Murder Under the Bridge

A Palestine Mystery #1

by Kate Jessica Raphael

When Rania—the only female Palestinian police detective in the northern West Bank, as well as a young mother in a rural community where many believe women should not have such a dangerous career—discovers the body of a foreign woman on the edge of her village, no one seems to want her to look too deeply into what’s happened. But she finds an ally in Chloe—a gay, Jewish-American peace worker with a camera and a big attitude—and together, with the help of an annoying Israeli policeman, they work to solve the murder. As they do, secrets about war crimes and Israel’s thriving sex trafficking trade begin to surface—and Rania finds everything she holds dear in jeopardy.

Fast-paced and intricately plotted, Murder Under The Bridge offers mystery lovers an intimate view of one of the most fraught political conflicts on the planet.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Middle East, Crime, Contemporary, Thriller, LGBT

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2015

About the author

Kate Raphael is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, feminist and queer activist, radio journalist and law firm clerical worker. She got her BA at Oberlin and an MA in political science at UC Berkeley. She lived in Palestine for eighteen months as a member of the International Women’s Peace Service, documenting human rights abuses and accompanying Palestinians as they attempted to live normal lives under occupation. At the end of her time in Palestine, she was imprisoned for over a month by the Israeli authorities and eventually deported. In 2011, she won a residency at Hedgebrook. She produces the weekly radio show, Women’s Magazine, on KPFA/Pacifica, which is heard throughout Northern and Central California. Her writing from Palestine has been included in the anthology Peace Under Fire (Verso), Reclaiming Quarterly and Left Turn.

She lives in Oakland, California, where she organizes direct action and educational campaigns for social and economic justice, queer liberation, opposing militarism and Palestine solidarity. She was a founding member of Act Against Torture, opposing US human rights abuses and indefinite detention. She is featured in the film Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A contemporary mystery that takes place in the West Bank, featuring a Muslim Palestinian police woman, Rania, who must partner up with a Jewish Israeli policeman, Benny. Despite their cultural, religious, and political differences, Rania and Benny must work together in order to find out who killed a foreign woman. Intriguing, right? Different? In a world of strong female policewomen that seem to be trending in mystery fiction, Rania carries a lot of similarities. She is a working mom that is good at her job, has a supportive husband that does worry about her police work, and she has to put up with sexism at work. Of course, the glaring difference would be that Rania is limited in what she can do and where she can go. We see this from the very beginning and it is shown many different times in the story. Criss-crossing the pages is the story line of Chloe, a Jewish American that is sympathetic and passionate about the Palestinian cause. Chloe, in actual fact, is the literary representation of author Kate Raphael. ( I should note that this is actually revealed in the author's bio at the end of the book.) Added to the political storyline is how Chloe, a lesbian, tries to navigate relationships while also trying to let go of the ghosts of the past. Chloe becomes very intrigued by Rania and Benny's case, much to the frustration of both police officers.

Murder Under the Bridge: A Palestine Mystery was a bit hard to get into at first and the strong political views almost put me off finishing the book. But I wanted to give the story ( like all that I read) a fair shake. After all, it was the mystery, not the politics, that had enticed me to request the book. Admittedly, I am feeling a little ho-hum about the ending because it dragged on for a bit, but I liked the chapters that explored Rania and Benny's topsy-turvy working relationship. The Chloe storyline was intriguing when she was involved with the case, but her romance relationship wasn't very intriguing- more predictable.

I just may be tempted to continue the series to see where the characters all go.

Thanks to NetGalley for a digital galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Through her Rania, Raphael was able to draw me into her world and to follow each step bit by bit and wonder like her about what was going on, who had done what and why. The kind of crime/mystery I like to follow where I as a reader can build by own theories and then enjoy having them proven right or wrong by the author, all in a setting of personal and political conflict.

I liked reading this and am looking forward to reading the next in the series. I would not say that it is an easy read because the setting is a hard one. Being told through a Palestine perspective you might say it is a bit lopsided in that it shows one side more than the other but then stories are like that, stories, our stories are all subjective to who is telling them. But I do believe that in a situation such as the Palestine-Israel one, or the Israel-Palestine one there are only losers on both sides if a good resolution for both sides is not found, which I sincerely and deeply hope for.



a copy gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley in return for a review

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an untraditional lesbian mystery in several ways. First, the nominal detective, Raina Bakara, a Palestinian police officer, is straight—she doesn’t even recognize that homosexuality exists in Palestine. Raina begins the book as the primary third-person protagonist. Chloe Rubin, a Jesish American lesbian peace activist (probably based on the author) meets Raina by chance and they both become interested in solving the murder of a young woman who immigrated to Israel from Uzbekistan but whose body was found in Palestine. Chloe’s own third-person point of view chapters augment Raina’s and give the reader a bit more knowledge about the case than either Raina or Chloe possess by themselves. This solves the major question in most murder mysteries: how can the main character be everywhere and see everything?

