The Ritual Bath

When the call comes in, Detective Peter Decker can hardly believe it. A rape at the yeshiva up in the canyon and hill country behind Los Angeles. True, there had been some recent anti-Semitic vandalism but never any violence. Not only that, but this was a strict Orthodox Jewish community, self-enclosed and suspicious of outsiders. Not much chance they’d co-operate with the police. And he is right - as Rina Lazarus, the frustratingly fascinating young widow who found the victim proves when she…