The Auschwitz Violinist

Adam Lapid Mysteries #3

by Jonathan Dunsky

Death isn't always what it seems. And neither is murder. 

When a former Auschwitz inmate is found dead with his wrists slashed, the police call it suicide, but private investigator Adam Lapid is not so sure. 

Has he stumbled upon the trail of a devious serial killer? One who is targeting Holocaust survivors for some unknown sin?

The Auschwitz Violinist is a page-turning historical mystery novel about madness, murder, and revenge.

Grab this book if you're interested in murder mysteries, private investigator novels, or historical mysteries.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Jewish, Israel, Crime

232 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 7, 2016

About the author

Jonathan Dunsky is the author of eight crime novels, seven of which -- Ten Years Gone, The Dead Sister, The Auschwitz Violinist, A Debt of Death, A Deadly Act, The Auschwitz Detective, and A Death in Jerusalem -- are mysteries taking place in the early days of the State of Israel and featuring private investigator Adam Lapid, a holocaust survivor and former soldier and Nazi hunter. He has also published a standalone thriller called The Payback Girl and a number of short stories in various genres.

Born in Israel, he served for four years in the Israeli Army. After his military service he worked as a team leader in various high-tech firms, ran his own Search Engine Optimization business, and lectured in the faculty of Business Management in Tel Aviv University. He holds a degree in computer sciences and business. He's lived for several years in Europe and currently resides in Israel with his wife and two sons.

You can contact him at http://jonathandunsky.com/contact/

Reviews

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Auschwitz Violinist (Adam Lapid Mysteries, #3) by Jonathan Dunsky was the third book in this series that I have read. All the books take place in Israel during the 1950’s. Adam Lapid, a Holocaust survivor, resided in Tel Aviv and worked as a private detective. He had set up office in his friend Greta’s coffee shop. Greta and Adam have a mutual agreement that revolved around protection and food. It worked for each of them. I listened to the audiobook of The Auschwitz Violinist that was well narrated by Dallin Bradford.

One day Adam was walking on a street in Tel Aviv when someone called his name. To Adam’s surprise it was Yosef Kaplon, a man who had been in the same barracks at Auschwitz with Adam until he wasn’t. Back then, it was common for prisoners to disappear. Adam assumed that either Kaplon had been shot or put to death in the gas chamber. At that chance meeting, Yosef Kaplon shared his story of survival at Auschwitz with Adam. Yosef’s mother had insisted that Yosef learn to play the violin as a young boy. That ability saved Yosef’s life. Yosef was chosen to become part of the orchestra that played at Auschwitz. The first thing the new prisoners heard when they were ordered to disembark from the cattle cars was the music of the orchestra. Yosef now played his violin at a bar in Tel Aviv and he invited Adam to come hear him play that night. The music was haunting but Adam enjoyed hearing Yosef play. They agreed to get together again.

The next day, the owner of the bar where Yosef played came to see Adam at Greta’s coffee shop. Adam was informed that Yosef had taken his own life only hours after Adam had heard him play the previous night. The police had deemed it a suicide and there was even a suicide note. The bar owner was having a hard time accepting that Yosef would have committed suicide. Adam also questioned why Yosef would do that after surviving Auschwitz. Adam agreed to look into the situation.

When Adam visited Yosef’s apartment the next day, everything pointed to a suicide. Something was bothering Adam, though. He could just accept that this was a suicide as the police claimed it was or he could investigate it like any of his other cases. Adam decided on the latter. Before leaving Yosef’s apartment building, Adam found an unopened letter in Yosef’s mail box. Adam stuck it into his pocket. When Adam got back to Greta’s he opened the envelope and read the letter. It was from someone Yosef knew in Jerusalem. Adam decided to go to Jerusalem and speak to this person who seemed to have been friends with Yosef. When Adam located the address that the letter had been sent from, he was told that the man had recently died by committing suicide. Could the two cases be related and if so how? Adam was determined to find out.