The fact that Murder under the Bridge makes a political statement is not unusual; all lesbian mysteries do that simply by being LGBTQ-oriented. But this novel goes a step or two further. Studies show that most lesbians are liberal and because lesbians are women, they will come down mostly on the side of LGBTQ and women’s issues. The one area I can think of that not only lesbians but all people are divided on is the subject of Israel and its relationship to Palestine and the Occupied Territories. I suspect that more Jewish women support Israel—whether or not they are lesbians or straight. That’s what makes Murder Under the Bridge that much more compelling: Kate Jessica Raphael is not only a lesbian, but a Jewish lesbian, and also someone who has spent time as a peace activist in Palestine. And for the most part, what she has to say about Israelis—especially in the police or the military—is devastating. According to the author, seeing Israeli bulldozers in front of your Palestinian ancestral home not an uncommon occurrence and Israeli police torture of Palestinian suspects is the norm rather than the exception, such as: “they were excited to be on this mission because they might get to beat people up.”

In other words, this is not the vision of Israel that either the mainstream media or the right-wing media would have us believe. As such, it is an important look into an area of the world rife with discord and given by someone with first-hand experience.

The mystery is a good one and the crime—sex trafficking—is one that we can all abhor equally. Rania and Chloe, although not working together, somehow are able to exchange enough information that the perpetrators are found out—although not punished because they are (no surprise here) well-respected Israeli politicians.

My main complaint with this book is the number of times the author feels that she has to translate Palestinian or Israeli words or phrases into English. Such as “Rania sought out one of the coffee kids and bought two small cups, nos hilwe, half sweet.” She does this so many times that it is as if one of her goals is to allow the reader to visit Palestine with a full vocabulary. Not only is it unnecessary, but it is irritating. Other glitches include a few contrived scenes and too-fortuitous meetings.

Although Chloe plays a slightly less important role in Murder Under the Bridge than Rania, she is the lead third-person pov character in the second book in the series, Murder Under the Fig Tree, so I am eager to read the next volume of this series.

This novel reminds me of two other authors, one lesbian, one not. Ruth Shidlo’s Helen Mirkin mysteries are set in Israel and kind of counterpunch the books by Raphael because they are only mildly political and take place in Jerusalem. More apt are the gritty Omar Yussef novels of Matt Rees, where the protagonist is an elderly Palestinian teacher. For those of you who are interested in this part of the Middle-East conflict, I recommend this series highly. Look for Rees’s novels, however, to view the situation much like Raphael does.

As for Murder Under the Bridge, let’s give it almost the same rating that I gave The Rosebush Murders. Their strengths much outweigh their weaknesses, but the former has just a tad more weaknesses than the latter. .

Final Rating: 3.9

Note: This review is included in my book The Art of the Lesbian Mystery Novel, along with information on over 930 other lesbian mysteries by over 310 authors.
 

[Johanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmmmm it is a poorly written mystery and I wonder it was not set in Palestine whether it would have been published at all. I think a good editor could have upped the pacing which was woeful and made the characters less cardboard and stereotypical but I think this is unsubtle polemic masquerading as a thriller. It also fails on that front because the characters are too black and white generally and the Israeli's are so one dimensional. There is much wrong with Israel's actions and attitudes towards Palestine but crude stereotyping does no-one any favours. And both sides are capable of behaving attrociously. There are better books out there if you want a mystery and there are better novels on this troubled area; The Lemon Tree springs to mind or The Secret Life of Saheed.

[Barb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a painful read for me. It is not that I support Israel's treatment of the Palestinians but this was so blatantly one-sided that I don't think it helps the cause. The author certainly does a great job of portraying the anger and hate towards the Israelis. A better read for me was the nonfiction book The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan. That gave a much more nuanced picture of this very complex sad situation.

[Jennifer Beach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and thoughtful this book explores complex relationships between women, their communities (inside and out), and hunger for truth and justice. Also, it is an unusual portrait of life under Israeli occupation. A must read by a brilliant contemporary thinker.

[Endlesscribbles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now that I have read the first book in this series. The second book "Murder under the fig tree" makes more sense.
The story was good but the mystery is just a mystery. What I did find very interesting was learning more about the issues in the West Bank between the Palestinians and the Israelis. How internal politics are always at play as well as the politics between the two.. Which all related via the well developed characters old and new and the story itself. Just like "Murder under the fig tree"

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieser Krimi beruht auf den Erfahrungen, die die Autorin während ihres Aufenthaltes in Palästina selbst gemacht hat. Einfach verarbeitet als Roman. Dabei ist ein eindrückliches Werk entstanden, das zwar an einigen Stellen ein wenig wirr wirken mag, aber die lesende Person dennoch bei der Stange zu halten vermag.

