The Ritual Bath (Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus #1) (2024)

What to do.....

For me, an atheist, I am offended by the obvious purposeful crippling of being human by the rituals of ANY religion. Since the beautiful widow and mother of two boys Rina Lazarus, love interest of the detective Peter Decker, is an Orthodox Jew, I am grinding my teeth even while I am admiring this interesting beach read of a novel.

This is book one - how they meet, so I knew I had to start here. However, I'm uncertain about continuing. Usually I give a series at least three books reading time to see if it interests me. The first in any series is usually either something that passes good enough, or it is brilliant. 'The Ritual Bath' is good enough. It is pure mystery genre, heavy on romance, but not a Romance genre. There are ugly police situations, though minimized in description.

The inside look at Orthodox Judaism, at least one brand of it, was interesting. But once again, the emotional suffering that religion causes and the absolutely mysterious devotion of its adherents in spite of that was outlined so clearly, reading this novel for me was like being in a grocery store and watching a father take off his belt and start beating the sh*t out of his mischievous four year old.

What the Ritual Bath is: when a woman has her period, the husband and the wife cannot have sex for twelve days. After 12 days, the wife must 'purify' herself with a bath in a kosher mikvah, a bathing tub or hole, in this case a nice Roman tub, first clipping her nails, brushing her teeth and removing all loose hair and foreign objects such as dentures, and submit to a minute centimeter-by-centimeter skin examination of her naked flesh by another woman.

Page 260: "She was being terrorized by a ghoul who not only threatened her physical safety, but held her spiritually imprisoned." This is in reference to a ski-masked rapist stalking Lazarus. Yet, she is completely blind to the spiritual imprisonment of her orthodox religious practices and the orthodox community she lives in.

I've copied examples below:

Page 1: "it had been a busy evening because of the bride. A lot of to-do, hand-holding, and explaining. The young girl had been very nervous, but who wouldn't be about marriage? Rivki was barely seventeen with little knowledge of the world around her. Sheltered and exquisitely shy, she'd gotten engaged to Baruch after three dates."

Page 2: "Of all the religious obligations that Rina had decided to take on, the covering of her hair was...."

It is over 100 degrees F in Los Angeles, yet the women have to wear hot wigs or kerchiefs, along with long skirts and shirts.

Page 43: "Matt knew she left the door open for religious reasons...."

Page 45: "Rina's (seat) was in the front row of the balcony--the women's section."

Page 52: "I can't eat in a restaurant because the food's not kosher."

Page 74: "Rina ignored her and walked over to Decker who led her to an isolated spot beyond the crowd. She felt Chana's eyes boring in on her. She was pleased when, a moment later, Marge and Hollander joined them. That made it look better."

This scene disgusted me. Decker, a police detective, had just saved her life from a stalker with a gun who had fired at them both at the ritual bath house. The bath house becomes full of people from the Jewish community, called a yeshiva, all milling about, along with all kinds of cops, and the rabbi. Yet the Jews who are present continuously disapprove of all contact between the Jewish women present and ANYONE else, feeling there should be NO contact or conversation whatever the situation.

There are dozens of following examples in the book of rigid disapproval and threats of social isolation if Rina continues to meet and talk with police or anyone outside the enclave, even after another woman is raped and yet another woman is horribly murdered. In other words, the good orthodox believers would rather Rita be raped and murdered in good standing with God than have police protection or talk to male officers. Her soul's purity is more important than broken bones or a torn vagin* or ripped up anus or surviving. This is SO f*cked up.

Page 191: "She took a stack of paper goods and some plastic utensils out of a bag she'd brought from home, having explained to Peter that his dishes and flatware weren't kosher even though they'd been sterilized in a dishwasher."

Page 126: "With him were two teenagers....She was dressed in short shorts, a midriff tank top, and sandals.....His dress was identical to the girl's. They had their arms looped around each other. (Decker, and his teen daughter and her boyfriend are going out with Rina, a widowed mother and her two boys, to a park for a picnic.) Immediately, Rina wondered if she hadn't erred in her judgement. Although she couldn't shelter her kids forever, perhaps it would have been wiser to expose them to the goyim at a less impressionable age." (Besides the shorts, she is disturbed by the public affection.)

Really? This is our heroine? A bigoted, small-minded, rigid, mind-controlled, fearful of all touching, laughing, running, eating, clothes, shoes, dishes, silverware because of purity issues, religious fundamentalist? Fearful of breaking or forgetting a step in hundreds of rituals in dressing, eating, standing, sitting, bathing, cleaning, praying, reading, which body part can contact which ordinary necessity of living, such as which hand you can use to drink a glass of water, where and when you can drink a glass of water, in front of who, what order of heirarchical importance a group of men, women and children are permitted to drink....etc etc etc.

It's funny how religious people always bring up bigotry and intolerance and prejudice in the context of people not wanting to live like they do, while at the same time making it clear they can't tolerate being with or eating with people who don't want to live like they do in the name of soul purity.

