The Mercedes Coffin is not one of Faye Kellerman's better books. This book is difficult to get through because of all of the dialogue. The characters spend the entire book trying to guess of who killed who. It gets to a point wherein the reader says enough already. Unfortunately, the book only received two stars in this review. ( )

This is another book that I would not normally have purchased but got cheap in a sale.

Genoa was a nerd, hated or ignored by everyone in her high school except for Dr. Ben – Bennett Alston Little, one of the teachers.

He met her in the hallway, greeted her by name and sked her how she was doing; he then congratulated her on her perfect score in some important test.

This meeting changed Genoa’s life. Someone knew her and recognized her giftedness. Years later, now a billionaire due to her genius computer skills, Genoa saw in the news about Dr. Ben’s horrific murder.

Later, she read about a similar murder; Dr. Ben’s case had still not been solved. She called LAPD and offered them a huge sum of money to reopen and solve this cold case – the murder of the only person who had ever been kind to her.

This was what led to Lieutenant Peter Decker’s homicide squad being put on this fifteen year-old case.

This was my first book by Faye Kellerman and, though the book was readable (but barely), it may be the last for the following reasons:

I found the book boring because of too much repetition and too much detail about what the various characters were wearing. What did it matter what they were wearing?

It was difficult to remember who was who as regards the various detectives involved in the case and the various suspects, several of whom were themselves later murdered.

Dr. Little had been a paragon of virtue, apparently loved by everyone. On the other hand, his wife Melinda was promiscuous and money-loving and one of the prime suspects.

By the end of the book I didn’t really care who had committed the crime, and was fed up with hearing about the many suspects whom I couldn’t distinguish between.

The last couple of chapters did get somewhat more exciting, I admit.

I can’t recommend the book and, as stated, probably will not be reading others by this author. ( )

Written as though for an 8th grade level, I gave up after a few pages. ( )

Peter Decker is asked to investigate a fifteen year old murder that is now a cold case, that of a very popular guidance counselor from a Los Angeles school who was found in the trunk of his Mercedes shot in the back of the head execution style. Interest in the case has been raised because someone else has been murdered in the same fashion and found in the trunk of their Mercedes.

I enjoy reading about the Decker and Lazarus family as much as I enjoy the mystery. The only fault I found with this book is that Rina Lazarus did not play as important a role in this book as she has in others I've read. But that said, I enjoyed "The Mercedes Coffin" very much and it kept me turning pages until the end. ( )

This is a good story but gets bogged down with circuitous realities of detective work - I got bored of the "maybe"s towards the end. ( )