Each book in The Adam Lapid Mystery series that I have read so far has been fast paced and well written. There were lots of twists and turns in each one as well. I really enjoyed the ending of The Auschwitz Violinist. I was totally surprised and didn’t see it coming. Now I am looking forward to reading book #4. There are seven books in this series so far. I hope Jonathan Dunsky keeps writing more. I highly recommend The Auschwitz Violinist by Jonathan Dunsky.

[Tamar...playing hooky for a few hours today · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am in love with this series. Anyone who has ever visited or lived in Israel between 1948 and 1968 will appreciate much of the historical ambience of the period described. I had to laugh at the off-handed mention of bottles rolling down the aisles of movie theaters (the only things missing in the movie experience description was the straining to hear dialog over the din of an audience chatting merrily while reading subtitles, and the standing up at the end of the film to find the floors littered with sunflower and pumpkin seed shells). The design of the Mugrabi theater with a ceiling that opened to the sky in the summer was long before my time, although you can still see some preserved (and some not) defunct open-air theaters (not drive-ins, to my knowledge, there was only ever one drive-in theater, in Israel, that opened in 1973 not far from Tel Aviv University).

Each of the books that I have read by Dunsky, delves into the minutiae of everyday life in Israel during the period described, whether it be the movies, theaters, telephones (lack thereof), landscapes, professions, architecture, interior design, etc. The descriptions of the characters in the series, coming from all over Europe and North Africa, compare with the U.S. as a metaphoric melting pot in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The plot in this book revolves around the lives and deaths of two musicians who survived Auschwitz by virtue of their talent. The lives of the Auschwitz musicians was by no means easy and they suffered both physically and emotionally as they were forced to play merry music at parties thrown at the camp for SS soldiers, guards, and families, or playing while the surviving deportees descended from boxcars on trains delivering them to their death – some sent straight to the crematoriums, others shot by impatient camp guards, the rest to suffer starvation, hard labor, and cruel violence at the hands of their jailors.

Private detective Adam Lapid, himself an Auschwitz survivor, whose wife and children were exterminated upon arrival to the camp, uses his police procedural skills to unravel the mystery of two apparent suicides of Auschwitz musician survivors. I confess that the perpetrator seemed to come out of left-field. Had the perp been a vicious Kapo that had been recognized by the victims, and therefore murdered to cover up the Kapo’s identity and past atrocities, I would have found the motive to be a little more credible. Yet my overall enjoyment of the book and the series did not suffer as a result.

I enjoy the clever ways that Lapid unravels his mysteries and, as you may have noticed, I especially enjoy the historical ambiance of the novels.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam meets a fellow Auschwitz survivor, Yosef, in Tel Aviv. He listens to him play the violin at a Hungarian bar. Yosef had played in the band at Auschwitz. He tells Adam that music and his mother are why he is still alive. Four days later Adam discovers that Yosef is dead by suicide. It probably occurred the night Adam saw him play at the bar. The bar’s owner hires Adam to find out why Yosef committed suicide. Adam hits the streets running and finds another suicide. He asks his police contact to check records and finds a murder. All three dead men were musicians and inmates at Auschwitz. Sort of predictable but still shocking. It looked like Adam was finally going to get the help he needed to cope with his PTSD. I’m ready for the next adventure. Adam is the Dirty Harry of early Israel.

[Grace J Reviewerlady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another series I am really enjoying reading; it would be so easy just to sit and indulge myself in non-stop books but I'm rationing myself to one per month!

Adam Lapid is shocked when he meets Yosef Kaplan on a busy street in Tel Aviv; they were incarcerated together in Auschwitz and when Kaplan disappeared one night, it was assumed he was dead. Adam is delighted to meet him again and hear all the details of his survival. However, the very next day Kaplan is found dead in his apartment and the police declare it is suicide - but Adam's not so sure. It doesn't equate with the man he met the night before and, being Adam, he can't leave it alone so sets out to find out what actually happened.

