Publishers Weekly
A teenage romance dominates bestseller Kellerman’s subpar 20th novel featuring LAPD Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus (after 2010’s Hangman). Decker’s search for the truth in the wake of the inexplicable suicide of high school student Gregory Hesse competes with the story of Decker’s latest rescue, 15-year-old Gabe Whitman, a brilliant musical prodigy whose father earns his living as a pimp. Gabe’s hormones run out-of-control after he meets 14-year-old Yasmine Nourmand, a Persian Jew from a very traditional family. The vicissitudes of the budding relationship between Gabe, who lives with the Deckers, and Yasmine hit on pretty much all the usual clichés, and this focus diminishes the impact of the truth behind Gregory’s death. Kellerman’s portrayal of Rina as the Jewish mother of all Jewish mothers may leave some readers wishing the author had cast Rina more as an individual than a type. (Jan.)
Library Journal - Audio
This latest outing in the popular Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series by best-selling author Kellerman diverges from what her readers have come to expect and enjoy about these thrillers. Rina and Peter, unfortunately, barely appear here. As a favor to his unstable mother, the duo take teenager Gabriel Whitman into their home. When two teens attending the private Bell and Wakefield School along with Gabriel apparently commit suicide, Rina and Peter get involved. VERDICT Mitchell Greenberg does an adequate job reading the novel, although the sappy, desire-filled conversations between 16-year-old Gabriel and 14-year-old Yasmine, which occupy much of the text, are too drawn out. In addition, Jasmine's Persian parents have Indian accents. Series fans will be disappointed, but other thriller and mystery readers might enjoy the audiobook if they fast-forward past the kids' annoying banter. ["Kellerman's devoted fans and readers who fancy thriller/procedural series from the likes of John Sandford and Patricia Cornwell will find much to enjoy," read the far more positive print review, LJ Xpress Reviews, 1/12.—Ed.]—Ilka Gordon, Siegal Coll. of Judaic Studies Lib., Cleveland
JULY 2012 - AudioFile
Mitchell Greenberg has narrated many Kellerman novels, and he conveys the charming interaction between Rina Lazarus and her husband, Detective Peter Decker. As a result, when confronted with GUN GAMES, Greenberg brings the characters and plot to life with style. The book itself is really two stories. One is the mystery of why local high school students are dying in what appears to be a series of suicides. The other is the story of developing love between Lazarus and Decker’s foster child, Gabe, and Yasmine, a beautiful young Persian woman. While the love story is charming and engaging, the mystery of the youths’ deaths seems contrived. Fortunately, Greenberg is like a comfortable pair of slippers whose very presence will please Kellerman’s fans. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
A psychopath's teenage son falls in love. Lt. Peter Decker, LAPD, and his wife Rina, a grandma supplying kosher treats to the children and grandkids, have taken on the task of fostering Gabe, a 15-year-old piano prodigy, whose mom has abandoned him and whose dad, hit man Chris Donatti, has settled in Nevada to operate a chain of brothels. After a standoff with a posse of threatening school bullies led by Dylan Lashay, Gabe meets and falls for Yasmine, 14, a Persian Jew and opera aficionado. They keep their romance secret from her Orthodox parents, but text incessantly and meet every morning before school at the Coffee Bean. Decker meanwhile tries to discover why two teens at Bell and Wakefield prep school have committed suicide with stolen guns within six weeks of each other. When Dylan's main squeeze, the sexually manipulative Cameron, approaches Gabe and he turns her down, her revenge includes bogus cries of rape and a kidnapping at gunpoint. Decker and coppers Dunn and Oliver swoop in and confiscate evidence that will not only support Gabe and Yasmine's version of what went on but tie Dylan and his hotheads to at least one of the suicides. Kellerman (Hangman, 2010, etc.) stakes out her claim as the mordant Judy Blume. If you're not particularly engaged by the sexual arousal of pubescent first-timers, you can skip to the final vignette, which puts the focus back on adult misdemeanors.
