Jupiter's Bones is the epitome of popular fiction pulled from the headlines. For her eleventh mystery novel, Faye Kellerman took the 1997 Heaven's Gate mass suicide and changed the facts just slightly—a cult with a charismatic leader who taught college astrophysics rather than mathematics, a setting in Los Angeles rather than San Diego. She then added elements directly from the Waco and Jonestown cult tragedies, placed it all in the hands of her familiar character, police lieutenant Peter Decker, and produced Jupiter's Bones. The result is more thriller than mystery, following a plot that begins with Decker's investigation of the cult leader's death, but soon focuses on his attempts to save the cult's children from genocide. Along the way, Jupiter's Bones attempts to provide what the real-life stories could not—a glimpse into the destructive psychology behind cults. It also examines the related social...