Friday, December 24, 2010

Your crime-fiction virtual Chinese restaurant

If your favorite bookshop or library is closed tomorrow, run out and buy Murder is No Mitzvah: Short Mysteries About Jewish Occasions today. The collection of stories originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine includes work by Max Allan Collins, Larry Beinart, Arthur Conan Doyle and others.

Happy holidays.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Labels: ,

13 Comments:

Blogger Jose Ignacio Escribano said...

Happy holidays for yoy too Peter.

December 25, 2010  
Blogger The Celtic Kagemusha said...

don't you mean "run out and smash and grab a copy from the window of your friendly neighbourhood book store", given the shops would be closed today.
Anyway Happy Christmas to you too, hombre!

December 25, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Nope, can't steal from bookstores.

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2010  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

I'm in luck! My library has this book, and I put it on reserve.

However, my only stipulation is that stories about Jewish holidays be written by Jewish writers, even mysteries. Thus, one gets the great humor, too.

December 28, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Some of the writers are Jewish, and others could be, to judge by their names. I don't know where Arthur Conan Doyle fits in, though.

December 28, 2010  
Blogger The Celtic Kagemusha said...

He loved his bagels, I understand, Peter!

December 28, 2010  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

Or at least they excited his scientific interest.

December 28, 2010  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

I am reading this book, have read and laughed my way through 1/3 of it so far.

The humor is priceless, both subtle and not subtle.

I have have to buy this book. I certainly have to photocopy one story about two elderly New York women who think a neighbor is a Nazi terrorist, so that I can give it to friends to read.

January 18, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

I should take another look at the book, and maybe send a story or two to my mother. Thanks.

January 18, 2011  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

"Comes the Revolution," by Gregory Fallis is the story about the two elderly New Yorkers who think their neighbor is a Nazi...leads to a zany conclusion. No murder though.

January 18, 2011  
Blogger Peter Rozovsky said...

That's an attraction, to see how the writer meets the challenge of setting up a crime story without a murder. And then there's the humorous situation, of course.

January 18, 2011  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

It's the mystery of who the neighbor really is, as the two women think his packages are covered by swastikas. They take his mail and listen to his conversations through the wall. The conclusion if hilarious.

There actually aren't murders in all of the stories--a jewelry heist, a rabbi and a sorcerer testing their expertise. Lots of humor and Jewish idioms. I don't know if anyone who isn't familiar with this would understand the wit.

I just start laughing at the titles and the first paragraphs, as I recognize the language.

I will have to buy this (maybe at Abe Books) to loan to friends, those who will get the wit and the cultural references.

January 19, 2011  
Anonymous kathy d. said...

And if you copy any of the stories, another one that's full of Jewish idioms and culture is called, "Mom Remembers," about an older woman who solves a murder mystery, just by thinking it through, and remembering a similar mystery from 35 years earlier.

January 19, 2011  

Post a Comment

<< Home