Es ist eine interessante Erfahrung, auf diese Weise etwas über die Konflikte in Insrael und Palästina zu erfahren. Raphael schildert die alltäglichen Mühen und Gefahren, denen sich die Menschen dort ausgesetzt sehen. Dabei kommen beide Seiten zum Zuge, auch wenn der Fokus klar auf Palästina liegt.

Manchmal verlor ich aufgrund der vielen unbekannten Namen und der Anzahl an Figuren ein wenig den Überblick, wer nun wohin gehört, aber das tat meinem Interesse an dieser Geschichte keinen Abbruch. Viele Szenen werden mich noch länger begleiten.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first became aware of the world around me when Harry Truman recognized the newly independent State of Israel 70 years ago. Practically all my life, then, I've known what it is to be Jewish and find myself alternately proud and mortified about events in Israel. But for more than 40 years now, with the Jewish state almost continuously under the control of Right-Wing zealots, my pride in the country's accomplishments has steadily withered away as I've observed from afar the horrific human rights abuses committed against the Palestinians.

However, I feel no better about the Palestinian leadership, especially that of Hamas, and I'm mystified why often highly intelligent people continue to confine themselves to refugee camps for generation after generation. I've worked from time to time on Arab-American civil rights projects, and I've seen how prosperous so many Palestinians have become here in the United States; the same is almost certainly true of those who have emigrated to Europe. I'm told I don't appreciate the powerful tug of ancestral land. That's true. I fail to see why successive generations of refugees should share that passion for lands lost half- or three-quarters of a century ago to their grandparents.

Although I briefly traveled to Israel, I have never taken the opportunity to visit either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. So when Kate Jessica Raphael's novel, Murder Under the Bridge, offered me the chance to gain a Palestinian perspective on events in the region, I took it. I'm glad I did. Raphael is clearly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians, but her novel is far from one-sided. Her treatment of the several Israelis who people her book is balanced. Some (in the Israeli Army) are monsters, but not all. And the most prominent Israeli character, a police officer, comes across as reasonable and unbiased.

Murder Under the Bridge introduces Rania, a young female Palestinian police officer in the West Bank, and Chloe, a middle-aged American woman who is living with a family in a Palestinian village. Chloe is a gay Jewish-American computer programmer from San Francisco who has taken off a year to work for peace in the West Bank. The story is set in 2003, shortly after the American invasion of Iraq. When Rania discovers the body of a young woman who was murdered near the boundary between Israel and the West Bank, she is forced to buck the misogyny of most of the men around her simply to do her job. Chloe assists her in the investigation she insists on pursuing, often against explicit orders by her boss' boss. The case brings both women face-to-face with the Israeli Army and police, with the Israeli settlers who live in gated communities in the West Bank, and with the foot-dragging of the Palestinian leadership who fear offending the Israelis. In pursuing their investigation, Rania and Chloe uncover Israeli corruption.

Kate Jessica Raphael is a feminist writer, activist, and radio journalist who lives in Oakland, California. Murder Under the Bridge is the first of what are now two novels in her Palestine Mystery series.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hooked from the moment Rania, the Palestinian police detective and protagonist of Murder Under the Bridge, finds the body of a young, foreign woman under a highway bridge outside the West Bank village of Azzawiya. The first novel of the Palestine Mystery series is a page-turner.

The author’s portrayal of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation opens a window onto a world that most readers wouldn’t otherwise see through the lens of news and op-eds from and about this part of the world. Raphael’s matter-of-fact portrayal -- the intricate and engrossing scenery against which her mystery plays out -- is filled with delicious cross-cultural counterpoint as Rania works her murder case with occasional help from a solidarity activist named Chloe, who is American, Jewish, and a lesbian. Chloe’s bold determination and driven empathy makes her as much a sister to Rania in their common sense of justice (and obstinate resolve to see it realized) as the two are opposite in nationality, religion, and sexuality. This combustive mix of similarity and juxtaposition also surfaces in Rania’s wary co-investigation of the murder with Israeli detective Benny Lazar. Rania holds a guarded respect for her Israeli counterpart, despite his frustrating obliviousness to the threat of haram (shame) in the eyes of her community as she travels, interviews suspects, and lunches alone with a colleague who is both a man and an Israeli.

The tension between Fatah and Hamas is unavoidable in a story set in the West Bank, but inter-Palestinian politics too are rendered not in wild, accusatory polemic, but in the recognizably-everyday business of behind-the-back jockeying for position and advantage in the bureaucracy of a police department. The constant backbeat of invisibility and dismissal that both Rania and Chloe face as women operating in social territory claimed by men is drawn with sharp humor. In one of my favorite scenes, three Israeli police officers can’t find the deportation prison to which they are supposed to be taking Chloe and, classically, drive around and around the coastal city of Hadera into the wee hours of morning rather than stop and ask directions. By the time they arrive at the razor-wired complex at two in the morning, Chloe reflects that, “She had never been so glad to see the inside of a prison.”

