THE GARDEN OF EDEN

A Kellerman compendium, complete with the author’s own self-indulgent introductions.

If you’ve been pining for L.A. cop Peter Decker and his orthodox Jewish wife Rina to resurface as a detective team (Street Dreams, 2003, etc.), your book has arrived. The duo open this collection in a new story, “The Garden of Eden,” in which they wend their way through a horticulture backdrop to decode a family inheritance. This is followed by an ensemble piece, “Open House,” in which Pete and the gang at Homicide headquarters deal with one more dead body. Then the reprints begin, a couple of them featuring the pair (“Bull’s-eye” and “A Woman of Mystery”), the rest standalone stories and essays. Kellerman gives her own children a chance to strut their stuff. Daughters Rachel and Ilana star in “The Luck of the Draw,” a YA morality tale revolving around a winning lottery ticket, and son Jesse in “Mummy and Jack,” a jaunt through the Ripper’s Whitechapel. Kellerman concludes with two essays: “The Summer of My Womanhood” is a paean to her deli-owning father. Stronger and more crime-oriented is “Small Miracles,” in which the author foolishly chases down the mugger who had the effrontery to challenge her mother and son.

A double dose of Faye and her wonderful kids, though the absence of her husband Jonathan is sorely felt.