Somewhere I read that People of the Book (Christians, Jews, Muslims) have each in their history written discussions about scratching their noses on Sunday, Saturday and Friday, depending on which religion's Holy Day we're talking about. What is the point of writing a hundred page analysis of whether scratching your nose on Sabbath is ok or not? Why is scratching your nose a matter of fear of hell and distress? And worse, why do such people try to convince the rest of us to live like them, or in failing to convince us, isolate themselves from us because we are "unclean" and "impure" and consider unbelievers evil satanics? Yet, they often call the rest of US prejudiced?

Excuse me, but WHY am I supposed to respect and tolerate religious rituals when those rituals are abusive, painful and intolerant of nonconformity and common sense; for example, all of these stupid and sometimes dangerous rituals because of menstruation?

I can't begin to fathom the religious mind, and Rina is one of the most stupidest heroines I've been introduced to in a series.

If you don't mind reading mixed into the normal mystery genre plot a lot of foot binding nonsense in the name of religious purity, then this is an ok read.

I'm going to read two more Rina books, and then I'll decide if I'm going on with the series.

It's amazing that religious Jews, Muslims and Christians kill each other so much when their customs are indistinguishable from each other's rituals, with minor differences. But then, Christians went to war with each for a hundred years over crazy hair-splitting Bible interpretations such as saying the doxology.

Edit: revisiting, ranting and frothing, several weeks later. I've read 4 and 1/2 books in the series, and I'm done. For me, and of course this is just my opinion (I have seen how everyone loves this series) this series totally sucks. I originally rated this 3 stars because I felt it was a 2 and a half star, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and rounded it up. I'm rolling it back. Why do I hate this series? I'm a feminist.

Everything about this couple is pure Archie Bunker and Edith, the characters of 'All in the Family'. Essentially, the people who developed the TV show 'Archie Bunker' were laughing at Bunker. The whole show was about showing what an idiot and a fool a guy like Archie Bunker is. I agree with that view of Archie being an ignorant ass. I think women deserve all the same rights as men, and I think women and men should be given the same amount of respect, same job pay for the same work, and the opportunity for the same jobs if they can physically handle the job.

I don't know what Faye Kellerman actually believes, and for all I know she simply wanted to write and make a living, but I despise her Decker character. He is a 1950's Neanderthal who believes in the very old fashioned standards about the roles women should have and the roles a 'real' man should have. In the above novel, his ideas about women and men and their roles was not so evident. However each progressive book in the series contains more and more of his thoughts on the matter - I could quote dozens and dozens of sentences showing his thinking from each novel - and it is obvious Decker believes men should be emotional stones to their wives and friends, even if they can't pull it off. Worse, he is a touchy, defensive, quick-to-rage guy, all a-quiver to the slightest insult to his male honor, even if there is nothing of that nature going on. In every conversation, his radar appears to be looking for insults to his male superiority. I know FK gave us Marge, Decker's female partner, but she is no equal working partner. He admires her most for her doe-like eyes and man-like strength. Give me a break.

From 'False Prophet', page 56: Althea, a manager, is upset that Decker didn't explain why he needed telephone numbers and home addresses of employees. She didn't know her employer had been beaten and raped. Would YOU give out such information to a strange man who simply burst into your office? This is Decker's feelings after Althea, upset, says why didn't you say that before? "She was scolding him. But she was giving him what he wanted so Decker let it pass."

What a effing asshole. Decker is a moron. I absolutely hate him. He's a thick-skulled jock, a self-centered, emotionally tone deaf believer in old American white male values.

Maybe FK doesn't buy into her character's value system, but I also began to hate her writing in the Decker/Lazarus series novels which follow. The author's consistent tone deafness to how real people would feel in real life to the situations she fictionally creates for her characters is not simply risible, but hilariously wrong. The manner in which her characters respond emotionally to stress, fear, violence, and destruction is similar to a writer creating a situation where her character gets his jaw blown off by a bullet, then in the next second that character is concerned by how he's going to chew meat instead of the pain and mutilation. They are void of depth or complexity, and they simply follow the rules of the role they are inhabiting in the most stupid one-dimensional thinking possible, with self-centered pride blinding them to anyone else's concerns. I realize there are real people out there like this, but I'm talking about how the author seems to read people, so it appears that she IS writing what she knows.

The author's stories all revolve around Pride and Respect in the old-fashioned, male-centered way, with fhe blue-collar white man being the King of all living that is important and the only one who matters. In my experience, blue-collar males DID try to recreate the world this way in their homes and neighborhoods, and I grew up despising it. The fruits of such a world belief was not a happy, chubby cheeked sweetness and wholesome family life, but secret child and wife abuse, as well as sexual perversions, excess drinking and drug use.