Like most, I am aware of what happened during the Holocaust but with each one of these novels I learn a little bit more. I haven't read a lot about this time period in Israel following the war and I am fascinated with it all. Jonathan Dunsky has obviously done a lot of research and he writes beautifully, producing a riveting mystery with twists and turns along the way. A gripping read, one which made me brush away a tear more than once, and a worthy addition to the series. I'm happy to both recommend this novel and give it all five glowing stars.

[George P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a man greets Adam Lapid on the streets of Tel Aviv, Lapid recognizes him as a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz named Yosef Kaplon. A few days later, Kaplon slits his wrists and a friend asks Lapid to figure out why. His investigation opens a window on Holocaust survivors, collaboration, and vengeance.

Before the 1961 Adolf Eichmann trial, many Israelis poorly understood the experience of European Jews who had survived the Shoah, and the survivors rarely spoke about their experiences.

Some Israelis—sabras, “natives”—felt that European Jews had been too weak and compliant in the face of oppression. The “new Zionist man” would show the world that Jews couldn’t be pushed around. Survivors felt differently, of course. There had been little they could do, and there were few Gentiles willing to help.

After the war, radicals began targeting Nazi officers and camp guards for assassination because the Allies were doing relatively little to bring the perpetrators of genocide to justice. This the background leading up to the Mossad’s capture of Eichmann in 1960. The radicals also took a dim view of European Jews whom they felt had collaborated with the enemy: the Judenrat(ghetto police), Kapos(concentration camp supervisors), even musicians forced to play in camp orchestras.

Dunsky uses this mix of survival, collaboration, and vengeance as the background to The Auschwitz Violinist, which is the third Adam Lapid novel. On the whole, he does a good job. I will note, however, that when Dunsky introduced a particular character in particular, I had a premonition he would turn out to be the bad guy. And I was right. I can’t say whether this was because I have read too many mysteries or because Dunsky telegraphed the ending unwittingly. Probably the former.

So, three stars for The Auschwitz Violinistfrom me, but it’s still a page-turner, and I look forward to the fourth novel in the series.

Book Reviewed
Jonathan Dunsky, The Auschwitz Violinist: An Adam Lapid Mystery(Charleston, NC: CreateSpace, 2016).

P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.

[Judie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Private Investigator Adam Lapid was casually walking through Tel Aviv when he met Yosef Kaplon. The meeting was a shocker for both of them. The last time they had been together was when they were imprisoned at Auschwitz during the Shoah. Yosef’s prisoner task was playing the violin in the camp orchestra. It kept him alive but made him a witness to the fates of the millions of people, primarily European Jews, as they arrived in the camp and were herded off to either immediate death in the gas chambers or slower starvation, torture, and death for those who survived the selection.
Neither man knew the other was still alive..
Yosef invited Adam to a concert he was giving. Adam went and was impressed. Soon thereafter, though, Yosef’s body was found. His wrists had been slashed, there was a note, and the police called it a suicide.
For reasons made clear in THE AUSCHWITZ VIOLINIST, Adam determined that Yosef had been murdered and set out to find the killer and prevent additional killings.
When the Jews who survived the Shoah began arriving in Israel (their homes in Europe had been destroyed and their lives were in danger there), the Israelis were not very welcoming. Many considered the survivors to be cowards, “going to their deaths like sheep.” Many committed suicide. Other Israelis said they were all crazy.
Adam, being a witness to the atrocities, knew better. “There was a lot of fear in that camp, but not a trace of cowardice. Not among those who died and certainly not among those who lived."
“I recalled how during the War of Independence, new conscripts to the Israeli Defense Force, some of them mere days off the ships that had brought them from war-ravaged Europe, were handed a rifle and uniform and sent to plug a hole in this unit or that line. Many of them died in their first battle.”
Jonathan Dunsky notes that “Only a people as cultured and advanced as the Germans who could have done such a thing. A less advanced people would not have had the planning organizational skills required to create the death industry the Germans had erected, with the gas chambers, the slave camps, the efficient transportation of prisoners to the camps, their swift elimination within, and the disposal of nearly all trace of their existence. Savages, at least in the way Europeans used the word, would have been much less methodical and efficient. And fewer Jews would have been murdered at their hands.”
Blaming the survivors for their fate kept many of them from seeking the help, particularly the psychiatric help, they need. Adam was one of them. “Dredging up the pleasant memories would require digging through whole layers of unpleasant ones.”
THE AUSCHWITZ VIOLINIST is the third of the Adam Lapid series and, like its predecessors, is an action-packed page-turner. (I read all of them in a week. Didn’t get much sleep but I do have my priorities.)
It’s well-written and brings the reader back to Israel soon after the birth of the new state, just after the Shoah. As in the other books, the characters are well-developed, the descriptions accurate, and the ending is unexpected.

