The Hit

I found Michal Hartstein’s first Inspector Hadas Levinger book, HILL OF SECRETS, haunting.

In that book, Hadas was assigned to investigate the apparent murders of five members of a religious family locked inside their apartment in a quiet suburb near Tel Aviv.

The challenging investigation was set against Hadas’ own issues of marriage to a man who wants children when she doesn’t and a religious family who doesn’t entirely approve of her life choices.

I had high hopes for The Hit — and was disappointed.

In this book, Hadas is called from her nephew’s bris to investigate shots fired into a Tel Aviv snack shop that kill two and wounded three. The shooter escapes on a motorcycle. One of the dead is Koby Ozri, a low-level criminal whom Hadas had recruited as a valuable informer. The second victim, Shirley Navon, 29, is an employee of a large, nearby telecommunications company.

Koby seems to be the likely target of the shooting because of his ties to organized crime. The police suspect that Shirley, there to pick up a take-out lunch, was an accidental victim. The more Hadas investigates, the less that appears to be the case.

Meanwhile, Hadas is painfully surprised by the news that Yinon, her ex-husband, has a new, pregnant girlfriend. Yinon himself still seems emotionally attached to Hadas. Her family seems to be more accepting of her non-religious, unmarried and childless state.

A lot of the interesting tensions between Hadas and the husband and family she loves are missing in The Hit. While the crime is intriguing and baffling, the solution seems almost to drop into Hadas’ lap.  A little too pat for good fiction. Lastly, this book seriously needs a great villain, which Hartstein hasn’t provided.

About the Author: Michal Hartstein (1974 – )

The Hit reflects author Michal Hartstein’s background in economics,  accounting and finance. Five years after earning a degree in economics and accounting from the University of Tel Aviv, she earned a masters’s degree in law.

She eventually left the field of finance and became a full-time writer.

Her first book, Confession of an Abandoned Wife, was published in 2011. Originally published as a blog, it has been issued in English as a trilogy available on Amazon.com. Hill of Secrets was published in 2013, followed by Deja Vu in 2016.