Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Ritual Bath
    The Ritual Bath
    The Ritual Bath
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Ritual Bath

    Written by Faye Kellerman

    Narrated by Mitchell Greenberg

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.

    The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.

    Editor's Note

    First encounter...

    The first book in Kellerman’s beloved Decker/Lazarus series. When LAPD Detective Peter Decker is called to Rina Lazarus’ neighborhood to investigate a religious hate crime, their storied romance begins.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateDec 26, 2007
    ISBN9780061573040
    The Ritual Bath
    Author

    Faye Kellerman

    Faye Kellerman hat Mathematik und Zahnmedizin studiert, es dann aber vorgezogen, hauptberuflich zu schreiben. Ihre Krimis, insbesondere um das jüdische Ermittler-Ehepaar Peter Decker und Rina Lazarus, haben sich weltweit über 20 Millionen Mal verkauft. Mit ihren vier Kindern und ihrem Ehemann, dem New York Times-Bestseller Autor Jonathan Kellerman, lebt die Autorin in Kalifornien und New Mexico.

    More audiobooks from Faye Kellerman

    Related to The Ritual Bath

    Titles in the series (25)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Contemporary Women's For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Karin Slaughter

      Jul 2, 2020

      This American crime author has sold more than 35 million copies of her books globally. This month she’s celebrating the release of her 20th novel in as many years. It’s also the 10th book in special agent Will Trent’s series. “It feels really great a

      1 min read

    • Article

      Wise old Mrs Merrow

      Jul 27, 2020

      Littlesea was everything the description said: a white stone cottage with beams and higgledy-piggledy walls and steps away from a tiny quay in a private bay. It would have been the perfect spot for honeymooners had it not had just the one single bed

      8 min read

    • Article

      Heatstroke

      Jun 8, 2020

      Languid. The word that formed in Rachel’s mind was languid. The figure on the lawn was languid. Its limbs were loose, its joints fluid. Its hands and feet seemed too heavy for the bones that held them. It was draped over the sun lounger, dripping fro

      5 min read

    • Article

      The channel OF LOVE

      Aug 17, 2022

      The channel OF LOVE
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Education of Mrs. R.

      Sep 6, 2022

      An adolescent shriek woke her. Cockerels, she thought, cockerels, with a wry twist to the word. She lay in the dark listening. There was no use in covering her head; the screaming still came through. The soloist was suddenly submerged in the chorus.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Neighbourhood WATCH

      Aug 26, 2021

      Neighbourhood WATCH
      5 min read

    • Article

      Echoes

      Jun 22, 2022

      Echoes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Making space FOR LOVE

      Mar 30, 2022

      Making space FOR LOVE
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Air You Breathe

      Aug 20, 2018

      The Air You Breathe
      23 min read

    • Article

      An Ordinary Couple

      Aug 4, 2020

      An Ordinary Couple
      6 min read

    • Article

      Vagaries

      Mar 1, 2024

      Vagaries
      8 min read

    • Article

      Hidden TREASURE

      Jan 25, 2023

      Hidden TREASURE
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Silent Witness

      Jun 14, 2023

      The Silent Witness
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Silent Witness

      Jun 14, 2023

      The Silent Witness
      7 min read

    • Article

      Two Sisters

      Dec 15, 2018

      Two sisters lived together in a two-room apartment. They were very poor. For lunch, they usually had a boiled potato; for breakfast, a slice of bread with a glass of hot water. They were very thin but very neat, and kept their home spotless. Every da

      23 min read

    • Article

      The lake LADY

      Sep 20, 2023

      The lake LADY
      6 min read

    • Article

      Call Of The Wild

      Feb 3, 2021

      Call Of The Wild
      7 min read

    • Article

      Bringing the Light

      Nov 1, 2020

      KARIN WATCHED THE children playing and heard their strange mix of words in Spanish and Quechua. Sometimes she understood their shouts, “¡Apúrate! Hurry!” or “¡Espérame! Wait for me!” But most of the time their cries blended together, and she didn’t k

