Peter Decker

Peter Decker is a fictional character in a series of mystery novels by Faye Kellerman. A lieutenant in the LAPD, Decker is assisted in solving crimes by his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus.

When he meets Rina, a young widow, during an investigation at a yeshiva in The Ritual Bath, he is compelled to explore the religion for himself and eventually to become a religiously observant Orthodox Jew. Decker, though raised Baptist by his adoptive parents in Florida, discovers as an adult that his birth parents were Jewish, which makes him Jewish under traditional Jewish law as well. All the books in the series are rooted in, or at least include, Jewish themes. Aside from Peter - a name with obvious Christian origin and connotations - he has a Jewish name, Akiva - the name of a famous ancient Jewish sage. To his police colleagues, he remains "Peter", "Loo", "Rabbi" or "Old Man" but at moments of special intimacy and tenderness Rina calls him "Akivale". On the other hand, at moments of anger and confrontation his step-sons, Rina's children, sometimes call him "Peter".

Major characters in the books include Rina's two sons by her late husband, Jacob and Samuel Lazarus; Cindy Decker, Peter's daughter from his first marriage; Rina and Peter's daughter Hannah Decker; and Peter's police partner Detective Marge Dunn. Decker's daughter from his first marriage, Cindy Decker, a teenager in the earliest books, eventually follows her father into the police force and is the main character of two of the later books, Stalker and Street Dreams.

Decker's complicated background makes for continuing complications in his present. For example, the plot of "Stone Kiss" is launched by a call from his Jewish half-brother Jonathan - a Rabbi in New York, with whom Decker shares a biological mother but whom he met only in adulthood; but the plot later also involves his Christian step-brother Randy, a policeman like himself residing in Florida. Unsurprisingly, it is Randy - with whom he shares childhood experiences though no biological relation - that Decker feels more comfortable.