Invisible City /
Material type: TextSeries: Rebekah Roberts novels ; 1Edition: First editionDescription: pages cmISBN:- 9781250043399 (hardback)
- 1250043395 (hardback)
- 813/.6 23
- PS3604.A339 I58 2014
- FIC022000 | FIC022040
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Fiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | DAHL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610018983010 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
A finalist for the Edgar and Mary Higgins Clark Awards, in her riveting debut Invisible City , journalist Julia Dahl introduces a compelling new character in search of the truth about a murder and an understanding of her own heritage.
Just months after Rebekah Roberts was born, her mother, an Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, abandoned her Christian boyfriend and newborn baby to return to her religion. Neither Rebekah nor her father have heard from her since. Now a recent college graduate, Rebekah has moved to New York City to follow her dream of becoming a big-city reporter. But she's also drawn to the idea of being closer to her mother, who might still be living in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn.
Then Rebekah is called to cover the story of a murdered Hasidic woman. Rebekah's shocked to learn that, because of the NYPD's habit of kowtowing to the powerful ultra-Orthodox community, not only will the woman be buried without an autopsy, her killer may get away with murder. Rebekah can't let the story end there. But getting to the truth won't be easy--even as she immerses herself in the cloistered world where her mother grew up, it's clear that she's not welcome, and everyone she meets has a secret to keep from an outsider.
Just months after Rebekah Roberts was born, her mother, an Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn, abandoned her Christian boyfriend and newborn baby to return to her religion. Neither Rebekah nor her father have heard from her since. Now a recent college graduate, Rebekah has moved to New York City to follow her dream of becoming a big-city reporter. But she's also drawn to the idea of being closer to her mother, who might still be living in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn. Then Rebekah is called to cover the story of a murdered Hasidic woman. Rebekah's shocked to learn that, because of the NYPD's habit of kowtowing to the powerful ultra-Orthodox community, not only will the woman be buried without an autopsy, her killer may get away with murder. Rebekah can't let the story end there. But getting to the truth won't be easy--even as she immerses herself in the cloistered world where her mother grew up, it's clear that she's not welcome, and everyone she meets has a secret to keep from an outsider.
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Rebekah Roberts moved to New York City in the hope of covering important stories as a journalist, but she also wanted to be closer to the mother who abandoned her shortly after she was born to return to her Hasidic Jewish community. When Rebekah is tasked with reporting on the murder of a Hasidic woman, she begins to learn more about the community and how in some respects it exists as a sovereign state within the city. And the NYPD is happy to oblige the community's customs, including not performing an autopsy on the victim, which might result in the murder remaining unsolved. Seeking the truth she was never afforded as a child, Rebekah quickly learns she is not welcome in this ultra-orthodox world as she delves deeper into the community and the crime. VERDICT In her gripping debut mystery, veteran journalist Dahl creates an intriguing protagonist seeking justice for a victim's family as well as the truth about her own origins. [Library marketing; Minotaur First Edition Selection.]-Caitlin Bronner, MLIS, New York (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.Publishers Weekly Review
The secretive society of Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jews provides the backdrop for Dahl's impressive debut. Rebekah Roberts, a reporter for a New York tabloid, covers the murder of Rivka Mendelssohn, whose naked body has been found clenched in the teeth of an excavator in a Brooklyn scrap yard, whose owner, Aron Mendelssohn, a prominent Hasidic leader, happens to be the victim's husband. As Rebekah questions the black-clad women ruled by men and God, she opens wounds left by just such a woman: her own mother, who abandoned her at birth to return to her Hasidic roots. Rebekah's Jewishness gains her access. Because the police, for reasons of their own, are turning a blind eye on the case means she is the only one looking for answers. Dahl's convincing dialogue and perfect pacing make for a real page-turner. And her storytelling skills illuminate the intriguing worlds of the tabloid press, Hasidism, the NYPD, and Brooklyn's 20-somethings-as well as the fragile boundaries of family, religion, and life itself. Agent: Stephanie Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.Booklist Review
For 23-year-old Rebekah Roberts, a stringer for the New York Tribune, a story becomes uncomfortably personal as she seeks to get at the truth. The discovery of the naked body of Hasidic Jew Rivka Mendelssohn, found in a scrap yard owned by her well-to-do husband, brings to mind the anger and sorrow Rebekah feels toward her own mother, a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn who took off when Rebekah was an infant. Her feelings are intensified when Saul Katz, NYPD liaison with the Hasidic community, shocks Rebekah by telling her that she looks just like her mother. As Katz provides Rebekah with inside information and urges her to pursue what is essentially the cover-up of a murder in the closed Hasidic community, she learns that her Jewish heritage goes only so far in her understanding of what she's investigating. This novel is particularly notable for its combination of a skillfully wrought, increasingly suspenseful mystery populated by well-drawn characters and a deeply sympathetic understanding of a contemporary culture that remains insular for its own understandable reasons. Journalist Dahl's debut sets a high bar.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2014 BooklistAuthor notes provided by Syndetics
JULIA DAHL is a journalist specializing in crime and criminal justice. Her first novel, Invisible City , was named one of the Boston Globe 's Best Books of 2014 and was a finalist for an Edgar Award and a Mary Higgins Clark Award. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. and writes for CBSNews.com.There are no comments on this title.