Peter Decker and his wife Rina are in a hospital, bringing a newborn daughter into the world; however, complications ensue, and they will have no more children. Luckily, this one is perfect, and deeply beloved, especially by her older half-sister, Cindy, who is Detective Decker''s older daughter. Rina''s two older sons are there as well (their father having died some time earlier). Hannah Rose, the baby, is the OURS of their relationship. The family is Jewish -- Decker a convert, who has to make peace with his adoptive parents, who are devout Baptists. They do. Babies change everything.
Then the mysteries begin. The hospital is understaffed -- not enough nurses, and too few of them show up sometimes. Cindy is watching Hannah; because there are no charge nurses in the baby nursery for over 45 minutes, she goes to wake her father (who is staying with her mother), but they come back to find one of the babies gone -- a beautiful little Hispanic girl, the child of teenage, but very devoted, parents. The feisty charge nurse is gone as well. More ominously, there is a bloodstain where the nurse''s SUV was parked. And then the chase begins. It goes through the world of the extreme bodybuilders, nursing homes, the Venice Beach community and the lives, past and present, of many, many interesting characters.
This is a fascinating mystery story. If you like good old-fashioned detection, it can hardly be beat. I could scarcely bear to put it down long enough to fix lunch.