Death in a City of Mystics

by Janice Steinberg

The newest book in a series praised as "fascinating" (Carolyn Wheat) and "witty and moving" (Grounds for Murder)...San Diego Public Radio reporter Margo Simon returns in Janice Steinberg's most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425166155
• ISBN13: 9780425166154
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 268 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Shamus Award Nominee - characters seem real

My interest in a book always depends on whether I get involved in the characters or not. With this one, I really felt like I knew them. The main character has a realistic relationship with her mother and her sister (also very funny!)This kind of interesting character development is what I also like in mysteries by Julie Smith.I just heard this book was nominated for a Shamus award as Best Paperback Mystery. I like knowing that I read the book before it got famous.

Enjoyable on many levels

I loved this book! As someone who is not very familiar with Israel or Jewish traditions I thought perhaps I would miss a lot, but the author guided the reader through with ease. I not only enjoyed the mystery, but the humor, the family dynamic, and the wealth of information. All the characters seemed very real to me, and their relationships were something one could really relate to. The grown daughters' relationship with each other, and individually with their mother, was delightful and familiar! Overall, I loved the quality of the writing, and the way the book flowed.

This excellent book transcends genre fiction.

As a mystery fiction junkie who also happens to be a Jewish educator, this book satisfied me on many levels. The author has managed to transplant the wonderful Margo Simon into a completely foreign culture without missing a beat. Unlike Steinberg's previous books, when we were most dazzled with Margo's strength of character and her personal development, this book gives us a wonderful opportunity to see Margo as a part of a far bigger circle of life - as a daughter - a sister - a wife and stepmother - a Jew struggling with her religious identity - and of course as the premier sleuth we've come to expect. Margo ends up in the ancient Israeli city of Safed after her mother falls seriously ill. Her mother has unexpectedly left a tour group to study with a teacher of Jewish mysticism and has seemed to have found a new meaning in her life which leaves Margo both puzzled and pleased. Unfortunately, the teacher is angering the religious establishment with her teachings and her students worry constantly about her safety. Margo is initially suspicious of her mother's illness, and when Batsheva, her mother's teacher, is killed, the detective in Margo will not be stopped. Permeating the entire book is both accurate and meaningful material on the Kabbalah as well the humorous family dynamic between Margo and her sister Audrey. The combination in lesser hands wouldn't work, but Steinberg balances the two, while never losing sight of the mystery at the core of the novel. This is a book with dozens of layers - each enhancing the next - and anyone who dives into it will come away satisfied.

Great tale about Israel's secular and religious Jews debate

Over the centuries, thousands of people have lost their lives in order for the Jews to have a homeland. The independent state of Israel has a history older than the birth of the Christ, let alone the establishment of Western European nations. With the millennium approaching, Jews from around the world seek spiritual reawakening in a land steeped with mysticism as defined by the kaballah.Radio reporter Margo Simon's mother, Alice, is a recent visitor to the Holy Land. In Safed, a city renowned for its study of the kaballah, Alice finds a new religious fervor fostered by Batsheva Haleur, a controversial spiritual advisor. Margo shrugs off her mother's new outlook on life until she learns her mother is in intensive care in an Israeli hospital. She and her sister fly to see their mother. They quickly learn that she was poisoned by an herb, allegedly used to calm an upset stomach. Most people feel that this was a tragic accident, but Margo believes this was a deliberate act of sabatoge which she plans to prove even if she has to place her own life in jeopardy.Janice Sterling captures the soul of Israel in her most profound work, DEATH IN A CITY OF MYSTICS. She provides her readers a deep look at the problems confronting the country due to the internal pressure of religious fanatics vs. secular Jews. Margo is a strong woman who easily fits into the social structure of a nation where women are the equals of men. It is her thirst for knowledge that provides the audience the opportunity to observe a modern society grappling with questions as old as time itself. The who-done-it fits brilliantly within this backdrop, leaving the audience with a superior novel.Harriet Klausner