Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction [Paperback]

Lawrence W. Raphael (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1999

Twelve of today’s top mystery authors bring you all-new stories that present the complexities of modern Jewish life against a riveting backdrop of crime and deception--and a little bit of humor as well. Lapsed faith, interfaith relations, golems, and more add to the intrigue in these tantalizing mysteries.
Will a husband get the answer he is looking for in subjecting his wife to an adultery-testing ritual from the Torah? How do composer Franz Schubert and a youth from the local synagogue get involved in an old murder mystery?
What is an anti-Semite on death row doing studying Torah?
When a talmudic scholar disappears, is his wife’s fate tied to a line in an ancient text?

In the tradition of the award-winning Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction, this collection of compelling and clever stories will delight mystery lovers of any faith.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like a good Jewish grandmother, Raphael serves up a feast of well-chosen tastes and textures in this collection of 13 original stories by well-known authors whose characters span the spectrum of American Jewish experience, from secular to orthodox. In his introduction, Raphael maintains that "there is something essentially Jewish about mystery fiction," for MidrashAthe extraction of deep meaning from seemingly simple passages in holy textsAis itself a process of hunting for clues that others have overlooked, and of piecing them together to find the truth. "A Final Midrash," by Richard Fliegel, tenderly evokes the love of knowledge and personal involvement with the Torah that pervades the rabbinical experience; in it, four rabbis use their training in interpretation to help a detective solve a murder that one of them has committed. Passover tradition helps lawyer Rachel Gold piece together a fellow Jew's contested will in Michael Kahn's jigsaw puzzle, "Bread of Affliction." A lapsed Jew, shunning all belief in God, finds consolation in helping a dead rabbi's family believe the inner truth about his life rather than the ugly truth of his death, in the touching "Kaddish," by Batya Yasgur. Despite their Jewish themes, these stories have an ecumenical appeal: to Raphael, Mazel Tov! (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Theme anthologies are quite the rage in crime fiction at the moment, so it should come as only a mild surprise that an enterprising editor has pulled together mystery stories starring Jewish characters or dealing with Jewish issues. For years, the Jewish mystery began and virtually ended with Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small series, but recently the number and variety of Jewish sleuths have increased dramatically, embracing all styles within the genre, from the most hard-boiled to the cuddliest of cozies. Raphael includes excellent work from such stars of the genre as Stuart Kaminsky, Faye Kellerman, and Howard Engel, but lesser knowns such as Tony Brill and Richard Fliegel also contribute quality stories. Perhaps the highlight is Ronald Levitsky's "Jacob's Voice," in which civil-liberties lawyer Nate Rosen (the hero of a series of superb novels) encounters a new twist on First Amendment law: using freedom of religion to defend a woman who believes she has been possessed by a dybbuk (a wandering soul, according to Jewish belief). These well-chosen stories are sure to please their targeted audience. Ilene Cooper

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Jewish Lights Publishing; 1st edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580230555
• ISBN-13: 978-1580230551
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,615 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Jewish American

More About the Author

Michael Kahn is a trial lawyer by day and an author at night. He wrote his first novel, GRAVE DESIGNS, on a challenge from his wife Margi, who got tired of listening to the same answer whenever she asked him about a book he was reading. "Not bad," he would say, "but I could write a better book than that." "Then write one," she finally said, "or please shut up." So he shut up, and then he wrote one.

Kahn is the award-winning author of: seven Rachel Gold novels; an eighth novel, THE MOURNING SEXTON, under the pen name Michael Baron; and several short stories.

In addition to his day job as a lawyer, he is an adjunct professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, where he teaches a class on censorship and free expression. Married to his high school sweetheart, he is the father of five and the grandfather of, so far, three.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to be Jewish to delight in these stories!, October 1, 1999

By 

Margaret Miller "Micki Miller" (Mountain View, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction (Paperback)

You don't have to be Jewish to delight in these stories; but it doesn't hurt either! From the Preface by Joel Siegel, where we are "commanded" to "Enjoy", through to the final story, aptly named "Kaddish", we are not only entertained, but given the chance to think about important issues such as assimilation, inter-marriage and stereotyping. But don't think the collection is "heavy"! "Mystery Midrash" contains some of our favorite characters from full length mystery novels - Midge Cohen, a New Yorker's New Yorker, Abe Lieberman of Chicago - the cop as "rabbi", Nate Rosen the civil liberties lawyer, and Benny Cooperman, the P.I. from Canada. We get a chance to attend a high school reunion, pre-wedding festivities for an upstate New York Catholic wedding, and an intellectual evening of literary readings! Of course in all cases someone is murdered and our favorite sleuths figure out "who done it".

So get a copy, and don't expect to arise from your chair until you are done, since after each one you will say to yourself that you'll get back to what you were doing after 'just one more'!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I know about a Yiddishe Kop, but a Yiddishe Cop?, May 5, 2000

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction (Paperback)

A Yiddishe Kop, I know... but a Yiddishe Cop? Will dvar mysteries replace dvar torahs on Shabbat morn? Will parents stop hoping their child will be a doctor or a lawyer, and hope for a Jewish cop or detective? What is midrash? Isn't it a deep investigation of the text in order to learn more about it, and piece things together, to compare various texts and clues? Isn't that what a P.I. (Private Investigator) does, too? In this book are original stories by notable mystery writers. Batya contributes "Kaddish", a mystery about a secular Jew who must console a dead rabbi's family by helping them focus on the rabbi's goodness and not the alleged, scandalous events surrounding his death. In "Bread of Affliction" by Michael Kahn (author of the Rachel Gold series, Sheer Gall, Grave Designs), Chicago Attorney Rachel Gold must use her knowledge of Pesach to solve a mystery surrounding a contested will. Richard Fliegel, creator of the Jewish detective, Shelly Lowenkopf ("A Minyan for the Dead"), writes in "A Final Midrash" about four rabbi's who help a detective solve a murder that one of them has committed. If I had a sack of cash, I would certainly option the film rights for "A Final Midrash"! For not only is it an interesting short mystery, but it is a well crafted allusion to the 3 rabbis who entered Pardes with Rabbi Akiva, as well as the four ways to create a drash, namely Pshat, Sot, Drash, and Mysticism. Other contributors include: Toni Brill, Howard Engel, Stuart Kaminsky, Faye Kellerman, Ronald Levitsky, Ellen Rawlings, Shelly Singer, Bob Sloan, Janice Steinberg, and James Yaffe. I was not used to reading mysteries prior to reading this book, but I think this anthology has sparked that "Pintelye Mystery".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treat for all mystery enthusiasts, January 31, 2000

By 

Laurie King, author of O Jerusalem - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery & Detective Fiction (Paperback)

Clever, funny, humane, with a nod at the dark side of the human mind, Mystery Midrash is just what it says: the exploration and development of a common theme, in this case, the mystery short story. As with all midrash, each different take on a story tells us something new; as with all good midrash, that something new returns us to the innate unchangability of the human dilemma, and to humankind's steady relationship with the forces of order in a world of chaos.

Even readers who are not sure why a cheeseburger is a moral decision for a Jew will love this feast.