[Chaplain Stanley Chapin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting look at the survivors

I have had the opportunity of viewing Auschwitz,spend time in Germany and Israel, and other European countries The extermination of the Jewish people from those countries is one of the darkest in all of humanity.

[Donald Schopflocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the third in the series, you know what you’re getting. Entertaining, but not revelatory.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting

This is Jonathan Dunsky's third book and each one gets better. I find the setting is interesting. I know very little about the beginning of Israel and that part of the world. The storyline has a surprise ending.

[Jeannette Hartman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a readable, engaging book, but I expected more. Private investigator and Auschwitz survivor Adam Lapid sees someone he recognizes from the camp. Yosef Kaplon had vanished so quickly from the barracks that Adam believed he'd been killed.

Kaplon invites Lapid to a Hungarian cafe that evening to hear him play his violin. It turns into a magic al evening for Lapid, filled with bittersweet memories. Surrounded by conversations in his native Hungarian, eating goulash that rivals his own mother, listening to Kaplon's heavenly music, Lapid is remind of all he lost at Auschwitz.

By morning Kaplon himself is dead, an apparent victim of suicide unable to face life without those whom he loves. The more Lapid digs, however, the more he suspects murder. Soon, he realizes that Kaplon wasn't the murderer's only victim.

The strength of this book is its depiction of post-independence Israel in the early 1950s. The country is filled with immigrants from around the world, and myriad economic challenges. Survivors like Lapid and Kaplon are haunted by the past. Israelis who didn't experience the Holocaust fail to understand its lingering effects on those who did.

Dunsky is good at creating a mystery that seems to be impossible to solve and then having Lapid unravel it in a logical credible way.

What disappoints me about the Lapid mysteries is the lack of a story arc across the books in the series. The mysteries come and get solved, but Lapid doesn't evolve. Dunsky doesn't get into deep characterizations. If I'm going to invest myself in a character and a series, I'd like to see some evolution in that character.

[Leah M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rounded to 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Jonathan Dunsky for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: Holocaust imagery, grief, suicide, PTSD, antisemitism, violence, murder

I’m definitely hooked on this series, and it feels like each book is better than the previous one. Once I start reading, I can’t stop and find myself lying through each book, thinking about it if I have to step away from it, and just wanting to hole up and binge read not just the book, but the whole series.

In this book, Adam happens to run into a fellow Holocaust survivor, who invites him to meet at a cafe. When he goes to the cafe, he discovers that the man is an incredibly talented violinist, and that was how he survived Auschwitz—by playing in the camp orchestra. But after they meet, he finds out that the man apparently went home and committed suicide. Or at least, that’s what the police say. And when a friend of this man hires Adam to find out why, Adam gets on the case.

At the time, very little was actually understood about trauma and what the Holocaust survivors were dealing with. While their bodies were rehabilitated as best they could be, most people in Israel just seemed to think that they were “crazy,” or that something was wrong with them, making them prone to suicide. And while Adam is struggling through his own psychological scars and trauma, it seemed like a lot of his motivation for taking this case and thinking that it might not have been a suicide centered around proving that he himself wasn’t “one of those crazy people from the camps.”

