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MWSA Review
A Scribe Dies in Brooklyn by Marvin J. Wolf is the second in a series whose lead character is Rabbi Ben, aptly described in the text as “not your bubbe’s rebbe,” a Jewish paladin, and a rabbi knight errant. This well-written mystery contains a lot of history, which does not affect the flow of the story.
The book begins with a clue, set in 2007, that relates to the title of the book. A hint in Chapter One gives some insight into Rabbi Ben’s personal life. Chapter Two begins the complex story of Ben’s hunt for missing invaluable papers. The last page relates clearly to the prologue and the intriguing world of geopolitics.
Review by Nancy Kauffman (May 2021)
Author's Synopsis
Lured to a clandestine meeting with the President of Israel, Rabbi Ben Maimon is asked to find the long-missing third of the Aleppo Codex, the oldest and most authoritative copy of the Hebrew Bible—more than 1,000 years old and rivaled in historical importance only by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Intact until the 1947 sacking of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, Syria, its surviving pages are now in the Hebrew Museum in Jerusalem. But Ben is told that the missing pages have reportedly surfaced in Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community, only to vanish again. It’s a job that only Ben can handle.
Plunging into an ingrown and quasi-medieval culture, Ben learns that others seek the Codex, and they don’t play nice. His guide to all things Aleppo-On-Gravesend Bay is Miryam Benkamel, the sassy, sexy, and smart grand-niece of the late and increasingly mysterious man rumored to have smuggled the missing Codex pages out of Syria. Ben must dig deep in his black fedora for tricks to outsmart those who want the pages for themselves. Sparks fly as Ben and Miryam work together to solve the decades-old mystery, and Rabbi Ben feels the heat...in more ways than one.
ISBN/ASIN: B01MYH1990, 978-0989960021
Book Format(s): Soft cover, Kindle
Review Genre: Fiction—Mystery/Thriller
Number of Pages: 432