While on vacation I had the misfortune of being reduced to reading a Faye Kellerman book.  Faye Kellerman is an Orthodox Jew.  Since Jews have been persecuted throughout history you would think they would be more aware of the hurtfulness of bigotry.  Apparently she’s not.

This story is a crime mystery.  From the beginning almost every single Hispanic in it is either a maid, a gardener or a gang member.  Naturally she has to make them illegal where she can but those that are Americans she makes sure they have criminal histories.  The areas she has them living in are either Colonias (she calls them ciudads) or the poorest parts of the city.

Her choice of terms to describe characters and their actions are just as bad.  The Hispanic women are “yakking”.  One of the women the main detective speaks to has “a voluptuous body that was pouring out of her bikini”.  Both women are later deemed to be liars just because the detectives decide it rather than being based on any evidence.  No surprise there.  Pretty much every Hispanic is assumed to be lying.  Her offensive descriptions continue throughout the whole book.  At one point she has the wife of the main detective refer to two individuals as “cholos”.  Last I knew that was a derogatory term.  When I read it I thought, what’s next?  Is she going to refer to someone using the N word?  Gee, what a surprise when she did.  Of course, that vulgar term comes out of the mouth of a Hispanic character.

One comment that really irritated me (out of the many she threw out) was when she referred to a vehicle as being old but that it could not belong to a migrant worker because it was “too clean”.  Wow!  Kellerman did put in one Hispanic that has an education.  I guess even she saw how bigoted her portrayal of Hispanics was.  That Hispanic is a female high school counselor.  But I guess doing that was more than her prejudiced little heart could handle.  She had to make her a counselor in a gang-riddled high school on the poor side of town.  She describes her as “lips painted deep red” and “wore a red shirt under a black suit with no stockings”.

With “no stockings”???  What, is that to show what a sleaze she is?  Or to insinuate that she isn’t knowledgeable about appropriate business attire?  Not a blatant enough slam for you?  Okay, she goes on to have this poor woman go out to dinner with one of the detectives who takes her to a restaurant that serves duck and Angus steaks.  She is so flummoxed that she freezes when ordering and he has to make a suggestion for her.  I guess “steak” and “duck” are words that are too big for her to read.  Ok, ok, I realize she’s trying to portray her as being out of her element but give me a break.  French cuisine maybe but steak and duck?

This book is loaded with the most unflattering stereotypes she could think of.  Of course, they do not apply to the professional blacks, and Asians that are part of investigative team.  Nor are they ever used to describe the Anglos or Jews.  Faye Kellerman, we call you out as the bigot that you are.

(And as a side note, you need to do more research in the technical aspect of police work.  You have a lot of errors).