Bearing Witness: A Rachel Gold Novel

I have been a fan of Rachel Gold since Michael A. Kahn's first book came out, and the waiting time for "Bearing Witness" was way too long. But was worth it! This is his best ever! A very serious subject as well. I had gooseskin reading it. Considering that I live in Switzerland and that we went through serious times here with our banks and the Holocaust money, the book came at a really appropriate time. I hope there are many more Rachel Gold stories in the pipeline.

I have enjoyed all of the Rachel Gold series novels. However, this one may be the very best. It combines humor, history and an incredible plot .The book has a very poignant side concerning anti-semitism. I don't think anyone could read it without shaking their head in disbelief at the acts of anti-semitism portrayed in the book. Rachel Gold and Benny Goldberg are my favorite mystery duo. I went through this book non-stop. One of my favorite humorous references was to Graceland. Rachel likened the jungle room in Graceland to a hill billy decorator on LSD let loose in a Pier One Imports store. Having just visited Graceland the month before that was a most accurate description. I highly recommend this book for both the fun and serious side of the plot. I do hope Mr Kahn continues the Rachel Gold series.

The Rachel Gold stories take place in St. Louis. I live in St. Louis and this is what initially drew me to these books. The first several books in this series were ok, but sometimes the story lines were rather light weight.This current book, Bearing Witness, is different. It is a serious, heavy weight story, that is absolutely absorbing. The book starts out a little slow. It took a few chapters before I really got into it. But once it grabbed me, it would not let go. The investigation of 50 years old incidents revolving around the Nazis and Hitler was riveting. Michael Kahn tells the story in a very suspenseful way. It is truly a page turner to be enjoyed by all who like exciting storytelling with a good dose of history thrown in. I look forward to the next book in this series.

It's not often in a book that the heroine and her allies are so good, and the guys on the other side so bad that you utter a verbal "Yes!" when they get their comeuppance, but in happens in this marvelous continuation of the too-often-overlooked Rachel Gold legal-detective series by Michael Kahn. Taking on the age-discrimination suit of her mother's friend leads to a captain of industry with swastikas in his past and, with her oddball friend Prof. Benny Goldberg and his legal-research irregulars on the case, Rachel parries all the legal roadblocks a multimillion-dollar legal staff can throw at her in unraveling a long-buried puzzle. This sets up an unforgettable and unforgettably dramatic courtroom confrontation. And woven throughout the fabric are a reverent look at the suffering of the Jews, even in the United States, before World War II. And, oh, yes, there's a sweet, growing romance, too. And it all works together. This is a book I've savored even more afterward than when I read it, and I keep coming back to that courtroom confrontation and going "Yes!"

Perhaps the toughest area of anti-discrimination law to prove is age discrimination. However, St. Louis lawyer Rachel Gold accepts the case of Ruth Alpert, a sixty-three year old secretary, suing her employer the Goliath, Beckman Engineering. Rachel finds a strong witness with plenty of evidence in Gloria Muller, former wife of a construction company CEO doing business with Beckman Engineering. However, in front of her eyes, gunmen kill Gloria. Rather than dropping the now dangerous litigation, Rachel, with assistance, begins to review boxes of information on Beckman Engineering. She soon sees a link back to a World War II cabal, Jewish activism, and an anti-Semite group. How that all ties together with a modern day Neo-Nazi group requires more library research and persuading a judge who prefers the rich and famous to the common masses. BEARING WITNESS is a pleasant surprise to anyone who has had to do extensive library research on a project. The astonishment is how exciting author Michael A. Kahn makes this tedious work seem. The story line is exciting and the tie-in between St. Louis' history and the present is cleverly constructed. Rachel and her boyfriend provide an insightful glimpse of the conflict between the assimilation of the Jewish people vs. the Orthodox tradition. Although the support cast never quite develops enough to propel the plot forward fast enough, Michael A. Kahn provides an entertaining novel that makes even paper research seem fun.Harriet Klausner