      3 min read

    • Article

      Craters

      Oct 1, 2021

      Craters
      6 min read

    • Article

      How I Met My Pet

      Apr 24, 2020

      How I Met My Pet
      2 min read

    • Article

      Come the DAWN

      Apr 8, 2020

      Come the DAWN
      21 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      I The teenaged girl is searching for a placethat goes through, the holeto put the tampon inside. When she finds itshe asks her mother, Is this where the penis would go?Yes, her mother explains.Then I will never have sex. II Sweltering New York City.

      5 min read

    • Article

      PARTING the Veil

      Oct 21, 2020

      PARTING the Veil
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Necklace

      Mar 8, 2021

      A fine silver chain, with a circlet of diamonds. More of a pendant, really. Lydia saw it in one of the glossy magazines left in the reception of the TV channel where they were waiting to pitch. She would never read one of those normally – never had t

      6 min read

    • Article

      Raiders From The Sea

      Sep 1, 2023

      CANNY LIFTED HER head from the swirls of gold and red and put down the brush, stretching her frozen fingers. The sun fell through the scriptorium window in warm panels, but the room was still cold, and she’d been at work on the manuscript in front of

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Only Rule

      Jul 13, 2020

      There is only one rule in polite English society, but it is iron clad. Of course, polite English society is a fiction. For one thing, its members are rarely polite. Politeness is for the middle classes rather than those who live off ancestral acres o

      5 min read

    • Article

      HEART Of The Community

      Aug 3, 2021

      HEART Of The Community
      12 min read

    • Article

      The holiday HOME

      Jul 7, 2022

      The holiday HOME
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Ritual Bath

    4/5

    53 ratings19 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      In the first book in the Decker/Lazarus-series, a woman is raped on her way home from the mikveh and Detective Peter Decker teams up with the witness, Rina Lazarus, to find the assailant. As far as the mystery-part is concerned, this is business-as-usual; the stakes are high and the characters interesting. Where this story really stands out, though, is in the locale - it takes place on the grounds of a Yeshiva and the main characters are Orthodox Jews, which is a world that is probably unfamiliar to most readers. Kellerman does a great job explaining the various religious and cultural concepts, but some of the lines (in transliterated Yiddish and Hebrew) are left untranslated so that we can emphasize with the bemused Detective. All in all, a very decent beginning of a potentially very decent series.
    • 4/5
      My first Faye Kellerman read, another author recommended to me. I've read several of her husband's - Jonathan Kellerman - books and decided it was time to try her's. This is the first book in the Peter Decker detective series by Faye Kellerman. Definitely enjoyed it and will read the others as I find them. I liked that she added a little about the Jewish traditions of a yeshiva. I enjoy learning about other religions and cultures. Was a mover and kept my interest. I pictured David Caruso as Decker.
    • 3/5
      I liked this book a lot, but, it must be said, I guessed 'who did it' halfway through the book. And I never guess who did it. But I like the mix of detective and jewish life. Kellerman is a good writer and I bought another title immediately after finishing this one.
    • 5/5
      At a remote orthodox Jewish yeshiva in the hills near Los Angeles, a young married woman is raped leaving the mikvah, a bathhouse for performing ritualistic cleansing. Rina Lazarus, a math teacher at the yeshiva who also cares for the mikvah, finds the woman and calls the police. Police Detective Peter Decker arrives to investigate and seems almost immediately to be drawn to Rina. While the rape investigation is continuing, Rina and Decker begin to draw closer to one another and Rina is conflicted about her growing feelings for Decker, a man who is not Jewish. I really enjoyed this mystery. It was informative and engaging, and I was very drawn to the two main characters, Rina and Decker. I also loved the setting of the yeshiva in the foothills. I have the next book in the series already, and I look forward to seeing where this relationship is heading.
    • 3/5
      This was an enjoyable read. I'd say it is more romance than crime novel, but not an insipid romance. In general, I do not consider most romances to be acceptable even to the point of calling them novels.

