Savage: a Gina Slotkin Murder Mystery. Book 3

by L.S. Sharrow

Passover in Paris. Chicago private investigator, Gina Slotkin, is living in the City of Lights with her ex-cop husband, Paul Loya. When an elderly survivor of Auschwitz is murdered on the first sacred night of Passover, the victim's son and daughter-in-law hire Gina and Paul to find the killer. They join forces with French-Senegalese Police Detective Jacques-Laurent Ndiaye, but as Gina digs, she has a growing suspicion the killers may have also been involved in the Charlie Hebdo carnage.

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 22, 2024

About the author

Sharrow comes from a family of storytellers, lithographers, painters, and glass artists, as well as truck drivers and steel workers. Her interests include Jewish history, feminism, evolutionary history, and paleoanthropology.

Growing up her family spoke four languages besides English: Spanish, Yiddish, Russian, and German.

She concentrates most of her writing on hard-boiled whodunnits with a female sleuth.

Reviews

[Ruth]

Very good, everybody should read this, not just for plausible characters and plot but for creating an atmosphere which tells us what Jewish life in Paris is really like now. It gave me a reminiscient or should that be a prescient, chill.

[Jane Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cracking story. Set in Paris, not long after the Charlie Hebdo killings. Remember those? Workers at the satirical magazine were murdered by Islamists, after the magazine published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. I was living in France myself at that time, and there were demonstrations all over the country after those killings. I went out myself, with many hundreds of others, into Place Kléber in Strasbourg. We held up pencils, to affirm the freedom to write.

So, that happened. And then an elderly Jewish woman, a survivor of Auschwitz, is murdered, in the flat upstairs from Gina Slotkin. Yes, Gina is back! She and her husband Paul are living in Paris and being private detectives.

I have loved Gina Slotkin for some time now. She has had hard times. She is brave, and tough, and a long way from a stereotypical tough bitch. She doesn’t meet anyone’s stereotypical idea of - well, anyone, really. She is pivotal to the investigation, without always quite meaning to be, and she is fast to react, and wise to understand.

It is a murder mystery. But it also raises questions about French society. What happened to French Jews? Why is that still a thread in French society? Why are there so many excluded banlieues, or suburbs, around French cities, not only Paris, which breed Islamism among a population far too young to have family memories of the Holocaust? Why do so many of those young Muslims see the existence of Jewish people as a threat to them? What was the complicity of the wider Europe (looking at you, Norway) in all of this?

I liked this book, because you gallop through the story: what’s happening? What’s going to happen NEXT? And you keep stopping to think, well, yes, this.

Good for Gina. Next time, let’s see you in La France Profonde.

What’s going to happen next?

[David Isaacson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's Paris, 2016, the year after the Charlie Hebdo atrocity, and an elderly Holocaust survivor is killed in her apartment. In steps private eye Gina Slotkin to bring a touch of hard-boiled American know-how to bear, assisted by her husband, a former policeman, and the work of international investigators into antisemitism. Sarcastic, sassy and streetwise our heroine is like a latter-day Gena Rowlands in the neo-noir thriller Gloria. But this is a bigger canvas, involving a living legacy of the Nazis, no-go Islamist areas and a stash of hidden gems.

Snappy dialogue, evocative depictions of Paris and a convincing air of menace stalk the pages. And as the case becomes more complex, the tension rises. Most satisfactorily, the ending delivers a killer blow and all loose ends are neatly tied.

After reading Savage, the third in the Gina Slotkin series, you’ll want to check out its predecessors Moxie and Hot Town. Personally I can’t wait for the fourth instalment.

[Nick Malara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Savage is not your typical murder mystery. Set in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, it combines a compelling whodunit with thoughtful explorations of culture, identity and resilience. Gina Slotkin is a wonderfully drawn protagonist, witty, observant and refreshingly human. Her relationship with her husband Paul adds warmth and authenticity while the murder of their elderly neighbor pulls them into a deeper web of danger and secrets.

The Parisian setting comes alive with vivid detail. The cafés, the sheep grazing in city parks and the shadows of history lingering on every street corner all feel real and immersive. The book also does not shy away from exploring real world issues like antisemitism, giving the story emotional weight beyond the central mystery.

If you enjoy character driven mysteries with a strong sense of place, layered themes and a protagonist you will want to follow into the next book, Savage delivers. It is a thoughtful page turner with heart.

[Gillian Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

LS Sharrow's new novel in the Gina Slotkin series kept me riveted from beginning to end. The Paris locations put me in mind of Spiral/Engrenages, the impoverished banlieues contrasting with the glamour of the seventh arrondissement, in the shadow of Les Invalides. The irrepressible Gina gets to the bottom of a mystery, revealed only after many twists and turns and the theme of anti Jewish activism in Paris secured my attention up to the last page. Well done LS Sharrow for bringing important contemporary issues to the entertaining private investigator genre.

[Suse Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast-paced murder mystery

Gina Slotkin is a detective living in Paris with her husband detective. The pair investigate the death of her neighbor, an Auschwitz survivor, who was investigating antisemites on her own. This is a page-turner, with lots of action and unexpected twists. The writing is untempered and the plot covers current sensitive issues in Paris (immigrants, antisemitism, etc.) Gina is a tough, assertive woman. Some of her attitude seems unlikely in certain situations. Even so, it is a worthwhile read.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an easy to read page turner with a great pace. What I found fascinating were the social and cultural factors of Jews under attack in contemporary France, with its racial divisions and tensions. There have been some high profile antisemitic murders in recent years, and the effect of hate in the book is part of the decor, as well as divisions within the Jewish community over how to deal with extreme hostility. The setting gives this whodunnit a fascinating twist.

[Steven Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most wonderful novel and it works not simply as a masterful mystery whodunit but also on the very vexxed issue of antisemitism which sadly is just as relevant now as when the novel is set.
Bravo 5 stars without question !

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent - engaging and compelling. Brave of the author to tackle the important unspoken topic of Islamist Antisemitism. Very readable and fun too.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting insight into modern Antisemitism. Two Jewish-American expatriates living in Paris, France, are hired to solve the murder of a Holocaust survivor.

Tightly written, with many interesting details of life in France. I particularly liked sheep grazing in a central city park.

[David Garry · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read for so many reasons. The top one for me is the scintillating descriptions which pepper every chapter and Sharrow's expert ability to make you feel like you are there, physically, mentally, emotionally, in every single scene. The narrative dances along at a feverish pace, taking in everything from culinary delights to physical descriptions to the sounds and smells of contemporary France. A delight!