Lieberman's Law
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
With his Chicago cops, Edgar Award winner “Kaminsky is hard to beat for a thoughtful, well-plotted, well-written mystery” (The Washington Post Book World).
Most days, the counters at Maish’s Deli on Chicago’s North Side are crowded with elderly Jewish men who trade stories and crack wise. But today, the mood at Maish’s is grim. Someone has vandalized the local temple—the fifth in a row—and stolen a priceless Torah, and only Abe Lieberman can set things right. A veteran cop whose low-key attitude and sardonic humor conceal an intense commitment to justice, Lieberman is taking the break-in very personally—the synagogue’s president just happens to be his wife.
With the help of his lapsed Catholic partner, Bill Hanrahan, Lieberman must straddle the roles of detective and diplomat, tracking down the thugs who defaced the temples while at the same time brokering peace between the North Side’s warring factions before they tear the city apart. Because when it comes to the law, the cop they call “Rabbi” understands that while he may work for the Chicago police department, he also serves a higher authority.
Abe Lieberman is “smart, tough, empathetic, and just a tad crazy when circumstances require.” And Lieberman’s Law “is a wonderfully rich cop novel” (Booklist).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A thick layer of tension and a seething urban hostility mix with the droll verbal shenanigans that distinguish this series (Lieberman's Day, etc.). The old Jewish men in the deli find it hard to crack wise when a synagogue is defaced and the priceless Torah is stolen. Aging Chicago cop Abe Lieberman takes the vandalism as a personal affront: it's his shul, and his wife, Bess, is its president. Meanwhile, he's also dealing with a Korean gang and some black kids who want him to stop sitting in their park after dark. He's fighting the effects of runaway cholesterol; his grandkids are living in his house; his prodigal daughter is coming home with her new black husband; and Hanrahan, his partner, is fixing to wed a Chinese woman. Helped by the favor mill of the streets, Abe hits the trail of a perverse alliance of white skinheads and Arab militants acting out, respectively, blind idiot racism and a 20-year-old vendetta. Multi-ethnic Chicago could hardly ask for a better ventriloquist than Kaminsky. The city comes warmly alive when hardened gang members wax sentimental over the Cubs and in the erudite speech of Abe, which contrasts markedly with the sudden, savage force he can apply to a kneecap when necessary. This is more cop drama than mystery. But such categories don't matter. This is a taut suspenseful tale, animated by a sometimes dark but decidedly moral vision.
