THE MERCEDES COFFIN by Faye Kellerman
Faye Kellerman has created a fascinating character in Los Angeles Police Detective Pete Decker. He has a great family, some good people working for him, and an assortment of good friends. Kellerman has used him as the central focus of several of her novels and he is back again in THE MERCEDES COFFIN.
This book concerns two murders that happened fifteen years apart. In both of these instances a man was shot and left in the trunk of his Mercedes. The first victim was a beloved school teacher; the second was a music producer. Decker is brought in to work the cold case which is the first murder. Someone worth a lot of money wants it reopened, and Decker is given the task.
As Decker tries to solve the first case and also see the relationship to the second case, the full drudgery of police work is explored. There is the politics of interviewing witnesses or persons of interest. It is a fine line of asking and badgering that must be walked and Decker is the master at it. He also has Marge and Oliver, two people who work for him, who are also experts in this area.
Then there is the time required to go from point A to point B. Everything in the Los Angeles area takes time to reach. Traffic is always a big factor in setting aside the time for interviews, etc. It seems police detectives spend every waking hour exploring leads and this usually involves a long drive or even a plane flight.
Aside from the fascination of crime solving, Kellerman’s story comes alive in the time Decker spends with his wife and daughters. As a father he is not nearly as successful as he is as a police detective. His youngest daughter is a teenager and Decker seems to put his foot in his mouth with every word he speaks to her. Still there is a strong bond between the two and it always comes through in the end.
Kellerman shows her writing skills in the amazing development of the plot as it concerns the two murders. Layers are peeled away as the relation between the two crimes is exposed. She also creates some fascinating characters who are involved in the crimes. The widow of the first victim is one of the most complex people Kellerman has ever created.
Kellerman’s weakness is in the ending of the story. The reader spends a lot of time working towards the final solutions and they never clearly arrive. There are suggestions and suppositions as to what happened but nothing is absolute. Many readers will want the final details and they just aren’t available.
For that reason alone THE MERCEDES COFFIN is not Kellerman’s best work. It is a good read but a weak and rushed ending destroys the overall merits of the book
THE MERCEDES COFFIN is published by William Morrow. It contains 367 pages and sells for $25.95.