Valley of Thracians Selected as Thriller of the Month

Valley of Thracians, my suspense novel set in Bulgaria, was called a "psychologically astute thriller" and selected as a "Thriller of the Month" for June on e-thriller.com, a website devoted to reviewing and recommending the best thrillers for Kindles and/or other e-reader devices.

The novel "is a sober, psychologically astute thriller set in an exotic part of the world – ancient civilizations and artifacts, corrupt smugglers and personal flaws and secrets are a potent mix in this one," the website's review said.

The reviewer on the website concluded her review by writing, "We are absorbed in this culture and by the story. Very impressive."

The Aroma of Tel Aviv's Coffee House Culture

I am writing these lines on my laptop as I sip my morning cappuccino. Like many who work in Ramat Gan's Bursa district, my day begins with a cup of steaming hot coffee professionally prepared; there are many coffee shops and cafes in the neighborhood. Some people linger over their coffee, catching up on iPhone messages and answering emails; while others, like me, pull out their laptops and type away, undisturbed by the grinding of coffee beans; the hiss of steam escaping as milk is heated; and the swish of credit cards as orders are recorded.

Go back twenty five years. The fictitious Café Nevo of the Barbara Rogan novel of the same name is the "oldest and certainly the grungiest of the Dizengoff cafés". The coffee shop, originally established by two enterprising Polish brothers, attracts not only common workers, but "writers, actors, and artists who by virtue of their socialist ideology styled themselves members of the proletariat, but who in fact constituted the Tel Aviv elite of their day".

"If they were that good they’d be working,” one of the characters of the novel says of Café Nevo's clientele. “Nobody with any serious work to do hangs out in cafés".

Nothing’s Missing in this Compelling Crime Novel

Let’s start with the title. There is no file missing in The Missing File, the debut novel of D. A. Mishani, which has just been published in English. Rather, this police procedural novel revolves around the case of a missing Israeli teenager. The meaning of the title became clear to me when I considered the original, Hebrew name of the book, ‘Tik Ne’edar‘, which was published in 2011. The book’s title should be stated with an emphasis on the second word. There is a teenager missing, and Detective Avraham Avraham has been assigned to find him.

When the mother of 16-year-old Ofer Sharabi shows up in the Holon police station to report her son missing, Avraham doesn’t see any urgency in the case. “‘There is very little chance that something has happened to your son,’” he tells her. “‘I don’t think there is any point in starting to search for him now,’” he concludes.

The boy doesn’t turn up overnight and the police arrive at the Sharabis’ home to question the mother and her neighbors. Ofer’s father is not yet aware of his son’s disappearance; he is a seaman onboard a ship bound for Trieste.

Scenes from "Valley of Thracians": Plovdiv

My wife and I made two trips to Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria. Plovdiv is considered one of the oldest cities in the world, with traces from a Neolithic settlement in the area. It was first a major Thracian city, then a Greek one, and then it was ruled by the Romans.

Plovdiv's modern history began with its liberation from Ottoman rule by the Russian army in 1878. The city was a focal point for the Bulgarian national movement, and Old Plovdiv includes many colorful houses built during that century.

In my suspense novel, Valley of Thracians, the Peace Corps volunteer at the center of the story recalls his visits to Plovdiv.

Plovdiv is a must-see destination on any visit to Bulgaria. Join me today on a virtual visit to Plovdiv, with pictures of some of the locations where scenes from the book take place.

The Kindle Author Who Has Never Seen a Kindle

In January, I self-published my suspense novel, selecting to include it in the KDP Select Program and making it available exclusively on Amazon. In the month of March I ran a five-day free promotion, one which resulted, temporarily at least, in the book's achieving bestseller status. Over 8,000 people all over the world downloaded Valley of Thracians to their Kindles, and some of them have actually read the book.

All of those potential readers have seen something that I haven't - what my book looks like on a Kindle device. I don't own a Kindle. I have basically written a book for a medium that I have never seen.

What War with Iran Could Be Like

Israel launches a preemptive strike in Joel C. Rosenberg's new novel, Damascus Countdown.

The war everyone has feared has begun. Israeli jets bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. In retaliation, Iranian missiles are launched at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, alongside massive rocket fire from Hezbollah and Hamas. The Arrow and Patriot anti-missile defense systems are put to the test. IDF ground troops move into Gaza and southern Lebanon, where they meet stiff resistance. There are casualties. Israelis wear gas masks as they sit nervously in their bomb shelters.

But there is more. The war described in Damascus Countdown, the latest political thriller by New York Times bestselling author Joel C. Rosenberg, takes place a short distance into the future. While Israel successfully destroys six Iranian nuclear warheads, there are still two left, unaccounted for. Iran, like most of the Islamic world, is led by a messianic zealot who won't hesitate to drop an atomic bomb on the Zionist state to achieve his ultimate goal of ruling the world. A CIA operative is on the ground in Iran. His mission is to find the missing warheads and disarm them before they are launched at Tel Aviv.

Why We (Over)Eat Dairy Foods on Shavuot

There is no Biblical commandment stating that one must eat cheesecake on Shavuot, but this is a custom widely observed. And to fully honor the holiday, why not eat another piece?

Seven weeks after the holiday of Passover, Jews celebrate Shavuot, commemorating the day the Israelites received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The Hebrew word shavuot means weeks, as the holiday completes the Counting of the Omer period between Passover and Shavuot. Another name for the holiday is Yom Habikurim, the Day of the First Fruits, as the day celebrates both the wheat harvest and the ripening of the first fruits.

While religious Jews mark the holiday with all-night Torah study and the reading of the Book of Ruth, for most Israelis, Shavuot is primarily known for its association with the eating of dairy food. But if you posed the question of why we eat dairy on Shavuot, not many would know the answer.