Crimes of the City (Crime, Penguin) - Softcover

In a holy city, even saints can be suspects...

It was the time of the intifada, a season of hatred and fear in the city called Jerusalem, the City of Peace... Criminal Investigations Department Commander Avram Cohen is one of the watchmen at its gates, barring them to criminals and the insane. One man, who is either--or both--slips past and in the midst of chaos commits a terrible double murder. Slaughtered are two Russian nuns, mother and daughter, members of the Russian Orthodox convent in Ein Kerem.

The KGB baby-sitter for the Red Russian mission in the Holy Land is embarrassed, the police are embarrassed, the Knesset is embarrassed--even the Prime Minister exerts pressure for a quick solution. Avram Cohen, known for his toughness, feared for his temper, a man who has left belief in God behind in Dachau, tracks the killer through every sector of the city from the Dead Sea to the Temple Mount while zealots plot and politicians make deals.

Combining the police procedural with the fast-paced suspense of a spy thriller, the investigation--based on an actual double murder--reveals the soul of a great detective and the secret worlds of an ancient city.

Born in 1951 in Boston, Mass., Rosenberg is fully bi-lingual in both Hebrew and English. In Israel since early 1973, he spent two years with UPI, a year with TIME/LIFE, and four years with US News&World Report, but his main beat was as a national affairs reporter for the old Jerusalem Post in its last twelve years before its purchase in 1990 by the Hollinger Corp. From 1985 to 1990 he wrote the Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv column. His articles from Israel have appeared in many international magazines and newspapers. Robert Rosenberg is married to the Argentine-born artist and interior designer Silvia Cherbacoff-Rosenberg, whose drawings sometimes appear in Ariga pages. They live with their teen age daughter, Amber, in Tel Aviv.