Crime Fiction from Israel

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Richard North Patterson (2007) Exile.

Rare combination of a thrilling story with an intelligent political analysis of the ongoing tragedy between Israelis and Palestinians. A courtroom drama, a love story, and a political thriller on a most complex and controversial subject. There is not one page that is boring!

Michael Chabon (2007) The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel.

The "Frozen Chosen" are living in a fictitious Alaskan homeland, as once suggested by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Hard-drinking cop Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of his neighbor. Publishers Weekly called it a "murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller". The funniest novel of 2007 is filled with Yiddish jokes and dark humor.

Daniel Silva (2005) A Death in Vienna.

This superb spy thriller deals with the unfinished business of the Holocaust. Undercover Mossad agent Gabriel Allon hunts down the infamous and still deadly Erich Radek, who lives quitely in Vienna.

Daniel Silva (2003) The English Assassin.

Silva, a former CNN correspondent, has created an crisp spy thriller in which a Mossad agent gets entangled in Switzerland's secretive power structure and has to fight for his life.

Yasmina Khadra (2007) The Attack.

Dr. Amin Jafaari, a surgeon in a Tel Aviv hospital, who also happens to be an Israeli-Arab, has been saving innocent victims of a devastating suicide attack. Exhausted, he returns home to his wife Sihem - but she has disappered. Several hours later he finds out that Sihem is suspected of being the suicide bomber.

Christopher Reich (2009) Rules of Deception.

A surgeon for "Doctors without Borders" is climbing in the Swiss Alps with his wife, when she falls into a crevasse and dies. During the next few days he finds himself being hunted by the Swiss police and a mysterious assassin. Apparently, his wife had been leading a double life in the shady world of espionage. The "good doctor" quickly turns himself into a "tough operative". What nonsense!

Edwin Black (1999) Format C:

From Y2K-bug to biblical archeology in Israel.

Batya Gur (1994) A Literary Murder.

Michael Ohayon, Superintendent of Criminal Investigations in Jerusalem is investigating murder within a small, tightly structured academic community. Two professors in the Literature Department at Hebrew University are killed: lecturer Iddo Dudai is poisoned in Eilat, and Shaul Tirosh, Israel's most prized poet, is fatally bludgeoned in his university office.

Yasmina Khadra (2007) The Attack.

A serious, shocking book set in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Amin Jaafari, a well-respected and hard-working surgeon at a busy Tel Aviv hospital gets between the fronts of this bitter conflict. His world falls appart when he begins to suspect that his wife is behind a suicide bombing that killed 19 people including children in Tel Aviv. Yasmina Khadra is the pen name of Mohammed Moulessehoul, an Algerian exile.

Robert Rosenberg (2001) Crimes of the City.

Avram Cohen, policemen in Jerusalem, investigates a series of brutal crimes. Rosenberg's razor-sharp portray of life in Israel could be from a political correspondent, but the finely drawn characters of his action-packed story display the psychological insight of a novelist.

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