THE LOST BOYS

 4 stars out of 5

Not one but three plots take place simultaneously in this, the 26th book featuring former LAPD detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus. I've followed them from the beginning, right through their not-so-long-ago move from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles to the far more laid-back community of Greenbury in upstate New York. There, missing the challenges of detective work but the day-to-day danger not so much, Decker has joined the local police.

The first plot centers on Bertram Lanz, a thirty-something man with social disabilities, who disappears from his local residential group home. The second involves a body that turns up, literally, in a remote woods and appears to be connected to the decade-old disappearance of three college students. The third hits closer to home as Gabriel, Peter and Rina's foster son and a successful classical pianist, returns home to say his on-again, off-again birth mother is in trouble and needs help.

Decker and his partner, Tyler McAdams, land the assignment to find the missing man. Soon, it becomes apparent that he had help disappearing - perhaps from a former nurse at the residential facility. That angle takes a strange turn, though, when the nurse seems to have vanished as well, possibly not of her own accord.

The case of the dead college student, of course, has long gone cold; but it's a good bet his death was a homicide, so Decker and McAdams begin to unearth clues that might lead investigators to find the other two young men. Readers follow along as the detectives locate and interview parents and others who may have information that will reveal what happened all those years ago.

Gabe's situation, for the most part, ends up in Rina's hands. As his foster mother, he trusts her - and she's well acquainted with his wacky birth mother and dangerous (somewhat estranged) father, a mobster who oversees a prostitution empire and is well known for killing people who get in his way. 

If there's an issue, it's that only one of the three plots comes full circle to a conclusion; the other two are pretty much left swinging in the wind (one more than the other, and no, my lips are sealed). Besides that, a new twist on the future of Rina and Peter's life is introduced - no doubt signaling a new direction for future books. Overall, though, it's another enjoyable entry in a favorite series. 

The Lost Boys by Faye Kellerman (William Morrow, January 2021); 366 pp.