We get to know a lot more about Adam, and see not just his trauma and how he copes with it, but who he is in depth. This story revealed not just what life in post-independence Israel looked like, but the mindset towards mental health and survivors, and the divide between the European Jews and those who hadn’t been through the Holocaust. There’s a big stigma around seeking mental healthcare, and Adam himself struggles with it. I thought it was particularly intriguing, since among some survivors, even in later years, that stigma and mindset persisted. My own survivor father never believed that he needed help, despite struggling with severe PTSD symptoms for the rest of his life.

The beginning of the story was a little slower paced, since the death presented as a suicide, and there wasn’t much to see. But Adam persists, and uses all the skills that he learned as a detective in Hungary as well as the connections he’s made in Israel to dig a little deeper. We also get a subplot for a mission to Germany to exact revenge on Nazis who escaped justice, as there was a general view that not enough was done to get justice for the families that were exterminated.

We already know that Adam isn’t above working outside the law to get what needs to be done accomplished, but he still adheres to his moral code. I’m not sure if it makes him truly a morally gray character, since we’re talking about killing actual Nazis who participated in the Holocaust here, but he also does operate in a gray area of the law, and occasionally on the wrong side of the law at times.

Overall, this was a quick read with a compelling and sensitive plot. It touches on some heavy issues surrounding past trauma and how people can move on from that, while others can’t. It also discusses the things that motivate people to push through, and how it can change a person, while not necessarily changing their essential nature. This book really delves a lot deeper into who Adam is and what makes him tick, and I liked getting to know him better, and there’s a hell of a plot twist at the end that makes me even more excited to read the rest of this series.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 5 out of 5]

IMHO, the best of the Adam Lapid mysteries so far.

This one probes more than previous books into survivor psychology, drawing brief but compassionate portraits. Broken people hobbling through their lives: soul-draining work, minimal salaries, small meals of rationed bread and cheese. But these people (well, not Adam, but the murder victims he is investigating) also have families and children and dreams. And they have a country of their own.

I suppose I could complain that the murderer comes out of left field. I don’t think anyone could have guessed who the murderer was, much less his motive. But it worked in the context of this story.

There’s a short bit — irrelevant to the plot — when Adam, shocked by the suicide of an acquaintance, is seized by hunger. He rushes to Greta’s Cafe, where Greta intuitively understands this hunger that is more than hunger. Adam eats enough for three men. Then the attack — he has them occasionally, he calls them “the Hunger” is over.

I don’t know if such attacks really did plague camp survivors. Seems quite possible. Knowing Adam is subject to such PTSD-like attacks makes him a more sympathetic character. And it is sometimes hard to feel sympathy for Adam, who (though Jewish and Israeli) is in the mold of hard boiled detectives such as Sam
Spade.

Here’s the question: when oh when, oh when, will Adam and Greta realize that they are besherte? Clever of the author to insert this bit of suspense, but you kind of want to shake Adam and tell him to wake up and smell Greta’s coffee.

Taking a break from murder for some non-fiction, but looking forward to book 4.

Yeah, really invested in Adam.

[Marina Shemesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Lapid is a Holocaust survivor originally from Hungary but now living in the new State of Israel in the early 1950's where he works as a private detective.

A chance encounter with a fellow Auschwitz survivor and violinist leads to a nostalgic evening at a Hungarian cafe. A few days later, the owner of the cafe asks Adam to look into the apparant suicide of the violinist.

Things I loved:
The unique historical background of Israel in the 1950s.
How Dunsky depicted the various ways, good and bad, that the Holocaust survivors cope with their survivor's guilt.
The physical description of the characters - the author is really good at making his characters come to life. We definitely get to 'see' people through Adam's eyes. Especially the women, who not only support him in their own unique way, but also help to show Adam's character to the reader.
I also liked how the writer showed us Adam's flaws and the fact that he prefers to live in the shadows.

What I wasn't too fond of:
The book is too short and too easily solved. The murderer is a definitely a twisted character. The writer could have made Adam's encounters with him much more sinister and nerve-racking.
I felt that the three murders was not enough. Maybe a fourth, that could have been still in the planning stages or a botched attempt, would have added more weight to the crime aspect of the book.