      I'm not sure if I will read another in the series. If I am just looking for entertainment I might.
    • 4/5
      I'm very torn about how to rate and review The Ritual Bath. What usually pushes me to rate a book is how well it is written.In that respect, I will go with 4-stars, because this book is very well written. What I find unusual is the amount of Orthodox Jewish life represented in what I thought would be a mainstream book. To someone unfamiliar with Orthodox Judaism, that may be a huge turn off.A portion of the story hit me on a personal level, in an irritating way - that included an "all too convenient" plot twist. Due to that, I would have given this book a 3-star rating. And with that in mind, I do not plan to read any more books in this series. However, it's unusual for a book rating for me to be something I find personal, so I'm going with 4-stars.Confused? Me too. Did I LIKE the story? I'm not sure.....
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this - far more than I originally thought. I'll look into the entire series by Kellerman. Very well written and nice balance of mystery vs. personal lives of the people involved.
    • 5/5
      I really like her writing. I like mysteries but I particularly like the bits of religion and hints of morality thrown in.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book in the Peter Decler/Rina Lazarus series and I found it very interesting. In was a great introduction to the Orthodox Jewish lifestyles. The author is very good in grasping the reader's attention and keeping one involved with the storyline. Each chapter flows into the next. The characters felt real, the plot was believable and it was written in such a way that it made it difficult to put down. I am now looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
    • 3/5
      The Ritual Bath is usually categorized as a mystery novel (it even won a prestigious award in this field, the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel in 1987), but is rather a contemporary romance novel in a whodunit environment. (And I am telling so without ever reading a so called main stream 'romance' work of any kind...)On her way home from a ritual bathhouse ('mikvah') a young woman is brutally raped in a small, strict Orthodox Jew community, near Los Angeles. One of her friends, recently widowed Rina Lazarus, calls the police and she is also the only one among the religious villagers who seems to be willing to cooperate with the authorities. No wonder that the dashing, 6+ foot, freshly divorced policeman, who is in charge of the case, feels closer and closer to Rina. With some twisting and turning the story unstoppably and pretty calculably rushes towards its happy ending (that includes solving the rape plus murder case on the sidelines as well).One of the the good things of the novel is its environment of course: it is trying to destroy a common prejudice that the followers of any orthodox religion must be weirdos but at least totally self-centered people rejecting other religions and outsiders. The community of Jewtown (as it is called in the story) is pretty confident but friendly and relatively open; boys are playing with G.I Joe action figures, their parents buy stuff in Target, a lot of them subscribe to 'secular' magazines and newspapers, they watch regular TV channels, drink Coke, and so on. True enough, if they go to a ball game, they are strictly banned to eat a good ol' hot dog (instead, they carry their kosher snacks), observe Sabbath very seriously (no electricity use, no work), follow a precisely described dress code anywhere they go, and of course keep the regulations of the ritual bath.The title ('The Ritual Bath') can have several meanings, among them some symbolic as well: first of all of course the actual central element of the story, but we can take it as a symbol for Peter Decker on different levels: it is this case that puts him out of his past's misery (the residues of a divorce), but also, it is this case that connects him with his real spiritual self as well. The events also help Rina to understand what she wants from the rest of her life - as so far she has beeb burdened with her past too.Kellerman writes good dialogs most of the time (for instance there is some mannerism in the beginning when Marge - one of the police officers - talks, etc), approaches her topic quite tactfully and empathetically and develops the Peter-Rina relationship very nicely and realistically (OK, 75% realistically...) With this being said, the novel is hardly more than a plain, although well-written romantic (romance?) story. The mystery part is forgettable but page-turningly (is there such a word?) enjoyable (I figured out the rape incident at about the 50th page or so, and it is not getting better later). For me the most annoying parts are when the text becomes an encyclopedia entry on the kollel life or on other orthodox Judaic cultural issue.The Ritual Bath is fun to read, easy to read and easy to forget. Perfect beach book.