A great read, with twists at the end that leave readers with a vivid sense of just how far complicity with occupation and exploitation extends even into the ranks of Israeli progressives. Still, the book offers hope that seekers of justice -- in this book, characters drawn from Israeli, Palestinian, and Jewish-American cultures -- will continue to act with compassion and integrity, even at the risk of offending their fractious compatriots.

(I received a free, advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.)

[dianne b. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This began, i thought, ploddingly, bouncing back and forth between our protagonistas Rania (a Palestinian policewoman) and Chloe (a Jewish American woman trying to do the just thing in Palestine). The episodes seemed repetitive. Chloe goes out, pisses off Top Killer, escapes. Rania goes to work, does exceptional work, gets shafted, keeps trying, heroically. Yada yada. But i realize in retrospect, some of that was to put in motion, the ongoing and almost insane levels of harassment that the cruel Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank (the scraps of what was Palestine) that just trying to live a life there entails. You want to go to work? Yeah...maybe. You get up before dawn, maybe you get through this checkpoint, depending on the vagaries of the 17 year Israeli who decides, maybe not. Maybe you keep your job, your house, your olive trees - for now - maybe not. Why? Because. And this is every day. Day after day. This is their life. Occupation. Disappearance. Death.

There’s a sad sense of inevitable loss, and so appreciation of the sweetness of time & beauty felt with the Palestinians. Moments together, family, a cup of tea, even chores - as though it is known that everything is arbitrary, built on quicksand. I would have liked to spend more time in the heads of some of the other characters - Danya and Abu Anwar for instance - but perhaps another book.

The mystery itself is quite good - bringing in lots of possible suspects and motives, especially in a place where no one can be sure who is not a spy, a double agent, a liar, or paid to pretend they are someone they’re not. As Chloe so succinctly puts it, “This country, it screws with your mind.”

Recommended.

[Vallery Feldman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book offended me to the point that if I bought it i would have burned it. Somewhere in among the non-stop polemic against Israel there was a story with an appealing protagonist. A palestinian policewoman, Rania, working in a male environment in a very male culture. but the author is so consumed with hatred that other characters were ludicrous. She could have written an interesting story illuminating the very real problems but she didn't. This is a missed opportunity.

[Foxglove · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bigoted, hateful book that is both disrespectful to Palestinians (turning them into stereotypes of children) and viciously hateful towards Israelis.

Israelis are shown to be "arrogant" and the main character of Chloe is shocked that any Israeli "would show courage."

Also, a really poor mystery.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 *
This novel features two strong female characters. Rania is a Muslim Palestinian police officer, working and living in the West Bank area. She is married, and her husband is mostly supportive of her work, though he dislikes how often her job takes her away from him and their young son. Rania’s family is for the most part only a minor part of this story.
Chloe is a lesbian Jewish American, who comes to the West Bank in order to actively support the Palestinian cause. Her romantic involvement with a Palestinian woman takes a little more of a role in this story, with details of their first sexual encounters.
These two strong female characters meet when a young foreign woman, Nadya, is found murdered in Palestinian territory, and a young Palestinian man is charged with her murder. Neither Rania nor Chloe is convinced that he is guilty, and both begin looking for ways to prove his innocence. Rania is at first ordered by her boss to stop her investigation, but he eventually supports her continuing pursuit of the truth. During the course of the efforts to learn who killed Nadya, Rania walks a dangerous political line, often angering the Israeli political forces who wanted this case put to rest; but she is also assisted by an Israeli investigator who also wants to learn the truth. Rania is also able to utilize Chloe’s ability to go places she cannot, to further the investigation.
This author uses the character of Rania to demonstrate how restrictive the laws are that govern what areas Rania may go into, and the many areas where she, as a Palestinian, even one in law enforcement, is not to go. And she also illustrates how cautious Rania must be, as a Muslim woman, who must always be appropriately attired, and is never to be seen with an Israeli male, even one with whom she is working.
For a novel that encompasses so many issues and causes, this story still seems repetitive at times. Those many issues include not only the aforementioned Israeli/Palestinian struggles, the restrictions placed on Muslim women, and the fear of discovery by a gay person in Israel, but also prostitution rings, and possible sex trafficking. And even with all that is going on, it feels a little draggy during certain segments.
For the most part, though, this was an interesting story, and I found the characters at least minimally engaging. Hopefully in the second book of this series, the author will be able to further develop the characters in the story.
This novel satisfies the reading challenge for a book set or authored in a different hemisphere than the reader, in A Book for All Seasons, as I am in the U.S. (Western Hemisphere) and the book is set in Palestine (Eastern Hemisphere).

