The Missing File

Starred review from January 28, 2013
At the beginning of literary scholar Mishani’s outstanding first novel, Insp. Avraham Avraham of the Holon police tells a complainant that there are “no detective novels in Hebrew” because crimes in Israel are straightforward, with no real mystery. Subsequent events show that a crime committed in Israel can offer plenty of mystery. When Hannah Sharabi expresses anxiety about her 16-year-old son, Ofer, who’s failed to return home from school, Avraham dismisses her concerns of foul play. As time passes and Ofer doesn’t reappear, Avraham feels increasingly guilty. Officials soon launch an investigation, which becomes the obsessive focus of a neighbor of the Sharabi family, Ze’ev Avni, who tutored the high school boy. Avni can’t stop involving himself in the case in bizarre and self-sabotaging ways. Mishani, the editor of international fiction and crime literature at Keter Books in Israel, puts his expertise in the genre to good use in combining the procedural and the puzzle with artful misdirection. Agent: Marc Koralnik, the Liepman Agency (Switz.).

April 1, 2013

Israeli author Mishani's excellent debut features police inspector Avraham Avraham, a mildly depressive type who lives in the rundown city of Holon. He has spent most of his time on investigations that require little thinking so when a woman reports her 16-year-old son's disappearance, the detective tells her to wait, since most runaways come home on their own. But the boy doesn't return. As the case progresses, it becomes progressively cloudier. Mishani tells his tale from the dual perspectives of Avraham and a neighbor whose preoccupation with the missing boy seems suspicious. An unanticipated admission leads to an unexpected conclusion, but there are surprises to the very end of this well-crafted book. VERDICT Avraham isn't at all like Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret but there's a commonality between Simenon's thrillers and this book, having to do with the dominance of place and atmosphere and the feeling detectives aren't supermen, just ordinary men doing their best at a nearly impossible job. Mystery lovers, especially fans of the late Israeli crime writer Batya Gur, will enjoy this work.--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

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