FALSE PROPHET

When LAPD detective Peter Decker arrives at the Valley Canyon Spa Resort, its beautiful owner, Lilah, the daughter of Hollywood legend Davida Eversong, appears to have been beaten and raped, and her mother's jewels and late father's unpublished memoirs are missing from her safe. To thwart Lilah's growing obsession with him, Peter shunts her off on his partner Margie while he concentrates on possible perps, including her three doctor brothers, a slow-witted stablehand, and one of the spa's aerobic instructors. Two deaths later, Peter is convinced that Lilah staged the rape and hid the gems, but then who stole the memoirs, and why? Lilah's ex-husband leads him to a former Eversong employee who knows many family secrets, and Peter uncovers another identity brouhaha. Eventually, with some psychological input from his rabbi and his pregnant wife Rina, Peter sorts through a tangle of viperous relationships to close the case. Histrionic plot, not helped much by Kellerman's B-movie prose. Like Day of Atonement, Milk and Honey, etc., this comes to life only when discussing Judaica, which takes a backseat here to adoption procedures and assorted sexual preferences.