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rania, a Palestinian police detective has found the body of a young woman in an olive grove near her town. She becomes involved with this murder case and wants to know who did this to such a beautiful young girl.

High officials of the Israeli military are implicated in this mystery. Rania's ally in all this is Chloe, a Jewish-American with a camera and an attitude that can sometimes get her into a barrel of trouble. How can these two women find a killer?

This books takes a look at the lives of women in the Middle East.

I won this book through the Good Reads First Reads Giveaway. It is an advanced reader's copy for an honest review. Kate Raphael offers a good book. Enjoy the read.

[Hermien · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought about deducting a star as the writer labours the pro-Palestinian/all Israelis are bad angle a bit too much, but the plot was really interesting and the setting fascinating so it still got 5 stars from me.

[Eva · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the setting of this mystery novel is both interesting and convincing, the characters were less so and the plot was rather slow.

[Lawrence]

It’s generally a good thing to question one’s own biases when selecting a reading, even in fiction. Having previously admired several nuanced murder-political whodunits by Matt Benyon Rees featuring the intellectually honest UNESCO teacher, Omar Youssef, I had been looking forward to a comparably worthy effort featuring a female Palestinian detective from the very interesting She Writes Press (www.shewritespress.com). While Murder under the Bridge by Kate Jessica Raphael offers a complex plot involving murder, sex trafficking, and political cover-up against the backdrop of the interaction of Palestinians and Israelis, the story disappointed me in its overwhelming propagandistic bias.
Unlike what one finds in a good novel, the characters are mostly caricatures. The plot is merely a vehicle for an undisguised polemic against Israel, Israelis and Jews. The intrepid Palestinian detective, Rania, seems to be after the truth, but it turns out that her desire to exonerate a (wrongly arrested) Palestinian college student is what really drives her. Despite encountering and associating with a number of Israelis, the author never allows any amity to grow between Rania and them. Despite the author’s intent to exalt Chloe, the self-appointed defender of the Palestinian cause, she comes off as a self-denying leftist San Franciscan Jew. (The main thing that gives her some depth is her lesbianism , the scenes of which are superfluous to the plot.)
All Israeli characters in the story but one are depicted as contemptuous and brutal, or at the least, contemptuous, arrogant liars regarding Palestinians. Real events to which Ms. Raphael refers that resulted in Israeli actions against Palestinian terrorism and violence are characterized as unprovoked criminal actions. On the other hand, all Palestinians are shown to be innocent, truthful, peaceful and completely justified in their animus to the “yahud” whose presence in the West Bank is portrayed as a crime against nature.
Rania condones acts of violence by Palestinians against Israelis and through her, the author portrays Yasir Arafat as a heroically blameless leader. Over and over throughout the story, Ms. Raphael, clearly a feminist, completely glosses over, tacitly excusing, the inferior position of women in the Islamic society she portrays. Surprisingly, the Arab men in the story are notably polite and considerate of their women. The Israeli men are shown to be contemptuous of Arabs and condescending to Rania as a policewoman.
Here are a few of the most egregious examples of the author’s animus toward Israel, Israelis and Jews:
p. 13: Chloe is radicalized because of the supposed murder of the 12-year old Mohhamed al-Dura. The reporting of this so-called murder of a child by an Israeli sniper during the 2000 intifada was subsequently proved to be false, and the incident itself, contrived (http://www.meforum.org/3076/muhammad-...) by the perpetrators of the intifada.
pp. 16-19: Humiliation of Palestinian day laborers led by an Israeli Druse commander named “Top Killer.”
p. 43: Even a Palestinian sympathizer, Abe, “walked like an Israeli. That special arrogance shone in his face.”
p. 65: Rania overhears Israeli soldiers “excited to be on this mission because they might be able to beat people up.”
p.66: “You (Arabs) were lucky if you got to take a bath twice a week,” voicing the libel that Israel denies water to West Bank Arabs.
p. 101: “Israelis had all kinds of gruesome murders, drug, crime that Palestinian villages never imagined.” Really! Fatah, Hamas et al. are not criminal gangs?
p. 102: Israeli police women “with big chests” “. . . treated her like something they found on the bottom of their shoes.”
p. 123: Israelis, ransacking the dwelling of an uncompliant Palestinian family, are portrayed as not really searching for anything. “At least they weren’t peeing on it, like the ones who had searched the home of a friend of hers in Jenin.”
p. 130: Rania muses that her Israeli police counterpart might be implicated in the massacres of the Beirut Sabra and Shatila refugee camps during the war 1982 in which Arafat and his gang were driven from Lebanon. In fact, the massacres were committed by Christian militia.
p. 158: Israeli police, as conveyed by her own captain, threaten to arrest Rania’s 6-year old son, unless she backs off the investigation.
p. 166: Chloe states as a bald fact that the killing of terrorist’s in Jenin in 2002 was a massacre of civilians. In fact, the Arab dead were not civilians, but armed militants, killed in house-to-house fighting at the cost of 23 Israeli lives that would not have been sacrificed had heavy weapons been used.
p. 169: Rania judges Israeli soldiers as “post-pubescent brats.”
p. 193: Finally, a good Israeli, is one who had committed suicide out of guilt for his role in Jenin.
P: 196: Reacting to orthodox Jewish hooligans who threw eggs at her, Rania accuses “their God” of “not being very nice.” Perhaps she forgot the term “jihad” in Arabic.
p. 211: This is the only time in the book that Rania explicitly concedes the humanity of Jews. She indirectly chides her young son by saying “’Jew’ doesn’t mean a bully. It’s like saying ‘terrorist’ means ‘Palestinian.’”
p.233 Even though Rania is a PA official, clearly wanting to comfort the young man she knows is wrongly accused of murder, she refrains from touching him as “haram.”
p. 301: With Rania in disguise, the PC San Franciscan author has her voice the hope, “don’t let him recognize my face. How could he? Palestinians looked alike to Israelis.”
p.311: In a backhanded smear of perfidious Israelis, Ranis has to “concede” that the Israeli young man who is a Palestinian sympathizer had courage to confront the real killer who is armed with a loaded gun.
Ms. Raphael misuses fake history around which to build the solution to the murder and denouement to the story (pp. 312-316). The villain’s original crime and its murderous cover-up is the so-called massacre in Jenin during the 2002 Arab intifada. In fact, the claim of a massacre was a hoax trumped up by terrorist politicians, leftist true believers and a gullible press. (All responsible media eventually disavowed such an event; here is a disavowal of inaccurate, hasty reportage by the left-of-center Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media/200....)
The main value of this story is that if one wishes to demonize Israelis as immoral, venal, brutal and arrogant colonizers of an innocent pastoral people, this is the book for you. If you seek a police procedural story with context in the Israeli-Arab environment, one that recognizes the complex motives, virtues and flaws of interesting characters on both sides of the ethno-religious conflict, go to the Omar Youssef stories.

