Publisher's Weekly
A corker of a mystery, Simon's new novel about Moses Wine tops his prize-winning The Big Fix and The Straight Man , jetting the Jewish private eye from home in Los Angeles to Israel. Wine's assignment surprises him: to clear Arabs of suspicion in the murder of Joseph Damoor, a Jew who was working for peaceful unity between the traditional enemies. Clues link young Gordie Goldenberg to the killing before he immigrated to Israel. Expecting to prove that Damoor's pro-Arabic stand was the motive for his death, Wine gets caught in the maze of dissident factions and is shocked when he witnesses the fatal stabbing of a rabbi at the Jewish Holy of Holies, which is also the Dome of the Rock, sacred to Muslims. Wine's anxiety increases as he traces Gordie's involvement with an irrational American rabbi who is fomenting violence in advance of the ``Peace Now'' conference on the disputed West Bank. Intimations of an action that could trigger all-out war push Wine to the limits of his courage and speed the reader's pulse. This is a landmark in the cynically humorous, sexy detective's exploits.