Yom Kippur Murder

Rating:
Summary: Fresh and interesting
Review: Harris's ex-nun sleuth defies cutesy stereotypes and makes a convincing, thought-provoking, and likable heroine. Christine Bennett delves into the mystery surrounding the Yom Kippur beating death of her Jewish friend, Mr. Herskovitz. Suspecting there is more to the case than an unscrupulous slumlord trying to get rid of a holdout tenant, Christine traces Mr. Herskovitz's life back to his days as a newcomer to America. What she discovers is a well-educated, controversial man whose passions ran deep -- and inspired in others emotions that spanned the decades and might have gotten him killed.

This could have degenerated into a gimmicky throwaway mystery, but Harris made it a solid novel with good characters. I do, however, take issue with that magic phone number Christine's travel agent friend called to find an important clue. As a former travel agent, I can assure you that there is no such thing. Before she could even *ask* for that information, she'd need to know the airline, the IATA number of the agency issuing the tickets, and most likely the PNR for the itinerary...in which case she'd have the information she was asking for, which would certainly arouse the suspicions of any airline agent she consulted.

Rating:
Summary: Fresh and interesting
Review: Harris's ex-nun sleuth defies cutesy stereotypes and makes a convincing, thought-provoking, and likable heroine. Christine Bennett delves into the mystery surrounding the Yom Kippur beating death of her Jewish friend, Mr. Herskovitz. Suspecting there is more to the case than an unscrupulous slumlord trying to get rid of a holdout tenant, Christine traces Mr. Herskovitz's life back to his days as a newcomer to America. What she discovers is a well-educated, controversial man whose passions ran deep -- and inspired in others emotions that spanned the decades and might have gotten him killed.

This could have degenerated into a gimmicky throwaway mystery, but Harris made it a solid novel with good characters. I do, however, take issue with that magic phone number Christine's travel agent friend called to find an important clue. As a former travel agent, I can assure you that there is no such thing. Before she could even *ask* for that information, she'd need to know the airline, the IATA number of the agency issuing the tickets, and most likely the PNR for the itinerary...in which case she'd have the information she was asking for, which would certainly arouse the suspicions of any airline agent she consulted.

Rating:
Summary: SUPER MYSTERY SERIES
Review: In this, the second Christine Bennett (ex-nun) mystery, Christine investigates the beating death of her friend, elderly Mr. Herskovitz, one of a few tenants who refused to leave his condemned apartment building........ Clues from finding out about his past life in Nazi Germany, to a rare book, helps Christine finally get to the murderer......... You won't be disappointed in any books from this series....Christine and her boyfriend, Jack Brooks, work well together, and their relationship just blossoms so realistically! Very likeable and intelligent leading characters, and books that keep us guessing right up to the end! Hooray for Lee Harris!

Rating:
Summary: SUPER MYSTERY SERIES
Review: In this, the second Christine Bennett (ex-nun) mystery, Christine investigates the beating death of her friend, elderly Mr. Herskovitz, one of a few tenants who refused to leave his condemned apartment building........ Clues from finding out about his past life in Nazi Germany, to a rare book, helps Christine finally get to the murderer......... You won't be disappointed in any books from this series....Christine and her boyfriend, Jack Brooks, work well together, and their relationship just blossoms so realistically! Very likeable and intelligent leading characters, and books that keep us guessing right up to the end! Hooray for Lee Harris!

Rating:
Summary: A good story, and a mystery that held my interest.
Review: Lee Harris has done a decent job of creating a character that is not only an amateur sleuth, but an ex-nun. Christine Bennett comes across as a balanced person who has decided to make a major change in her life, and takes the time to try to slowly learn a new way to live. And she just happens to get caught up in murders and mysteries along the way. And this story involves everything from people who escaped Nazi Germany to rare books that are worth large sums of money. The only part of the story that I didn't care quite so much for was how easily the ex-nun seemed to decide it was time to fall into bed with someone she liked. Especially after she had earlier said something about how she didn't want this sort of thing to be tied up with the reasons why she left the convent. She had other reasons. I felt that this situation was rushed, and it did feel like the character simply "fell" into it. Almost as if the whole thing was just expected, and would happen anyway, so why not now? Didn't sit well with me.

Rating:
Summary: A good story, and a mystery that held my interest.
Review: Lee Harris has done a decent job of creating a character that is not only an amateur sleuth, but an ex-nun. Christine Bennett comes across as a balanced person who has decided to make a major change in her life, and takes the time to try to slowly learn a new way to live. And she just happens to get caught up in murders and mysteries along the way. And this story involves everything from people who escaped Nazi Germany to rare books that are worth large sums of money. The only part of the story that I didn't care quite so much for was how easily the ex-nun seemed to decide it was time to fall into bed with someone she liked. Especially after she had earlier said something about how she didn't want this sort of thing to be tied up with the reasons why she left the convent. She had other reasons. I felt that this situation was rushed, and it did feel like the character simply "fell" into it. Almost as if the whole thing was just expected, and would happen anyway, so why not now? Didn't sit well with me.

Rating:
Summary: Chris Bennett finds murder once again
Review: Our housewife sleuth, former nun Christine Bennett is working with a trio of elderly rent control tenants who are barely hanging onto their homes while being harassed by the owners of their building to drive them out so the apartment house can be gutted and turned into high priced condos for a tidy profit to the landlords.

On Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, Mr. Herskovitz is found dead, viciously beaten. Christine isn't convinced that the motive was a scare tactic that got out of hand, as the police believe. She begins to dig into the past and comes up with several other suspects. Will her own life be in danger until this mystery is solved? You bet, but in the mean time, the reader is treated to another cleverly crafted, multi-layered story. Proving that even old men sometimes have secrets that they want to hide. And also proving that it is mighty hard to keep anything hidden from our hero Chris, once she starts hunting for answers.

Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Surprise!
Review: While wandering through a used bookstore the other day, I ran across this book, and based purely on title alone, I had to pick it up. Turns out that it is part of a series of mysteries, each originating on a holiday. (The Good Friday Murder, The St. Patrick's Day Murder, etc)

The detective of each story is Christine Bennett, a recent ex-nun, and that is where I had the most problems with this story. The mystery was fairly well done; however, I felt that the character of Christine just didn't feel right for an ex-nun. Here's a woman who was a NUN for 15 years, and now just a few months later, she's drinking, dating (and ultimately sleeping with) men, and just in general, acting a little too...well...normal. I would think that we should see more of an internal conflict than we do.

But like I said, the mystery was good. And there were a few themes that ran through the book that I enjoyed, such as the young befriending the elderly, and cross-cultural relationships, which can be unusual in a mystery.