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The Theory of Death: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
The Theory of Death: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
The Theory of Death: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
Audiobook12 hours

The Theory of Death: A Decker/Lazarus Novel

Written by Faye Kellerman

Narrated by Richard Ferrone

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Now living in upstate New York, former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is plunged into a bizarre web involving academia, underworld crime, and calculating killers in this compulsive novel in New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman's beloved Decker and Lazarus series.

Former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is relishing the quiet and slow pace of his new job with the Greenbury police department. The work is low stress and engaging, and it’s been almost a year since the last murder in this sleepy upstate New York town.

Then the body of a nude man is found deep within the woods, shattering Decker’s peace. The death appears to be a suicide—a single shot to the head, the gun by his side. But until the coroner’s ruling, the scene must be treated as a suspicious crime. Without any personal effects near the body, Decker must dig to uncover his identity, a task made difficult by the department’s tight budget and limited personnel. Luckily, Decker gets some unexpected help when his friend and former Greenbury colleague Tyler McAdams calls, looking for a quiet place to study for his law finals.

The investigation takes Decker and McAdams to Kneed Loft College, where they must penetrate the indecipherable upper echelons of mathematics and mathematical prodigies. Beneath the school’s rarified atmosphere they discover a sphere of scheming academics, hidden cyphers—and most dangerous of all—a realm of underworld crime that transforms harmless nerds into cold, calculating evil geniuses. It will take all of Decker’s experience and McAdams’s brains to penetrate enigmatic formulas and codes and solve a dark, twisted crime devised by some brilliant and depraved masterminds.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateOct 27, 2015
ISBN9780062420046
Author

Faye Kellerman

Faye Kellerman lives with her husband, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, in Los Angeles, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Reviews for The Theory of Death

