Lineup

“. . . a very, very good book.”

Already an international bestseller, in its American debut Lineup by Israeli author Liad Shoham lives up to its hype.

Its plot will keep the reader guessing right up to the end; its characters, even the minor ones, are fully developed; and the language is terse but with each sentence conveying a subtext.

A brutal rape in a peaceful neighborhood of Tel Aviv leaves no clues for the police. No witnesses, or none who admit to having seen anything, a vague description by the victim, and no DNA evidence leave this crime destined for the cold case file.

Detective Eli Nahum, anxious to solve the case, is frustrated by the lack of leads until the victim’s father, who has been keeping watch outside his daughter’s apartment, follows a likely looking suspect, snapping photos with his cell phone.

Based on the victim’s shaky ID of the suspect, the police arrest Ziv Nevo.

Divorced, nearly destitute, and unable to find work except as an occasional driver for crime boss Shimon Faro, Nevo refuses to say why he was lurking in the victim’s neighborhood and denies being a rapist.

Nahum doesn’t believe him. “He watched Nevo. His gut told him he was the rapist. After twenty years on the job, he could trust his gut. And common sense told him the same thing. But you couldn’t take that to court. All that mattered in a trial were evidence and the law, what was admissible and what wasn’t. Rules.”

Nevo is freed on a technicality, and Nahum is fired for not following proper procedure . At that point the plot picks up speed like the final lap of a NASCAR race. The mob, specifically its principal lieutenant, David Meshulam, suspect Nevo of turning state’s evidence on crime boss Shimon Faro that leads to his arrest. The word is out: get Ziv Nevo.

When another brutal rape occurs after Nevo’s release, the cops are certain he’s the perpetrator. The word is out from the cops: get Ziv Nevo.

Caught between the mob and the cops, Nevo takes his ex-wife and young son and flees into the desert. “He had to eliminate the treat to his family from Faro and his organization. He’d made so many mistakes, and hurt so many people along the way, that he didn’t deserve a second chance. But he’d been given one anyway.”

Meanwhile, Eli Nahum is determined to solve the case and bring in Ziv Nevo even though he no longer has any authority. It was his mistakes that resulted in Nevo’s release. It was his responsibility to redeem himself and find Nevo. “He had a lot of debts to pay.”

Offering a journalist information in exchange for his help in Nahum’s unauthorized investigation, the ex-cop goes on the hunt. For whom he is not sure. When he finds an elderly witness who finally admits she saw the rape, her testimony shakes Nahum’s certainty of Nevo’s guilt. “Had he known then what he knew now, the whole investigation might have gone in a different direction.”

The suspense tightens around the reader like a noose around his neck until it becomes almost unbearable, but it is not suspense engendered by car chases or gun fights. It is the suspense arising from bad decisions made by good people, such as Nahum’s deciding despite no physical evidence and only a questionable ID from the victim that Zevo was a rapist.

It was the assistant prosecutor, ordinarily competent and ethical, who decides to proceed with the case despite knowing that the victim’s ID was inadmissible. It is Nahum’s superintendent who decides to fire the long time cop for political reasons. Those decisions leave the reader wanting to scream “Don’t do that!”

Evil decisions made by evil men build suspense. David Meshulam decides that Nevo turned on the mob in exchange for an insignificant charge and release—and orders his death.

Poor choices by good but flawed people also add to the suspense. Nevo’s decision not to tell Nahum why he was in the first victim’s neighborhood is a poor choice of options. The decision of the witness not to tell what she knows is understandable but morally indefensible.

Suspense novels are often described as “gripping” or “impossible to put down,” but Lineup deserves both descriptions. It deserves another: compelling.

Liad Shoham has written a crime novel that is compelling on several different levels: as a mystery, as a tale of suspense, and as a work exploring the consequences of personal choices. Whether one calls it a mystery, suspense, thriller, or crime novel, one must call it a very, very good book.