Bethlehem Road Murder

"Gur takes infinite care with the exacting studies of the characters who give her stories their extraordinary vitality." - New York Times Book Review

"Gur's outstanding police procedural. . . can hold its own with the best work of P. D. James." - Publishers Weekly

"Under the apparently quotidian setting exists a very subtle analysis of Israeli society and history. . . the intractable tensions between Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews breeds hatred and mistrust, and the way to understand them and even, perhaps, to prevent future violence lies in good measure in the way Batya Gur brings them to light. There is a substantial measure of courage and talent here, hiddlen under the pretext of an animable detective novel." - Le Monde

"Through the investigative techniques of her fictional detective Michael Ohayon, Batya Gur finely lays bare the contradictions that tear modern-day Israel apart. She tells us about racism, fear, hatred, the conflicts between European and Oriental Jews, and the violence linked to the second Intifada. But also - and better than newspaper reports convey - she reveals the incredible love of life in this little country that dances on a volcano." - Elle

"Marked by keen psychological insights and well-developed characters, Gur's latest also offers a valuable portrait of a divided, contemporary Jerusalem." - Library Journal

"Batya Gur is a skillful observer of various milieus and the sensibilities within Israeli society. . . . It takes an uncompromising analyst like Gur to make an outsider understand the complicated nuances of a seemingly homogeneous society." - Standard