Repentances (Five Star First Edition Mystery Series)

As an oil painting ages the paint may become increasingly transparent, revealing the ghost of a previous image beneath. These images are called "repentances" - as is this haunting novel in which the sins of the past will not stay buried. On the eve of World War II, Jewish immigrant Nathan Ebanholz makes the final payment on his wife and baby daughter's passage to New York. But Nathan's joy is short-lived: when their ship sails, Miri and Rayzela are not on board.

This engrossing tale of murder and deception from Meyers (Murder Me Now, etc.) captures the tones and accents of an earlier era while maintaining a sense of urgency and high suspense. In 1936, Nathan Ebanholz, a Jewish immigrant, is trying to bring his wife and baby daughter from Europe to New York to escape the Nazi threat. He has paid Marvin Zweikel, who makes a good living at this human trade, to arrange their safe passage, but his loved ones are not on the ship they're supposed to be on, as Zweikel discovers. When Ebanholz, who's having an affair with Zweikel's wife Stella, learns that the couple have hidden the true fate of his wife and daughter from him, he kills Stella in a rage. In a further impulsive act, Nathan kidnaps a sick three-year-old girl from the hospital where Stella worked as a nurse and takes the youngster to the suburban New Jersey home of his childless sister, Anna, and her gentile husband, a doctor. The rest of the book focuses on the girl Rosie, who grows up ignorant of her origins to become an artist in Greenwich Village, though she is increasingly haunted by fearful visions. Inevitably, the new generation repeats the mistakes of the old in a well-crafted novel that manages to entertain as it seriously explores issues of good and evil.
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Meyers, whose Olivia Brown series takes place in 1920s Greenwich Village, keeps the setting but flips the calendar ahead to 1936 in her latest effort. Europe is heading toward war, and Jewish immigrants are trying to rescue relatives from Hitler's grasp. Nathan Ebanholz, who has paid an agent to arrange passage for his wife and daughter, learns at the last minute that there will be no joyous reunion; his family has perished in a fire set by anti-Semites. When the agent refuses to return Nathan's money, a chain of events is triggered that leads to kidnapping and murder. The past will not remain buried, and only the truth will allow those affected to face the future with a measure of happiness. Meyers' compelling story again draws on fascinating details of life in Greenwich Village, but this time the author also offers a powerful portrayal of the plight of immigrants, a theme that resonates not just in history but in contemporary life as well. Recommend this one to all readers of historical mystery. Barbara Bibel
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