Bethlehem Road Murder: A Michael Ohayon Mystery

This worthy book covers a lot of ground: the animosity between Sephardic and Ashkenazy Jews, the hatred between Arab and Jew, intrigue on the Jerusalem Police Force and -- ripped from the history books -- the allegations of legions of Yemeni Jewish children being taken from their parents and secretly given to mostly childless well-to-do Israeli couples, during the formative years of the Jewish state. Through all of these arenas strides Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon, the thoughtful, sensitive investigator whose insights prove unerring and whose relationship with a childhood sweetheart gets rekindled. Only the late and lamented Batya Gur can so ably describe and do justice to the fascinating setting that is modern-day Jerusalem. She reveals it as more than just an ancient city so important to three religions. Its inhabitants are just as wrapped up in the mundane throes of life as those of any modern city in the world. Sadly, I only have one more of Gur's books to read before I complete her all-too-brief canon of work. This, like her other books, is a pleasure to read.

This is a really interesting insight into the political and ethnical varieties in the Israel and specifically Jerusalem. It also examines some less than glorious moments in the country's history. Gur places her murder in an ethnically mixed neighborhood of Jerusalem and brings to the surface the suspicion and antagonism this "melting pot" causes in its inhabitants. Some of the recurring secondary characters gets a deeper involvement in this installment of the series and get to represent some of the political viewpoints, from the Arab-hating extreme to the overly liberal. As in other books in the series, the killer and the motive are pretty easy to guess, but it's still a nice mystery because of the high stakes. In earlier books, Gur has concentrated on very limited groups (psychoanalysts, kibbutzniks, musicians, etc.) and has stayed away from overt politics, but this story, set during the Second Intifada, relays the fear that an unstable society will cause its citizens - you just never know who and where the enemy is.

Batya Gur has another hit with this installment of her Michael Ohayon Mysteries. As with her other mysteries, Batya Gur integrates the complexities of human behavior, the land of Israel and murder to create a real story. I remained in the dark about who the murderer was until almost the very end, not because I'm slow but because there were so many possibilities. Her insights into the Israel Police Force, Israeli society and Israelis are right on. I enjoyed every moment - and I think you will too.

Police Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon is called in to investigate a murdered young woman, her body found in his ex-girlfriend's under rennovation apartment. Because the victim's face was smashed, identification takes a while, but the Jerusalem neighborhood is tight and the missing woman's identity becomes known. But Zahara Bashari was a complex person. She was pregnant, had recently been given an apartment by her boss, was highly active in a movement to preserve the culture of Yemeni Jews, and had been stalked by a young neighbor girl who used magic in an attempt to take Zahara's place among the beautiful. Of course, the Intifada is an ever-present threat and both police and the neighbors are quick to point their fingers at Arabs in the neighborhood. Much better them than one of their own. Author Batya Gur creates a compelling sense of place in the Jerusalem neighborhood where old hatreds and fears have festered since Israel's founding. The city itself, the creepy atmosphere of fear and hatred caused by the violence cycle between Jew and Arab, and the antagonism between European, Asian, and African Jews all come to stark life in Gur's prose. The character of Nessia, the young girl filled with self-hatred and with a desperate attempt to conjur a new world for herself is strong and compelling. For me, few of the other characters really stood out, however. Even Michael Ohayon, with his bland and lazy unwillingness to allow his lieutenants to persecute suspicious Arabs too closely, his unexplored fascination with the rediscovery of his teenaged love, and his confused relationship with his fellow police officers didn't really stand out for me. I love reading mysteries about worlds outside my own--and Batya Gur's Jerusalem setting is certainly that. Gur's descriptions, the explanation of never-forgotten feuds between European and non-European Jews, and the backdrop of Jewish/Arab hatred certainly makes for compelling reading.

Setting her novel in an ethnically mixed neighborhood of Jerusalem, Israeli novelist Batya Gur continues the career of Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon, formerly a historian, now a police investigator. In this fifth book in the series, Michael Ohayon investigates a particularly gory murder. An apparently beautiful young woman has been murdered in the attic of a house undergoing renovations, her face beaten to a pulp. No one knows how she might have been lured to such a place or why she might have been murdered. Zahara Bashari, the victim, has been developing a small museum "for the splendor of Yemenite culture" in the basement of a local synagogue. Complex political issues exist between the Yemenites, known as the Mizrahis, and the Ashkenazis (Russian Jews), and Zahara believes that the Ashkenazim want to wipe out everything that distinguishes the Yemenite Jews. Furthermore, in the 1950s, Yemenite babies were kidnapped from their parents and given to others to raise, and Zahara wants to find out more about this period and what might have happened to one of her own kin. The investigation is centered on the neighborhood, where Zahara's parents and their next door neighbors have not spoken for years. Nessia, a lonely, young girl with no friends, idolizes Zahara and follows her movements in the neighborhood, collecting "souvenirs" of Zahara's life, and looking for some sort of recognition-until she, too, disappears. Zahara's personal life proves to be complex, and her previously unknown ownership of an apartment and substantial savings account prove particularly worrisome. The rivalries and tensions within the neighborhood and the police reflect all aspects of society and all political and social movements. Though Ohayon is a moderate in his views toward Arabs, Danny Balilty, deputy commander of the intelligence division, is a hard-liner. Within the neighborhood, however, residents work with and hire Arab contractors, some have friends who are Arabs, and some express annoyance at the strict measures imposed by their government to prohibit the work of Arabs except under certain circumstances. Though the novel is filled with information about a unique way of life, the mystery is not always easy to follow. Pronoun references are sometimes unclear, the translation is occasionally awkward, and digressions slow down the action. Ohayon's dissertation on love during his courtship, for example, wanders on too long and lessens the tension. Still, author Batya Gur has some good psychological insights into character, especially of the fat, young girl Nessia, and Gur's ability to juggle innumerable characters and plot ideas is admirable. (3.5 stars) Mary Whipple