If I was to classify the reader she is aiming at, it would be the folks who believe in the Archie Bunker world view, despite the aunt who is abusing diet pills and has had secret abortions, or the uncle who raped the little boy next door, and the wife who is drinking too much but nobody mentions it, yet everyone in the family dresses nice and sits down to dinner and is rosy-cheeked with combed hair, all obedient to whatever dad says, fulfilling their roles as Mother, Son, Daughter - no back talk or opposing views, no blue jeans or pants on the girls, no jewelry on the males, sitting up straight, no allowing of any personal preferences or individuality, everybody forced into stereotypical family roles whether they like it or not, punishment that is excessive, shaming that must be overwhelmingly soul-crushing, no individuality whatsoever. FK seems to actually be promoting this viewpoint. She is not explaining, not satirizing, not disagreeing, not being a camera simply showing, but she is actually editorializing how despite the problems and evil of the world and within families, rigid group-think and male hierarchical, religiously-enforced family roles is best for approved family life.

I not only disagree with it, I believe many family horrors are caused by the suppression of individuality. Rigid group think of any kind is the cause of much self-loathing and secret self-destructive behaviors.

I didn't care for this book at all. It's not the worst thing I've read for mystery book club, but the easily solved mystery (with absolutely no real logic behind the crime) and the ridiculous characterization made me toss the book aside once I finished, thinking that it was a waste of time.

I disliked Decker: misogynistic (both in the belittling and sexual predatory meanings), patronizing toward women, a "sympathetic" backstory now with more Jewishness! (to give him "depth," I assume), and an over-the-top "good guy" persona. I hated how he immediately had sexual fantasies about Rina--even before he knew she was widowed. I didn't find that he liked her for her, just as an object.

As for Rina, she was an extremely milquetoast character: rather bland, little depth, and with a scant backstory (or perhaps this comes in later books?). Things happen to Rina--she does not do things. (Cf Peter, who is always a man of action.)

I could have also done with out the "fat as a descriptor" trope that Kellerman seems to love: Marge (Peter's partner), Florence (the murdered security guard), and Shirley at the LAPD were all reduced to their weight when it came to character descriptions.

With the setting, Kellerman tried to have it both ways: depict life in a yeshiva but without providing enough of an explanation to have a reader understand the physical and religious setting. Thank goodness for Google. Without having the ability to look up Hebrew phrases and aspects of Judaism at my fingertips, this book would have been incredibly frustrating to a reader not well versed in the minutiae of Judaism, especially in the pre-internet days of the 1980s. (I know a fair amount on the topic, but I was Googling about every 5 minutes.) At the beginning, Kellerman tried to help a reader out by having Decker and Marge stand in for the uninformed, but she dove into Dorothy L. Sayers territory later on, with untranslated Hebrew dialogue and religious allusions.

Kellerman could have had a well-written, interesting series here, but I don't think this first book in the Decker/Lazarus chronicles starts it off well. A series about religious understanding between an Orthodox Jewish woman and a man not raised Jewish, their developing relationship in light of prior relationships and family life, solving crimes amid the trials of 1980s LA? That would have been great! But Kellerman's writing and characterization as yet seems to clunky to achieve this. (Am I wrong? I am happy to be wrong about the rest of the series.)

This is my review of all the Rina/Peter Decker series.

They can be read in any order, but I recommend reading this one first.

This series I contrast to Faye Kellerman's husband writing by noting that Faye's are more about character development than hardcore procedural details.

I like both, in their place, but probably prefer this series of the two.

Rina is an orthodox Jew who meets Peter during a very painful investigation that clashes strictly practiced Orthodox Judaism with Peter's more prosaic lapsed Catholocism.

Throughout this investigation, their personalities meet, meld, & they fall in love.

Rina, being very devoted to her religion, has the standard of only marrying a Jew.

Peter goes through the very difficult & long process of Orthodox conversion for her.

Throughout the series we see many positive-view tidbits of Orthodoxy practiced for the love of it, not out of duress.

Peter is an above-average homicide detective whose people skilles lead him on a rapid climb to Lieutenant where he leads an inimitable group of other detective characters.

This series shines, especially, in the familial & other interactions.

Peter relates to Rina, their daughter together, & Rina's two sons from her previous husband(deceased).

Peter Decker's daughter, Cindy, from a previous marriage(divorced) becomes a police officer, too, much to Peter's concern, but she does well, humbly & respectfully seeking assistance from her dad & his team, when needed.

She meets & marries a secularly Jewish nurse.

In Jupiter's Bones, Marge(Peter's longtime officer/detective partner) rescues a young teen who was part brainwashed by a religious cult; Marge adopts her, becoming a mom, later than most start this process.

Peter & Rina wind up fostering Gabe, a teenaged music genius, son of a high ranking mafia father, who has crossed paths, professionally with Peter in the past, but in his time of need for his son, he only trusts Decker with his only child.

In Gun Games(2012) Gabe meets & falls in love with a teenaged Persian Jew; this was a beautiful rendering of budding love from first meeting to a growing development & consummation, then tragedy!

If you read only 2 of Fatye's books, I very highly recommend Ritual Bath & Gun Games