By Jonathan Dunsky; reviewed by Jeannette Hartman

It’s March 1952, when this, the eighth Adam Lapid mystery, opens.

When construction worker Ami Rapoport comes to Adam to ask him to investigate the murder of a man named Emmanuel Feldbaum two months earlier, Adam realizes he’s seen this man before.

Ami has very little money and a pregnant wife, but Feldbaum saved his life when the two of them were marched out of Sachsenhausen in April 1945 by the Nazis. It was Feldbaum who kept Ami from giving up. Now, he wants justice done for Feldbaum.

Adam himself is a survivor of Auschwitz. His nightmares often drive him into the dark, empty streets of Tel Aviv. It was there several times that Adam crossed paths with Feldbaum. He walked like a sleep walker, mechanically, looking only at the sidewalk. He didn’t react to Adam even when they nearly collide rounding a corner.

The man haunts Adam. He decides to seek him out. On his fourth night of luckless searching, he discovers Feldbaum’s dead body under a bush in Sheinkin Garden.

Adam searches the body for identification then makes a call to report the murder to the police. He doesn’t identify himself. As a former Hungarian police detective, he knows he will be the prime suspect if he does.

Feldbaum is a vulnerable victim. He’d been in the Nazi camps. His family had all perished. He’d gone back to his hometown in Poland where he’d had some trouble, was sent to prison and suffered a serious brain injury. He’d been in Israel only about a month before he was murdered. He had no friends, no apparent enemies and no resources.

But he kept mumbling about his father’s house and trying to find a man named Menashe Volkoff, who had arrived in Haifa in July 1939.

When Adam tries to track down Volkoff, he discovers that Volkoff had vanished less than a week after he arrived.

Now Adam is faced with solving a murder of a man who is virtually unknowable with his only lead the name of a man who vanished 13 years earlier.

As with author Jonathon Dunsky’s earlier books, the young state of Israel with its exploding population, lack of housing and developing economy serve as the backdrop for the mystery. Dunsky does an excellent job of blending history with mystery.

The earlier books in the series (in story order rather than publication order) are:

• TEN YEARS GONE
• THE DEAD SISTER
• THE AUSCHWITZ VIOLINIST
• A DEBT OF DEATH
• A DEADLY ACT
• THE AUSCHWITZ DETECTIVE
• A DEATH IN JERUSALEM
• IN THAT SLEEP OF DEATH

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The Author: Jonathan Dunsky (1978 – )

A native of Tel Aviv, Jonathan Dunsky is best known for his historical mysteries featuring private investigator Adam Lapid and set in the early years of the State of Israel.

In addition, he wrote the standalone crime thriller, THE PAYBACK GIRL, and a variety of short stories in different genres.

An avid reader since childhood, Dunsky wrote his first novel when he was 18. It was 18 more years before he wrote his first two published novels, THE DEAD SISTER and THE AUSCHWITZ VIOLINIST in the summer of 2005

Dunsky is a public speaker who gives talks on Israeli and Jewish history, the art of writing and how mystery fiction and history come together to create fascinating stories.