Jewish

Work has been sparse for detective Amos Parisman. He’s getting older, while his wife, whose dementia has become more advanced, requires greater attention. So when he’s asked to take on a job protecting a rare Torah—it was smuggled out of a North African Jewish community during World War II and somehow made its way to a small, rundown Sephardic temple in Hollywood—Amos is quick to say yes. A small, easy job, what could go wrong? Just wait and see. A bit of a classic gumshoe and a bit of a luft-mensch, or dreamer, Amos brings on his usual cast of characters to help out, from former-wrestler Omar to cousin Shelly to LAPD Lieutenant Bill Malloy (the two guardedly share information.) It’s a delight to follow Amos as he rolls around Los Angeles County, following potential leads while immersing himself in the world of rare books. Weinberger never fails to deliver a novel that’s as rich in character as it is in environment. Save it for that weekend when you need to escape.

It’s 1943, and U.S. Army Sergeant Nathan Silverman is preparing to head back to Germany, his homeland, to fight the Nazis and, he hopes, find his close-knit Jewish family still alive. He’s one of the “Ritchie Boys,” members of a real WWII army unit made up of Germans and Austrians who were trained in intelligence and sent back to Europe as spies. But his days at Camp Ritchie are interrupted when Uncle Sam orders him to New York City to prepare for a different mission. Nathan has a valuable connection: his father is a physicist with the Nazi equivalent of the Manhattan Project, and the allies can use Nathan to find out how close Germany is to building a nuclear bomb. One problem: Nathan knows little about physics, but the army has taken care of this. His partner on the trip will be an American physicist, Dr. Fisher, whom Nathan is surprised to find is a young woman rather than the aging male academic he expected. The setup is absorbing on its own, with Balson (winner of the National Jewish Book Award for The Girl from Berlin) providing actual details about the race on both sides of the Atlantic to make a devastating weapon. Once the pair heads off, the action doesn’t disappoint either, at one point involving the most audacious plan imaginable to trick the enemy. There are sad moments and romantic ones here, but overall this is one nailbiting espionage scene after another, and perfect for fans of the large World War II spy genre.

The Gonif

An Affair of Spies