Peter Decker

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Peter Decker is a fictional Los Angeles police lieutenant in a series of mystery novels by Faye Kellerman. The novels in the series include The Ritual Bath (1986), Sacred and Profane (1987), Milk and Honey (1990), Day of Atonement (1991), False Prophet (1992), Grievous Sin (1993), Sanctuary (1994), Justice, (1995), Prayers for the Dead (1996), Serpent's Tooth (1997), Jupiter's Bones (1999), Stalker (2000), The Forgotten (2001), Stone Kiss (2002), and Street Dreams (2004). Decker is assisted in solving crimes by his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus. Decker, though raised Baptist by his adoptive parents in Florida, discovers as an adult that his birth parents were Jewish, which makes him officially Jewish as well. When he meets Rina during an investigation at a Jewish yeshiva in The Ritual Bath, he is compelled to explore the religion for himself and eventually to become a religiously observant Orthodox Jew. All of the books in the series are rooted in Jewish themes. Major characters in the books include Rina's two sons, Jacob and Samuel Lazarus; Cindy Decker, Peter's daughter from his first marriage; Rina and Peter's daughter Hannah Decker; and Peter's partner Detective Marge Dunn. Decker's daughter from his first marriage, Cindy Decker, a teenager in the earliest books, eventually follows her father into the police force and is the main character of two of the later books, Stalker and Street Dreams.