Should you read it?
Yes - the book takes place in a unique place and time period and Adam Lapid is an awesome character.
The book is well written and one gets quickly immersed into the story.

[Jaqui · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, terrific. Setting Israel, dialogue, great, plot compassionate haunted private detective Adam Lapid works out if it is suicide or murder he is investigating and who if it is murder, would want to kill members of the orchestra forced to make music at Auschwitz. Great characters. Great investigative skills displayed. Reading pleasure, gripping.

The third book in the series and we learn more about Adam"s moving back story. Well written, well paced. I have a couple of caveats: why is the beautiful prostitute he visits not to have commitment issues and feelings of betrayal and guilt to his murdered wife, always available and free to see him whenever he turns up at her door if she is so beautiful and popular and desirable? It seems she is a little in love with him. There are very few red herrings or suspects and when I realized we were 80 percent or so in, it seemed the murderer was easily signposted so no real surprise with so few suspects. The key thing was why. However, Adam always stays true to himself in how he solves and deals with crime and criminals and has depth of character. Very good book though, well written, intense in places and gripping if not shocking but so well done that, I can't wait to read the next book in this absorbing series. Different to almost all crime mystery novels. Another great read from Mr. Dunsky. Love Adam, the history aspect is so interesting and just great detective books. In we go ......... Number four .....

[Phillip · Rating 2 out of 5]

This third installment of the Adam Lapid series isn’t terrible, but it’s the least of my favorites thus far. I love Adam as a character, and I love the premise of this series. However, I just didn’t feel that the author, Jonathan Dunsky, had a coherent and well developed plan for where he wanted to take this story. While I admit that I did not expect the reveal of who the villain of this story is, I don’t think Dunsky knew who he’d make the villain until the very end of his writing journey, and this matters to me as a reader. Typically in a mystery like this, the author provides clues along the way that throw suspicion on possible perpetrators and even THE main perpetrator, but because Dunsky didn’t appear to know where he planned to take this story, those clues simply don’t exist. I feel somewhat cheated as a reader of this particular book, but that won’t dissuade me from continuing to read the Adam Lapid mysteries. Again, Adam is a wonderful character; I love everything about him and feel a great respect and affinity for what he went through as a prison during the holocaust, as well as his pursuit of justice again the Nazi perpetrators who took part in the slaughter of millions. I also enjoy the insight into the Israel post-WWII and enjoy learning about the politics and the locales of that time period. I highly recommend this series; I just didn’t f ind this particular story to be as compelling as those prior.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

the 4 stars are for this genre- atmospheric mysteries. This is the third novel in the series featuring detective Adam Lapid in early independence Tel Aviv. He is a survivor of Auschwitz where he lost his whole family and his nightmares prevent him from developing close relationships except with the woman who is his confidant and runs the cafe he frequents. This book concerns the apparent suicide of a man he knew in Auschwitz. The shocked and bereaved widow hires him to find out why her husband would take his own life. The investigation leads to other deaths and he realizes things are not always as they seem. He isn't flashy, he sometimes interrupted his detecting to return to Germany to kill Nazis whom he knew were active murderers. He doesn't have friends or family but he has a great deal of empathy with those affected by the deaths of the victims he investigates.
there are 4 more books in this series as of now and i expect to read them.

[Lora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I blazed through this book quickly, and was extremely disappointed that the next books in the series weren't available on the Libby app. I want Adam to find happiness. I want to find out what mysteries he solves next!

This is more than a mystery story. The author noted that, without really planning it, it turned out to also be an account of "how little understood Holocaust survivors were in Israel soon after its independence and how many of them had to deal with various mental issues following the ordeal they'd survived." Adam has always had nightmares and fear of triggering memories (both good and bad), but this time he had an attack of ravenous hunger, walking zombie-like towards his safe haven - Greta's café. I googled and "insatiable hunger" is indeed something some survivors suffered from. It was awful to read, and must be horrendous for the survivors and their loved ones.