[Wynd Kaufmyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!

In “Murder Under the Bridge” Kate Jessica Raphael paints an illuminating picture of daily life in the West Bank of Palestine, ranging from checkpoints, home demolitions, and settler violence to ordinary family life in Palestinian Arab culture. And she does it all in the context of a page-turner who-done-it style mystery novel! I was engaged from page one! Not only is the story engrossing, but Rafael’s characters are captivating and illuminate the wide variety of people that populate this landscape, from Israeli and international activists to Arab villagers in the West Bank, including a spunky hijab-wearing policewoman, to high-level officials in the Israeli military and their immigrant nannies. Each one is intriguing and thought-provoking regarding their unique roles in the landscape and their own personal motivations.

The story centers on three women: Rania, the policewoman, Chloe, the activist from San Francisco and Nadya, the murdered immigrant whose body is inexplicably found under a bridge in the West Bank of Palestine. I found myself wanting to eat a falafel with Rania and learn more about how she balances her family life with the demands of her chosen work which she pursues with as must passion as she has for her child and husband. I wanted to share an espresso with Chloe when she returned home (I live near San Francisco) to understand how she could work so long in such a stressful and tragic place. And for sure I wished that I could have helped Nadya defend against the powerful forces aligned against her.

As the mystery unfolds, the complexities of Israeli politics and policies in Palestine are revealed in tandem with solving the murder mystery. Both are satisfyingly resolved, however deeply disturbing. As would be the case of any novel about Palestine. This is a must-read for anyone who loves a good mystery or for anyone who wants a deeper description about a part of the world that is often shallowly represented or even misrepresented.

[Arl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murder Under the Bridge reminded me of Laurie King’s Oh Palestine in that it taught me about the intricacies of a community and culture of which I’m unfamiliar and it did so through the vehicle of a fascinating mystery which pulled me through the pages to its exciting conclusion. In this book, Kate brings to life a world you only read or hear about in the news. Murder Under the Bridge goes beneath the headlines and explores the world of Palestine, specifically a Palestinian police woman and her life; community, culture, family, job-the world she inhabits. The other main character is a north American lesbian who is in Palestine supporting the struggle. Although I assumed that Kate based the activist on herself or people she knows, I was surprised that the character was not as complex or filled out as the policewoman and I was a bit disappointed in this. As an avid mystery reader, I was not as surprised at the identity of the culprit as I wanted to be, although the ending was taut and unexpected.
I look forward to the next mystery, Kate brings us as I expect her books to get better and better--this is a great start!

