A first-year rookie with the LAPD's Hollywood Division, Cynthia Decker became a cop against her father's wishes. But police work is in her blood, and she's determined to make it on her own, without Peter Decker's help. Although her time in uniform has been brief, her instincts for danger are already razor sharplike the electric tingle that is telling her something is very wrong . . . right now. It begins with a nagging sense that she is being watched, that little things are being moved around in her apartment. The feeling of dread escalates when she finds that some personal effects have been crudely destroyed. But it's a harrowing trip down a dark canyon road that substantiates Cindy's worst fear: For some unknown reason someone fiendishly relentless-someone with decidedly evil intentions-is stalking her. Cindy is fiercely independent, and her stubborn pride will not allow her to confide in her father-nor can she seek the guidance and advice of her stepmother, Rina. And as Decker's own investigation into a particularly heinous string of carjackings further isolates him from his daughter's troubles, Cindy covertly begins to probe her personal and professional lives for the identity of the person who wants her frightened, harmed . . . or dead. As her stalker grows bolder and more devious, Cindy finds her options limited, her friends and colleagues off-bounds-as the well-concealed rages and dark secrets of those surrounding her slowly come to light and threaten to pull a nightmare out of the shadows and in for the kill. Faye Kellerman's latest thriller features Cynthia Decker, daughter of Peter Decker, familiar to readers of the author's previous novels featuring the L.A. detective and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus. In Kellerman's earlier books, we've met Cynthia briefly as a difficult adolescent upset by her parents' divorce and later as an Ivy League college student with an interest in following her overly protective father into the family business: solving crimes. Now Cynthia's a young L.A. cop who's the subject of what at first seems like innocent-enough teasing from her colleagues. They think she's snooty and standoffish and riding on her father's reputation. Actually, she's all of those things, which makes for a somewhat less than sympathetic heroine: Beaudry said, "Every time we start shooting the bull, talking about the day, you say things like, 'Yeah, my father once had a case like that.'" "I'm trying to relate ." "It pisses people off. It makes them think that their experiences are nothin' special. Everyone wants to feel special. You already feel special because you've got all this college. You gotta remember that the average Joe on the force is a high school graduate, maybe a couple of years at a junior college like me. If you're real smart, okay, you do a four-year state, then enter the academy with the idea of doing the gold." "Like my dad--" " Stop mentioning your dad. He isn't a legend, Decker, he's a pencil pusher." As the teasing escalates, Cindy's stalked, threatened, and finally frightened, although it pains her to admit it. There's a killer on the loose, and even if she's not the best cop on the force, she knows enough to turn to her father for help. But first, she has a brief affair with one of the men under his command. It seems a little too obvious a ploy for Daddy's attention and hardly adds to her character--we already know she's immature and a bit of a bitch. But at least this maneuver brings Peter back on the scene, allowing Kellerman to hit her stride as she gets back to a character who holds the reader's interest because he's more than two-dimensional. Sadly, Cindy's not quite ready for prime time; perhaps she'll grow up in her next outing. Or better yet, Kellerman will bring us more adventures by Peter and Rina. --Jane Adams This is the 12th book in Kellerman's best-selling Peter Decker series (e.g., Jupiter's Bones). This time out, Kellerman features Decker's daughter Cindy, a pretty, smart, and fiercely independent young LAPD cop who is having a tough time being accepted by her male co-workers. One night at Bellini's, the vividly evoked bar that Cindy frequents, she has too much to drink and gets a ride home from Scott Oliver, a handsome detective who works for her father. When Cindy finds herself being stalked, she sets out to discover what, if anything, her stalker has to do with the car-jacking case that Scott and her father are working on. Cindy is an engaging, believable character, but Kellerman focuses so much attention on her struggle for independence that she fails to develop suspense in either the stalking plot or the budding romance with Scott. Recommended for public libraries where there is interest in the series. -DJane la Plante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. Popular author Kellerman returns with another installment in the Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series, this time focusing on Decker's daughter, po