I very much recommend this series! This is the second one to get 5 stars from me.

[Robert Lurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 3rd in the series of Holocaust survivor Adam Lapid, private investigator, damaged soul and former policeman in Budapest who entire family including his wife and two daughters murdered in Auschwitz. Adam is the only surivor.

This who done it takes place in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in 1950

Adam is asked to investigate the suicide of a musician who was in the orchestra at Auschwitz. He finds that another musician also committed suicide. Is this a coincidence or is there something more to the story? Adam tracks down leads that point him in the right direction and he confronts the murderer, also an Auschwitz survivor and understand his motives in killing 3 men in the orchestra. Adam is faced with the dilemma of how justice should be delivered.

Adam continues his relationship with Sima and imagines that he might someday be with the widow of one of the dead men that he likes. Greta continues to be there at her cafe for Adam. On to #4!

Love the series.

[Carol McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

A different view of survival, suicide, and murder

From the time I was in high school in the 1960s, I have studied the Holocaust, mourning the death and suffering of so many. Somehow, I just assumed that any survivors who made it to Israel would be fine. This novel tells the story of several survivors and the struggle they went through to try to live a normal life,even with what we now call PTSD. The story begins with Adam reconnecting with another survivor of Auschwitz. A few days later, the other man is dead,an apparent suicide. The rest of the book is the search for the truth. The author has done a wonderful job of recreating Israel in 1950, the uncertainty of the times, as well as how hard it must have been to be a survivor. Good book and great insight, using the character Adam.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent book in the Adam Lapid series. Lapid is an Auschwitz survivor detective who investigates mysteries in Israel in 1949.
This time he investigates the suicide of a violinist he knew in Auschwitz, and met him again in Tel Aviv shortly before the violinist's suicide.
Once again, the complexity of Adam Lapid is revealed. He is on the one hand, sensitive and kind-hearted, and on the other hand, tough and does not hesitate to bring self-justification to people who have committed crimes.

עוד ספר מצויין בסידרת אדם לפיד. לפיד הוא בלש ניצול אושוויץ, שחוקר תעלומות בישראל בשנת 1949. הפעם הוא חוקר את ההתאבדות של כנר שאותו הכיר באושוויץ, וניפגש עימו מחדש בתל אביב זמן קצר לפני ההתאבדות של הכנר. שוב מתגלה המורכבות של אדם לפיד, שהוא מצד אחד, רגיש וטוב לב, ומצד שני, קשוח ולא נרתע מלעשות דין עצמי באנשים שפשעו

[Donna Herrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I previously reviewed one of Dunsky's novels with glowing comparisons with some of my favorite detective novel writers. I must now add an additional compliment, Dunsky has created a marvelous character in Adam Lapid. The dialog between Lapid and himself, and Lapid and his friends and between Lapid and the world makes this novel one of the most enjoyable stories ever. Of course, I would not rate it so highly if it did not have a strong sense of place - Tel Aviv and Jerusalem or good historical context - Korean War, Operation Nachshon, and Auschwitz, but this story drew me into the mind of Adam Lapid as few novels do.

[Antigone Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stopping the Music

The purported suicide of an Auschwitz survivor does not feel right to P.I. Adan Lapid. The young man, a talented musician, was forced to play in the war camp's infamous orchestra. Subsequent deaths of other orchestra members confirm Adam's suspicions. The unlikely killer is as twisted as he is lethal.

This is another worthy entry in the Lapid series. Adam is likeable and believable. He is a remorseless killer but kills only those he believes deserve it. The surrounding cast adds color. Early Israel with its problems and promise is well conveyed. Good read.

[Jessica Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great Adam Lapid mystery. In this book, someone is murdering the survivors of the Auschwitz orchestra. As Adam investigates, he is forced to confront some of his own memories and demons from his time at Auschwitz. It touches on the different views of Jewish concentration camp survivors in the early 1950s.

