixteenth book featuring the married couple, a plane crash into an apartment building, a missing flight attendant, and the burned remains of a victim murdered over 20 years earlier provide plenty of mystery. Faye Kellerman builds tenderness, intelligence, and normalcy into Rina and Peter's Orthodox Jewish family life and their conversations about God, guilt, and sin. She produces a convoluted (if occasionally coincidence-prone) story, but, thanks in part to Guidall's top-notch performance, her characters have the gritty feel of real people. Guidall's pacing, vocal shifts, and delivery of the many Yiddish expressions sprinkled throughout are masterful. This is one listeners won't want to miss. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2007
      Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus fans will rejoice at another popular Kellerman murder mystery featuring the LAPD lieutenant and his sleuthing family. A small plane has crashed into an apartment building. The remains of the passengers have been found except those of flight attendant Roseanne Dresden, whose father doubts that his daughter was on the doomed flight and is convinced that her philandering husband Ivan has murdered her. The crumbling body of an unidentified murder victim is found in the rubble of the destroyed building, and although it's not Roseanne, it is linked to her in an unbelievable way. An excellent reading by George Guidall brings out the varied personalities of the characters; the voice of Roseanne's father is especially interesting. The coincidences in this book are a little too far-fetched, and although Peter's wife, Rina, and daughter Cindy and her husband, Koby, make an appearance, they do not play major roles in helping Peter solve the case. Recommended for the murder mystery section of libraries that collect the Decker/Lazarus series.Ilka Gordon, Park Synagogue Lib., Pepper Pike, OH

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      August 1, 2007
      Acommuter plane careens into anapartment building and bursts into flames. Forensic teams searching for passenger remains are unable to find evidence of one woman, Rosanne Dresden, whose husband claimsshe was aboard.Instead, they find whats left of someoneelsesomeone who apparently died several decades before. L.A. Lieutenant Peter Decker faces not one mystery but two inthe sixteenth Decker-Lazarus novel, which shifts wife Rina into a source of homespun Jewish wisdomrather than active investigative participant as in some previous books. Instead, readers get a fuller picture of Deckers fellow officers, especially Detectives Marge Dunn and Scott Oliver, the latter even occasioning a few good laughs from coworkers and readers alike. With her usual solid plotting, details born of old-fashioned police footwork, and plentiful dialogue to speed reading along, Kellerman gradually brings thecriminals tolight.Fans looking forthe Jewish orthodoxy underlying the series wont find as much here as in the past, but as to mystery, they wont be disappointed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

Languages

  • English

Loading