GRIEVOUS SIN

While his wife is recovering from birthing complications, Peter Decker of the LAPD (False Prophet, etc.)—along with his partner Marge and his teenage daughter, Cindy, from his first marriage—investigate the kidnapping of baby Rodriguez from the hospital nursery. Two nurses are also missing—one turns up murdered at the bottom of a cliff—and a former staff nurse, a 300- pounder with forged credentials, is now a sleek bodybuilder who hears voices telling her to kill. Decker, Marge, and Cindy toss around possible motives and—thanks to clues provided by the ramblings of an old woman and the confession of a scheming male RN- -they piece together the tale of a seriously warped little girl who grew up to confront the woman who had an affair with her daddy—a woman now so repentant that she swears she is the murderer/kidnapper. Nice family scenes for Jewish convert Decker and his orthodox in-laws, and Cindy is the most appealing—and overeager—teenage detective since Nancy Drew. But Kellerman's plotting still veers into melodrama, undercutting her story's plausibility.