Murder in Jerusalem (Michael Ohayon Series #6)
Batya Gur, Evan Fallenberg (Translator), Evan FallenbergBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
"Modern Israel is a place filled with contradictions: the beautiful landscape often rife with human conflict; the tranquil and the peaceful in constant struggle with terrible destruction; and amazing human love and kindness set against a backdrop of civil strife. Through the eyes of a writer like Batya Gur and her creation, Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon, these complexities are treated with an intimate familiarity and rare depth of understanding." "When a woman's body is discovered in the wardrobe warehouses of Israel Television, the brooding Ohayon embarks on a tangled and bloody trail of detection through the corridors and studios of Israel's official television station and, especially, through the relations, fears, loves, and courage of the people who make the station what it is. It is a journey that brings into question the very ideals upon which Ohayon - and indeed the entire nation - was raised, ideals that may have led to terrible crimes." Chief Superintendent Ohayon has spent his career surrounded by perplexing and horrific cases, but perhaps nothing disturbs him more deeply than what this mysterious woman's murder reveals. For the media, often at the center of the Israeli consciousness - a place where political tensions; hostility; corruption; and the ethnic, social, and religious divisions that shake the nation come together - may indeed be at the root of an unspeakable evil.Synopsis
When a woman's body is discovered in the wardrobe warehouses of Israel Television, Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon embarks on a tangled and bloody trail of detection through the corridors and studios of Israel's official television station, and through the fears, loves, and contradictions of the people who work there. It is an eye-opening journey that brings into question the very ideals upon which Ohayon—and indeed the entire nation—was raised, ideals that may have led to terrible crimes.
The Washington Post - Alana Newhouse
Gur, who died of cancer last year at age 57, has been credited with single-handedly generating the crime-fiction genre in Israeli literature. She did more than that. As proved again in her posthumously published final novel, Murder in Jerusalem, Gur did not simply create characters who investigated crimes; she created crimes through which her characters could investigate the mysteries at the heart of her country.
Editorials
New York Times Book Review
"[A] biting cultural expose"Mystery of the Month -
"Gur’s novels were insightful, thought provoking and eminently readable…"New York Times Book Review
“[A] biting cultural expose”Marilyn Stasio
Politics, religion and sex are the divisive forces in Murder in Jerusalem, a biting cultural exposé (in Evan Fallenberg’s sharp-toothed translation) that takes place in 1997 in the offices and production studios of the state-sponsored television station. Between the chaos of the news operation and the bloated egos of the staff, Ohayon doesn’t know where to begin his investigation of the death of the set designer on a film production of S.Y. Agnon’s novella “Iddo and Eynam.” But in his patient way, he methodically sifts through the professional hostilities and personal animosities and comes to a compassionate understanding of the tragic and, in the end, dehumanizing compromises people make for the sake of their ideals.— The New York Times
Alana Newhouse
Gur, who died of cancer last year at age 57, has been credited with single-handedly generating the crime-fiction genre in Israeli literature. She did more than that. As proved again in her posthumously published final novel, Murder in Jerusalem, Gur did not simply create characters who investigated crimes; she created crimes through which her characters could investigate the mysteries at the heart of her country.— The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Gur's tremendous literary gifts are on full display in her sixth contemporary Israeli mystery to feature the understated but insightful Sephardic detective, Insp. Michael Ohayon (after 2005's Bethlehem Road Murder). The death of set designer Tirzah Rubin, found beneath a fallen pillar on the set of a film adaptation of S.Y. Agnon's Iddo and Eynam, appears to be an accident, but later evidence that it was murder brings Ohayon and his team into the swirl of personalities and politics that make up the national TV station, Channel One. When a witness to Tirzah's final moments also dies, from an overdose of heart medicine while hospitalized, the pressure on Ohayon intensifies. Once again, Gur uses a classic whodunit plot to explore human passions and insecurities with a sophistication equal to that of P.D. James and other better known authors of psychological crime fiction. The concluding moral dilemma Ohayon faces would have been fascinating to follow in future inquiries that will, alas, go unwritten, as Gur died in 2005. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.School Library Journal
Adult/High School
Tirzah Rubin, set designer for Israeli television, is found dead under a fallen marble pillar. Michael Ohayon, the quiet, introspective Chief Superintendent of the Israeli police, arrives on the scene to begin an investigation of what first appears to be an accident and soon becomes a crime. When the killing is followed by a second and then a third death at the studio, Ohayon and his staff delve further into the deeply intertwined lives of the victims and the other major players in this closely knit television family. Was the murderer's motive love, politics, or something else? The story is rich in the culture of modern-day Israel and gives a vivid depiction of the behind-the-scenes drama of a television station, including a masterfully written scene depicting the hour before airtime. The characters are well fleshed out, though American teens might find the Israeli names initially distracting. However, young adults will soon be drawn into the love entanglements, the multiple mysteries, and the everyday lives of people in a war-torn country so often in the news. Teachers of world history will want to include this title on reading lists of fiction about current world issues, and English teachers can add it to the list of accessible books by foreign authors.
—Ellen BellCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.