Reviews

The Theory of Death by Faye Kellerman

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randis724's review against another edition

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3.0

Picked this mystery up for an easy read at the beach and it filled the need.

mellymel35's review against another edition

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5.0

Quite good! This was the first that I've read in this series, and I just picked it up randomly off the shelf. But I must say it's quite good! Kept me interested...very intriguing and I couldn't guess at the ending for the life of me :)

bookworm84's review against another edition

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4.0

This wasn't my favourite Decker book but it was still enjoyable for the most part. Some of the story line seemed to drag on a bit at times. Another thing that I keep trying to figure out is how a kid who is still in college moonlighting as Decker's partner. That part bothered me throughout the book but that aside, it was still an enjoyable read.

yapha's review against another edition

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4.0

Another fun mystery with Rina and Peter Decker! This one features a murder set in the same small town of five colleges in New York as the last book. There are a lot of fun math explanations and Tyler McAdams is back as well. Recommended for fans of the series.

dixiesparkles's review against another edition

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2.0

I must admit, I was a little dubious about reading a crime novel with a heavy dose of maths thrown in, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but perhaps I wasn’t expecting much. Granted, some of the technical material was skim read, and the repetition of it did become tedious, but the initial idea was interesting, especially the ideas about mapping.

I like the relationship between Decker and McAdams, but I was driven to distraction by Mallon. I couldn’t understand why they accepted her stalkery behaviour, especially doing the job they do. It wasn’t cute and endearing, it was weird and irritating. Why they let her tag along is anyone’s guess, let alone see her as a romantic interest.

Although I enjoyed the father/son dynamic, the endless duplication and references to McAdams’ need to study was really overplayed, as was the different names the author used for her characters e.g. McAdams, Tyler, the boy. I thought the dialogue was quite stilted, especially between Decker and Rina.

A bit stodgy, a disappointing end… I wouldn’t bother.

snazzybooks's review

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

3.0

The Theory of Death is my first novel in the Peter Decker/ Rina Lazarus series and the 23rd, so I'm joining the characters very far into their journey. The book follows Peter Decker, head of the Police Department in a quiet New York town (having moved there from LA, it seems) as he investigates the apparent suicide of a man who turns out to be an incredibly intelligent maths student at Kneed Loft College.

Along with former colleague McAdams (who left the force to study law, but is back to help out), they investigate the goings on at the college and dive into the world of maths (or 'math' as they say in the US).

The theme of academia in this novel is a really interesting one, and there are some interesting mathematical theories referenced which, despite knowing next to nothing about anything past GCSE maths, I found really interesting. The plot becomes more complex as the team discover that the man who died was working on some very important research - and another body turns up...

I found the characters interesting but didn't hugely connect with any of them - but I imagine if I'd read the previous novels in the series I'd understand them more. Mallon in particular was an irritating character who didn't seem to add anything really to the story.

The plot was intriguing without being too complicated but I didn't think the ending was that great. However, I would definitely read more from this series as I thought it was well-written. Ultimately it's no surprise that The Theory of Death perhaps wasn't the best book to read first from this series (I picked it up in a charity shop) so that's definitely on me, and I imagine seasoned readers would enjoy this more. It was still a solid and enjoyable mystery/crime novel.