Title: Prayers for the Dead
Description: The brutal murder of Dr. Azor Sparks in an alley behind a restaurant is greeted with public outrage and a demand for swift, sure justice. But the investigation into the well-known surgeon's death is raising too many questions and providing too few answers for homicide detective Lieutenant Peter Decker.

Why, for example, would the family of a man so beloved respond to his slaying with more surprise than grief? And what linked a celebrated doctor with strict fundamentalist beliefs to a gang of outlaw bikers? But the most unsettling connection of all is the one that ties the tormented Sparks family to Peter Decker's own -- and the secrets shared by a renegade Catholic priest...and Decker's wife, Rina Lazarus.
Subjects: Fiction, Police, Police spouses, Detective and mystery stories, Mystery, Fiction, mystery & detective, police procedural, Fiction, thrillers, crime
Places: Los Angeles (Calif.), California, Los Angeles
People: Peter Decker (Fictitious character), Rina Lazarus (Fictitious character)