Lineup

Starred review from July 1, 2013
Only at the end of this brilliantly constructed crime thriller, the first by Israeli Shoham available in English, does the author’s ingenuity in intersecting lives and story lines become apparent. The rape at knife point of 24-year-old Adi Regev just outside her Tel Aviv apartment building prompts Adi’s enraged father, Yaron, to stake out her place in the hope of catching her assailant. During a nightlong vigil, Yaron spots someone acting suspiciously who matches Adi’s description of the rapist and follows him. Yaron later describes the man in sufficient detail to Insp. Eli Nachum for the police to arrest Ziv Nevo, who has a shady past. Irregularities in the lineup that includes Nevo and Adi’s uncertainty whether they have the right man complicate the investigation. Alternating perspectives revealing the inner lives of the characters—including Nachum, Nevo, the prosecutor on the case, and an ambitious journalist—enrich the plot. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown (U.K.).