[Nancys · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gripped me from the start. I finished it in 2 days, even though I was supposed to be doing a lot of other things.

There were lots of great plot twists involving the intersecting lives of several really strong characters, especially Rania, Chloe, Tania, and Malkah. The complicated relationships between various police and military units and the families of different characters fadded to the excitement and mystery. This aspect of the book also gave me more insight into the "stickiness" of Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

I appreciated all the descriptive detail about the daily lives of Palestinians living in several small towns, especially the stories from Azziwiyya. The shopping, cooking and eating were well presented and made me hungry.

As someone who doesn't know much Hebrew or Arabic, I was really happy to have the glossary which the author put at the back of the book. I wish I had realized at the start that it was back there and had referred to it as I was reading.

I hope Kate Raphael writes another book about Rania, the restless, feminist, outspoken Palestinian policewoman.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just finished this book and it wasn't easy. From the standpoint of becoming educated about the culture and current civil and political situation in the middle east, if some of the background and story line in the book is true, it was quite an eye opener for me.

Following the story from a mystery reader's standpoint, on the other hand, was very difficult and frustrating at times. There are many foreign names and locations and I as the reader found myself constantly checking back with the glossary and re-reading parts of the story to try and identify who what what cultural and religious ethnicity. I probably won't search out other "fiction" by this author. She seems to get lost in the details and I found myself lost at times as to where we were and what part each of the characters played. I also found the inclusion of a lesbian woman and her casual trysts didn't really add anything at all to the story

[Jaye L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blatanly biased of the "poor poor me Palestinian' without any offer of a humanitarian perspective of the Israelis. Just demonizing Israelis and victimizing Palestinians.

There are no truths to be found within the pages of this book...which are now currently being used in my cats litter box.

My best advice for the author? Take your two main characters OUT of the middle east, where their differences and similarities can shine, but without the highly charged current environment and where political pot shots can be avoided. THAT would be a book with reading!

I'm Jewish and my best friend is Palestinian. We are each other's ying and yang. It works for us here in Canada. Make these characters work somewhere where they can really shine.

[Michael Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent mystery, and even better for presenting Palestinian viewpoint on Israeli occupation. Written by a Jewish woman from San Francisco.

[Michelle Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder under the Bridge is a highly entertaining, suspenseful read. I loved the two women protagonists who work together to solve this mystery. Raphael does a fabulous job in creating real, sympathetic women from two very different backgrounds and cultures. I have to admit that I actually learned a lot about the Israeli/Palestinian situation in reading this book, though Raphael does not burden the reader with political backstory or fact dumping. Instead, with very literate prose and realistic dialogue, Raphael is able to paint the scene very well. A fantastic start to a great new series!

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I gave it 4 because I thoroughly enjoyed it & learned quite a bit about what it must be like to be a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation. This was written in 2015, well before the latest war sparked by the Oct 7th 2023 Hamas terrorist attack. It is set in 2005, in the West Bank, near the Israeli border. Some reviewers complain about how biased the book is, but I feel as though it’s fairly realistic & balanced. I really liked Rania’s character, but can’t say I was a huge fan of Chloe, interestingly based upon the author herself.

[Barbara Rhine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Murder Under the Bridge," by Kate Raphael, is a fine book. Set in the occupied West Bank, otherwise known as Palestine among its Arab inhabitants and their Israeli, American and European supporters, the well-paced mystery explores a milieu most American readers know little about. Right there it has that wonderful advantage of well-written fiction--the reader gets to inhabit a far-away place s/he may never get to visit in person, and to understand--even it could be said to experience--subtleties s/he will not find in sociopolitical analyses.

Raphael has two female narrators: Rania, a Palestinian policewoman, and Chloe, an American Jewish lesbian activist. Both are similar in their acerbic inner observations about female life under male domination, and this theme is amusing and insightful at once. Their lives are very different, however, when it comes to family and friends. While concerned about each other's welfare, they are not necessarily going to be close. (Raphael has a second book in the making, so perhaps we will soon find out.)

The plot, of course, centers on the need to solve a murder. The victim, surprisingly, is neither Palestinian nor Israeli but instead a European woman brought over by a sex trafficking ring. Both police and suspects span the spectrum from ordinary Palestinians and Israeli Arabs trying to live their lives, to political activists from both these Arab communities, to Israeli activists, to Israeli leaders, to Israeli religious settlers. These categories are not always mutually exclusive, so the fabric of the book is complex.

Raphael manages to negotiate all this without becoming unintelligible, which is a fine achievement. And she deftly explores the persistent complexities of language that swings between Arabic to Hebrew to English and back. Do be sure, however, to use the glossary early and often. I found it too late.