Rating: 3.7666666 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Theory of Death is a good story from beginning to end. The author did a lot of research on higher math and the applicable situations it has in the stock market. The deaths are all explained in believable ways. The characters are all believable as well as the settings. Four stars were awarded in this review.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love it when my mystery books teach me something -- this one is all about higher math and head injuries, and that's fascinating. Great mystery.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I have seen this series for years, yet have never read one. So, I was excited when I won this one from Goodreads. Maybe I shouldn’t have started with the 23rd book in the series – or maybe it just isn’t for me. The story was OK – about Peter Decker, a detective who has moved from LA to a small town in New England. He is drawn into a case involving a young college student who has apparently committed suicide. He is about ready to wrap-up that case when one of the dead student’s professors is murdered. He now has to solve that crime – and maybe rethink the student’s death, too. He is assisted by Tyler McAdams, a former detective, now first year law student. The mystery was OK – but not riveting. I was disappointed that the Lazarus part of the Decker/Lazarus duo was practically non-existent. Decker is married to Rina Lazarus – and she really didn’t play a part in this book. I am not sure that I will read any of the others in this series – this one really didn’t have anything that makes me want to read more of them.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Very good read. Nothing less than I'd expect of the author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    She continues to write good books and the whole issue of the crime etc was interesting. Some information on brain damage did not seem correct. Perhaps the people who inhabit her books are just too good.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Rina and Peter solve another interesting case.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This was a great edition to the Decker/Lazarus novels. I loved the interaction of Peter Decker and Tyler McAdams. They play off each other beautifully. Then the book gets better when you throw in Decker's wife Rina. Keep more of the books like this one coming. Love the suspense and mystery.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I have read all the Decker/Lazarus books, even before Decker was in the picture. At that time, Rena Lazaus was the main character. This books continues the thread the of the last ones: Rena has been reduced to almost a stereotype of a “housewife.” She cooks. She welcomes guests. She does the laundry. Her multi-faceted activities from the earlier books are barely mentioned. Rena, an Orthodox Jewish woman who helped solve crimes made the series unique. Sadly, that element is now gone.On it’s own, THE THEORY OF DEATH does provide an interesting plot: The nude body of Eli, a college student and a brilliant mathematician, is found in the woods. He has been shot in the head. There is residue on his hands. His clothes are neatly stacked in a pile nearby. The gun is on the ground nearby and the question becomes is it murder or suicide. As Peter Decker, assisted by Tyler McAdams, a former detective and now college law student, tries to solve the case, he interviews many people associated with the victim. His family tells him that Elijah changed after an automobile accident. “Before he was friendly, popular, and outgrowing. Afterward, he became withdrawn and quiet. Very uncommunicative. He buried himself in a world of numbers.” In college, he had few friends and no one seemed to know much about him. Later on, another character’s body is found in almost the same condition. Are the two deaths related? If so, how?The book has an excessive amount of information about abstract mathematics, particularly Fourier transformation, eigenvectors, eigenvalue, and oscilator mathematics. While some of that does figure in the plot, it is over explained but can easily be skipped for the most part.The book discusses college politics, sexism, and relationships between faculty and students. The characters are stagnant. One is particularly annoying.Two interesting observations: “Then it’s good you have the money to be labeled as an eccentric rather than a nutcase.”“Persistence is helpful in math if you’re on the right track. But sometimes you’ve got to stop working an idea to death no matter how brilliant you think it is.” That is true in many areas in addition to math.There is some repetition. “Duxbury, the oldest of the five institutions” is mentioned twice. The name was all that was necessary the second time. The chronology and physical descriptions of the five neighboring schools were not a necessary part of the story.There are some contradictions: At one place it said their house was kept on the chilly side. At another point, the temperature was about 80 degrees. Very few people keep their thermostats at eighty degrees especially when the outside temperature is not very much below freezing. In another place Rina said there had been ice on the windshield and the car had been warming up for fifteen minutes. Having had to scrape ice off a windshield many times, it doesn’t take fifteen minutes of warm-up time to accomplish this. Most people don’t warm a car up at all. And since Faye Kellerman lives in Los Angeles, she should be aware of the pollution caused by unnecessary fuel consumption. There is a description of “a mud-filled expanse that turned into lawn in the springtime.” There was snow on the ground. A lawn will turn brown in the winter, it will not die out and turn to mud. If the grass is gone, it will have to be reseeded. In one place a witness said, “A light was on in her living room. Several lights were on, actually...I thought she was working late.” A couple pages the witness was asked “Did you see or hear anything unusual before you knocked?” “No. Just the light on in her house, which I thought was a little unusual given the hour.”Decker decided to call upon a Harvard professor to analyze some information. Several people, particularly faculty members, asked who the person was. Decker refused to name him but freely told one of them. Why? He was having difficulty locating a piece of evidence. Someone said “Sometimes it was the last item checked.” Duh! After people find something, they usually stop looking so of course it would be the last item checked..There was no ballistics checks on the guns or finding out how they were obtained. The question about its location on the ground near the body was not resolved And there is a short reference to their house being bugged electronically without any explanation about why that would ever be necessary.Despite all its faults, THE THEORY OF DEATH does present an interesting plot and makes for a good read. Faye Kellerman has done much better in the past. I hope she can return to that standard.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Faye Kellerman always provides a good story, well told. Her main characters have taken roots in the fictional, sounds like Claremont, five college area of upstate New York. Rina and Decker stay interestingly committed to his work and her sense of religion and family. Tyler McAdams drops in from his Harvard Law studies and we learn a lot about Fourier transforms and the savagery of academic competition. Like Rina's cooking, a quite satisfying mystery to be consumed.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Decker with help from Tyler McAdams investigates the death of an outstandingly bright college student. It appears to be suicide but when another body is found in similar circumstances they believe both are murders. I enjoy the way Faye Kellerman continues to keep Decker and Lazarus in character while further developing their lives keeping them fresh and current. And always quick-witted, nurturing of virtually everyone they meet, and still in love!Good read!