Peter Deck­er and Rina Lazarus have been through quite a bit in their years togeth­er, but The Beast gets Peter involved in one of the most bizarre cas­es of his career.

Reclu­sive bil­lion­aire Hobart Pen­ny is found dead in his apart­ment. His pet cat, a full-grown female Ben­gal tiger, ini­tial­ly appears to be the killer, but a bit of inves­ti­ga­tion by Deck­er and his col­leagues, Marge Dunn and Scott Oliv­er, elim­i­nates the beast as the per­pe­tra­tor and points to the victim’s kinky sex life with pros­ti­tutes as a fac­tor. The sleuths fol­low a trail to a wildlife sanc­tu­ary in the San Bernardi­no Moun­tains and Las Vegas night clubs, but they find lit­tle. Deck­er ends up mak­ing the dif­fi­cult choice to con­sult his under­world con­nec­tion, Chris Donati. Donati is also the father of Decker’s fos­ter son, Gabriel Whit­man. Gabriel, a tal­ent­ed pianist, has his own prob­lems with an upcom­ing recital and a bud­ding romance with a Per­sian Jew­ish girl. As the case draws to a con­clu­sion, Deck­er and his wife find them­selves con­tem­plat­ing the impact of their jobs on their lives and won­der­ing whether some changes are need­ed. Read­ers will be wait­ing for Ms. Kellerman’s next book to see what they do.