ANGEL IN A FOREIGN CITY

An Israeli detective from Los Angeles rides into Mexico City like a knight in slightly tarnished armor determined to rescue a young girl from ruthless kidnappers.

Ethan Eshed, a former detective of the Central Unit of Investigation in the Israeli Police Force, drinks too hard, plays too dirty and cares too little. Or at least that’s what he’s reminded of whenever his ex-wife and daughter drift through his memories. Ethan leaves Israel to start a new life in Los Angeles, where he runs his own successful detective agency and is happily involved with a promising lawyer. When an old police partner and friend calls him to solve a kidnapping case, Ethan drops everything, including his girlfriend and two nearly resolved sex-scandal cases, and immediately flies to Mexico City. There he meets with Diego Valencia, a wealthy tycoon whose young daughter has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. Jorge Cortez, Valencia’s son-in-law and head of family security, appears guilty, as he’s overly attentive to Ethan’s needs and appears to be tracking every move Ethan makes. During the investigation, Ethan meets Lisa, a seductive local college student, and is distracted by their budding romance as well as disturbing updates concerning his neglected cases. As his Mexico City case heats up, Ethan works with his trusted surveillance team to outwit the culprits. In this, Shapira’s first detective suspense novel, the plot is well-organized, and the characters are sketched out to form believable personas. Despite a few grammatical errors in the translation making some dialogue stiff, the book’s short chapters steady the pace, and its scenes, including erotic moments, hard drinking and light profanity, create a steamy mood that meshes well with the protagonist’s displacement in a foreign atmosphere.

A finely constructed cat-and-mouse detective novel.