The solution to the mystery met E. M. Forster's two requirements for good plot: 1) it slips in unexpectedly, and 2) it appeals to the reader's intelligence in hindsight. The author could have explicated a bit more about the emotional reverberations when the truth is found out, but that is a quibble.

So why four stars instead of five?

Well, this reader wanted more conversations about the issues of the day. Wouldn't Rania and her husband, both politically sophisticated, discuss the fundamentalism that had to already be on the rise in this period, shortly before the Hamas electoral victory in Gaza? Chloe and Trina--why not have them compare notes on how it felt to be tourist outsiders, one Jewish and the other Palestinian? Wouldn't demonstrators who want to stop Israeli bulldozing of olive orchards talk about where the peace process was or wasn't, whether the two-state solution was viable and/or desirable at all, how a non-Israeli dominated society could ever come to pass in this place? Maybe Rania could be asked by an ignorant American when she puts on and takes off her hijab and jilbab within her own community, and why?

Raphael is from an activist milieu where such issues are debated fervently, and she is a very good writer. Without being pedantic or needing to arrive at answers, she could have woven such exchanges into the fabric of both daily life and action around the murder, to further expose the texture of this heady place that is at the source of so much conflict in today's world.

Do not let this keep you from the book. "Murder Under the Bridge" is a fine read, both for mystery aficionados and for those who care about Israel, Palestine and the Middle East. And if you happen to fit in each category, you will be very pleased with this book and already looking forward to the next.

[Buff Whitman-Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a few minutes ago I finished reading Murder Under the Bridge.  It is a first-rate piece of work, carefully crafted, perfectly paced, with fully three-dimensional characters and a compelling plot.  There's not a false note in the way the author combines a good detective story with the realities of life in Palestine.  The use of Hebrew and Arabic words and phrases seems completely natural and believable, adding a real sense of authenticity to the goings on. I particularly like the way Raphael creates Palestinian characters who are real people struggling to live decent lives in deplorable circumstances.  And the little details of daily family life on the West Bank help paint a picture of real people we can all identify with.  The main character (Rania) is a Palestinian woman police officer. Herferocity and professionalism demolish stereotypes beautifully and believably.  The determination of the other central character, an American political activist (Chloe) from the San Francisco Bay Area to be useful to the Palestinian political struggle and to do the right thing is wonderfully admirable -- if occasionally reckless.  The portrayal of decent folks among the Israelis keeps the book from being strident or polemical.  If you like a well-written mystery novel, if you are concerned about what's going on in Palestine and Israel, if you enjoy riding the fiction bus to new locales, if you appreciate protagonists with courage and complexity, you are going to love this book.

[Chaya Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read good mysteries set in France, or Italy, or California, but Palestine? What do I really know about life on the ground in Palestine, and could that work as a first-rate setting for a mystery? Well—yes! It did. Murder Under the Bridge engaged me from the start, written in Kate Raphael’s highly readable style. It didn’t take long before I came to know the central character, Rania, the Palestinian woman juggling family with a non-traditional career as a female police officer. Throughout the book we experience how Rania navigates the universal struggle of doing justice to both career and family within the complex cultural terrain of her world. Chloe, Rania’s American counterpoint in many ways, is another well-developed, engaging character, and as the story builds, it unfolds from their dual perspective. Raphael’s use of the internal dialogue of these two characters greatly contributes to our understanding of them, and to the development of the story. Raphael has a great flair for writing dialogue. Her wry commentary on people and life even made the Israeli cop, Benny, an interesting character, kind of likeable in some way. I couldn’t put the book down until I finished it. I found the denouement to be satisfying, and by the end I realized I had acquired a new understanding and appreciation of Palestinian culture along the way. The design of the book is quite appealing, too. All in all a unique, totally good read. I can’t wait for the sequel!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes me select mysteries to read? On the one hand, I have a pretty broad taste, on the other-there are definite plusses: In addition to good writing, good plot, good characters, I like it when the book is 1. about women, 2. refers to a location/city/geography I am familiar with, 3. describes characters who have similar interests and/or sexual orientation and/or politics to me, 4. contains historic or cultural reality. You get the picture. In the case of Kate’s book- bingo on all counts. This does not usually happen in one book, and this makes Murder Under the Bridge a real treat for SF anti-zionist leftie dykes.

Kate’s writing is clear and strong. How many mysteries do you read that take place in Palestine? The plot is ingenious and ultimately a real page turner.

My one critique is that the three main female characters - the SF leftie anti-zionist dyke, the Palestinian female cop and the Israeli adolescent girl - are all remarkably similar. Courageous, smart, independent, Perhaps that was part of the message - but to me that was a bit of a distraction. I wanted to appreciate their differences as well as their broad connections.

But don’t let that stop you. Hope Kate writes more.