THE RITUAL BATH is the first in the fine Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series. Little by little Peter starts to think that the rapist in the Jewish community might be aimed at one specific woman – and that woman is Rina! Late one night, Rina starts to hear strange noises and she feels that she isn't safe so she calls upon Peter for help and the two get even closer. Even though he learns that it is forbidden for an orthodox woman to be friendly with an outsider, Peter finds that he is attracted to her – and that she is attracted to him.īecause he doesn't get much help he doesn't have enough information on which to make an arrest, but Peter is still on the case, looking into the background of any man who is involved with the yeshiva who might be the rapist. Yet when Peter tries to get information, the Jewish community doesn't talk to him and treats him with distrust. His latest case has to do with the Foothill rapist, and when he is called to the Jewish community there are ideas that the rape at the mikvah might be related to it. Peter Decker is a detective with the LAPD. A few minutes later she hears screams and goes out to find the woman raped and terrified. One night she is working late and she sees the last woman off after her visit to the mikvah.

Rina Lazarus is a young, orthodox Jewish widow who works in an enclosed yeshiva community as a teacher and she runs the mikvah, the place where religious Jewish women go to cleanse themselves according to Jewish law.

The ritual bath by faye kellerman