Day of Atonement

Such a honeymoon for LAPD Detective Peter Decker and his Orthodox bride, Rina Lazarus (Milk and Honey, 1990, etc.): The Lutheran-raised Peter (Akiva in Brooklyn Yiddish) not only meets up, for the' first time, with his birth-mother, Frieda Levine, and her other five progeny, but he also has to scour the Orthodox Jewish communities for his half-nephew Noam/Nick-O, who, feeling stifled at home, has disappeared during the High Holy Days. While Peter canvasses the neighborhood, Nick-O and a meshuggener/psycho, Hersh Schaltz, head for La-La Land, where Hersh filets "queers" for quick cash while Nick-O, scared into repentance, whines for his bubbe/grandmother. Then Peter and Rina head for L.A. in pursuit; Rina does some detecting on her own; Peter finds Nick-O and the psycho; and no one, it seems, will live happily ever after, although a couple of characters make appointments with a shrink to straighten themselves out. The Orthodox Jewish community has been clone better (and shorter) by Roger Simon and Harry Kemmelman, among others, and Peter's angst at meeting his birth-family is less a tear-jerker than a groan-inducer. Contrived, wordy, and far from Kellerman's best. (Kirkus Reviews)