Murder in Yiddish

by Isidore Haiblum

Things become complicated when private eye James Shaw tries to rescue the elderly Mrs. Silbert from burglars while staking out a crooked cop only to discover one of the thieves dead in the cop's apartment and a mysterious letter written in Yiddish

314 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1988

About the author

A quintessential New Yorker, Isidore Haiblum grew up a Yiddish-speaker in a home that was filled with music, books and the sounds of Eastern European languages.

As a young man, Izzy, as he was known to his friends, showed the sharp intellect, boundless curiosity and vivid wit that characterized him as a person and as a writer. He delved into politics and was a champion of civil rights and social justice. He also developed a lifetime passion for music.

At City College of New York, he earned an honors degree for his knowledge of English literature and Yiddish, as well as his gifts as a writer. Despite an affinity for teaching, he chose the more difficult path of becoming an independent author. His 18 published novels carry the unmistakable mark of his quirky sense of humor and fine-tuned ear for languages. They also reflect his love for New York City and the miles walked as he worked out plots. His books have been translated into eight languages.

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty silly. The plot was from hunger. All of the criminal characters were cardboard cut outs, but the strange Yiddish sub plot was delightful, with lots of delicious, older characters. This is one of those crime books where the author is in love with their own snappy, clever dialog... somewhere on this dust jacket it says something about the tradition of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler... but that is just publisher hype. More like a knock off of a knock off of Mike Hammer. Still, that can have it's charms in small doses and the snappy banter here had a New York Jewish flavor that I liked. There's a lot of late '70s NYC in here, especially classical radio stations, so if you're into nostalgia, you might like that. If Tolstoy is a weeks-long banquet of amazing food, then this is a bag of potato chips, and sometimes, a bag of chips is just the thing.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Well done!