The book also causes the reader to consider the acceptability of vigilante justice. Is it okay to hunt and kill Nazis who escaped punishment post WWII? If so, what about Jewish collaborators? The killer has a somewhat warped idea about what does/does not define a collaborator. All those concepts are raised as Adam Lapid unravels the mystery.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Adam Lapid saga is back to form with this third installment in the series. Adam going through a rough patch with the memory of his time in Auschwitz when he runs into one of the camp musicians — Jews who would play when trains full of new concentration camp arrivals arrived. Shortly thereafter the violinist turns up deceased, and nothing about the purported suicide smells right to Lapid.

This novel wasn’t so much a mystery (i.e. where you had enough info to figure out whodunnit) as a thriller, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Jewish noir is a genre I didn’t know I needed until I found it. Looking forward to the next installment.

Recommended.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The Auschwitz Violinist is the third book I've read in this series and while I enjoyed it, I felt I was reading the same things as in the first two novels - a murder happens and Adam has to solve it.

I like Adam as a protagonist and have enjoyed the historical setting and the references to the Holocaust. Still, there has been no character development, too much emphasis on trivial things such as Adam's smoking or the food he eats, and there was a lack of tension and excitement. I don't know if I can be bothered with any more. To keep me interested in a series, I need more.

[Jaana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otvunget berättat, en bra story. Bättre än ettan och tvåan.

Jag var så säker på att bibeln ("a Bible") som fanns i första offrets bokhylla skulle bli en ledtråd men nej, det var inte så.
Tydligen bara jag som undrade.

Adam Lapid är trovärdig. Jag förstår också hans förhållningssätt till våld, det som en del tar avstånd ifrån som läsare. Lapid själv kämpar med sina demoner och har börjat öppna sig något för utvalda medmänniskor.

Det finns fortfarande ett överskott av tvådimensionella karaktärer i boken. Som pappersdockor eller seriefigurer, liksom i deckare ofta förekommande lite för otroliga sammanträffanden.

Bra läsning i vilket fall som helst. Börjar läsa fyran imorgon.

[Jennifer S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Lapid runs into someone he knew at Auschwitz and believed was dead. Turns out Yosef Kaplon had survived by being recruited into the orchestra at Auschwitz that played both for parties and to "welcome" new arrivals. Bit of a shock then when Kaplon turns up dead the next day of an apparent suicide. With no family left behind, one of Kaplon's friends asks Adam to try to find out why Kaplon would have killed himself. One trail leads to another and (no shock here) it turns out NOT to be suicide. Everything resolves pretty neatly and quickly. Although I enjoy the setting, the mysteries in this series seem to be solved without a lot of drama.

[Linda Branham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story - I really enjoyed it. Adam Lapid meets an old friend who was a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz named Yosef Kaplon. He agrees to meet Yosef the next evening and discovers that he is a violinist. Yosef tells Adam his story about being forced to play music at Auschwitz by the Nazi's.
The following day Yosef commits suicide
Adam takes it upon himself to learn "why". Why did Yosef kill himself?
This is a book that goes well beyond being a detective story, it has great historical insights, as well as psychological insights.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third novel in the wonderful series that follows an Israeli hard-boiled detective in Tel Aviv in the late 40s and 50s. This one is set in 1950. Adam is following up on a suicide of a fellow Auschwitz survivor; as you might expect--there's more to this than the police think. He's also preparing to go on private vengeance mission to kill Nazis still in Germany. The story plays with ideas of vengeance and justice; desert and guilt, surviving and moving on. It also explores the complicated perception of survivors in Israel. Highly Recommend!

[Margaret Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This high energy, quick read mystery is set in the early days of the State of Israel. Lapid gets roped in again to solve a mystery. Is what appears as a suicide really a suicide? Could it be a murder? Is it connected to several other recent deaths of musicians from Auschwitz (yes, it's a thing! There were orchestras comprised of Jewish musicians in Auschwitz!).
The detail in Dunsky's writing makes the story come alive. The discussion about justice, revenge, accountability will fill your days, and nights. You'll have to read it to get the solution.