    • 4/5
      I was prepared for the subject matter of The Ritual Bath, but not for the way in which the plot turned many times. The development of the Decker character was designed from the start to make hidden the different traditions that lay in Decker's background. These traits versus the visits to Los Angeles equivalent of an Israeli kibbutz were sketchily developed in Detective Decker until the latter chapters. It was a relief that the strange hidden history of Decker could be exposed. Some reviewers on this library thng site have gone a tad overboard in rejecting the geopolitical - religiosity of the mystery novel because of the "predictability" of the perpetrator's identity, and the Detective's character. However, I found the mystery to be very good, and enjoyed reading it.
    • 4/5
      The first of Kellerman's Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus series this book involves the investigation of a rape at closed Jewish community and school in California outside the mikvah, the bathhouse where women perform their cleansing ritual. Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is called upon to investigate with the help of a young widow Rina Lazarus. She helps guide him through the religious laws that hinder him from finding the truth. Though the investigation was interesting, the best part was the exploration of Orthodox Judiasm and its impact on the case. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      I love these books! I hadn't ever read the first one, so it was really interesting to see how it all began. I also love the Jewish factor. It is SO interesting to read about all the rituals involved in the Jewish faith, since I know nothing about it. And as always, it is a great detective novel. The characters are so likable, too. Great book!
    • 4/5
      Considered as an introduction to life in a Jewish Orthodox (Hasidic) yeshiva, this is very interesting; considered as a romance between a goy policeman and an Orthodox bath-keeper, it is mildly agreeable. Considered as a mystery it is so-so. The initial crime is a rape (of a woman returning after a ritual at the bathhouse) , not a murder, which is a good variant; however, a brutal murder (of a woman security guard)which follows is both uglier than the general tone of the story and also a red herring, as the criminals involved turn out not to be involved in the first crime. I could have done without the killing. Spoiler warning: a plot twist in which the goy policeman turns out to be ethnically Jewish by birth (though adopted by Baptists and raised as Baptist) seems to stretch the bounds of probability and appears as an unlikely way of potentially resolving the problem that he and the bath-keeper are falling in love but she would not marry a non-Jewish man (though as the story ends he has not officially converted.)
    • 4/5
      The first in the series about Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus, this novel introduces the two to each other when there is a rape at the religious enclave where widowed Rina lives with her two sons.
    • 4/5
      The only other book I've read in this series was #9 or #10, so it was nice to see how Peter and Rina's relationship started. I found myself sucked into this pretty quickly, and Kellerman kept me guessing until the end! I did find myself wishing for a glossary from time to time, as my knowledge of this form of Judaism is pretty lacking.
    • 4/5
      Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed. The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation.
    • 3/5
      At times I felt I needed a Hebrew dictionary. You get a sort if micro Judaism 101 so to speak with this one. I felt the author was authentic in purpose with the religious aspect and it definitely added to the story. Despite my lack of knowledge for some of the terminology, that didn't slow the pace down. It moved along quickly and as it was first in a series it briefly introduced some characters without plugging in all the details to leave way for future encounters. I think Decker will become an even more complicated character in the future, but I do hope that Kellerman does write Rina with a bit more depth and personality in the future. Even the character admits she was a bit of a wimp in this installment.
    • 5/5
      This is the first book in yet another mystery series, starring LAPD Detective Peter Decker, and his romantic interest, Orthodox Jewish widow Rina Lazarus. I absolutely loved this book. Peter and Rina are both well developed, as is the description of life in a yeshiva. The plot (involving rape and murder in a place where Rina and other women feel most safe) is disturbing, but the chemistry between Peter and Rina is light and natural in the most dark and unnatural of circumstances. Highly recommended, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. Four and a half stars.