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.).

Starred review from August 15, 2013
Israeli author Shoham's gritty crime thriller set in Tel Aviv. An elderly woman witnesses a rape as she scans the street with her high-powered binoculars, but at first, she decides not to get involved. The victim's father helps identify a suspect named Ziv Nevo, and Detective Eli Nahum believes he has an easy case. Nevo has been found at the crime scene with no plausible explanation. He is innocent of the rape, but his real reason for being in the neighborhood is even worse. He is--well, it has to do with the Mafia. Detective Nahum is experienced, confident and careless, ready to take shortcuts and get the case over with. Under interrogation, Nevo is afraid to explain what he was doing at night in a strange neighborhood. In fact, he thinks he's been caught for what he was really doing. Once he caves and admits he did it, he finally learns what "it" is. His protestation that he didn't rape anyone can't keep him out of prison. Meanwhile, Nahum gets caught carrying on an affair with a woman in the chief's office. Nahum's career and his marriage collapse at about the same time he realizes what shoddy police work he has done. The good news? Now he has plenty of time to exonerate Nevo, learn his secret and--perhaps hardest of all--rebuild his own marriage. What begins as a crime thriller becomes the story of a detective's search for redemption. This book marks the author's U.S. debut. Let's hope he gives us many more stories like it.

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