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Abe Lieberman #7
Not Quite Kosher
Abe Lieberman is a strong, sympathetic character, an Everyman whose love for his family is only matched by his quiet, zealous commitment to justice. "A figure out of Talmudic lore-endearing, wise in his crotchets, weary with his wisdom," says The Washington Post. He loves what he does, but it takes its toll as his commitment to what is right is sorely tested every day on the mean streets of Chicago. As a moral man, he is sometimes faced with some uncomfortable ethical choices in order to see that justice-rather than the letter of the law-is meted out.
And in Not Quite Kosher, the latest Abe Lieberman mystery by veteran Edgar Award-winning Stuart Kaminsky, our hangdog sleuth is up to his eyeballs in tsurris, the kind of trouble that will drive a man to madness. From tracking a pair of low-rent thieves who stumble into a heist way over their heads to finding out what happened to a man who predicted his own death in a bizarre twist of fate, not to mention planning for a grandson's bar mitzvah that threatens to send him to the poorhouse, Lieberman will do much to find a way to make everything right, even if it takes years off his life.
And his Irish partner, Bill Hanrahn, the Priest to Lieberman's Rabbi, is in trouble of his own making. For the woman he loves is the object of affection of one of the kingpins of the Asian crime syndicate in Chicago and the notion of this woman marrying anyone from a different culture is anathema. How far will he go to win the woman he loves? And at what cost?
Just another day in the lives of a pair of Chicago's most amiably odd detective team . . .
And in Not Quite Kosher, the latest Abe Lieberman mystery by veteran Edgar Award-winning Stuart Kaminsky, our hangdog sleuth is up to his eyeballs in tsurris, the kind of trouble that will drive a man to madness. From tracking a pair of low-rent thieves who stumble into a heist way over their heads to finding out what happened to a man who predicted his own death in a bizarre twist of fate, not to mention planning for a grandson's bar mitzvah that threatens to send him to the poorhouse, Lieberman will do much to find a way to make everything right, even if it takes years off his life.
And his Irish partner, Bill Hanrahn, the Priest to Lieberman's Rabbi, is in trouble of his own making. For the woman he loves is the object of affection of one of the kingpins of the Asian crime syndicate in Chicago and the notion of this woman marrying anyone from a different culture is anathema. How far will he go to win the woman he loves? And at what cost?
Just another day in the lives of a pair of Chicago's most amiably odd detective team . . .
256 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2002
31 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Stuart M. Kaminsky
161 books215 followersStuart M. Kaminsky wrote 50 published novels, 5 biographies, 4 textbooks and 35 short stories. He also has screenwriting credits on four produced films including ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, ENEMY TERRITORY, A WOMAN IN THE WIND and HIDDEN FEARS. He was a past president of the Mystery Writers of America and was nominated for six prestigious Edgar Allen Poe Awards including one for his short story “Snow” in 1999. He won an Edgar for his novel A COLD RED SUNRISE, which was also awarded the Prix De Roman D’Aventure of France. He was nominated for both a Shamus Award and a McCavity Readers Choice Award.
Kaminsky wrote several popular series including those featuring Lew Fonesca, Abraham Lieberman, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, and Toby Peters. He also wrote two original "Rockford Files " novels. He was the 50th annual recipient of the Grandmaster 2006 for Lifetime Achievement from the Mystery Writers of America.
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievement award) in 2007.
His nonfiction books including BASIC FILMMAKING, WRITING FOR TELEVISION, AMERICAN FILM GENRES, and biographies of GARY COOPER, CLINT EASTWOOD, JOHN HUSTON and DON SIEGEL. BEHIND THE MYSTERY was published by Hot House Press in 2005 and nominated by Mystery Writers of America for Best Critical/Biographical book in 2006.
Kaminsky held a B.S. in Journalism and an M.A. in English from The University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Speech from Northwestern University where he taught for 16 years before becoming a Professor at Florida State. where he headed the Graduate Conservatory in Film and Television Production. He left Florida State in 1994 to pursue full-time writing.
Kaminsky and his wife, Enid Perll, moved to St. Louis, Missouri in March 2009 to await a liver transplant to treat the hepatitis he contracted as an army medic in the late 1950s in France. He suffered a stroke two days after their arrival in St. Louis, which made him ineligible for a transplant. He died on October 9, 2009.
Kaminsky wrote several popular series including those featuring Lew Fonesca, Abraham Lieberman, Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, and Toby Peters. He also wrote two original "Rockford Files " novels. He was the 50th annual recipient of the Grandmaster 2006 for Lifetime Achievement from the Mystery Writers of America.
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievement award) in 2007.
His nonfiction books including BASIC FILMMAKING, WRITING FOR TELEVISION, AMERICAN FILM GENRES, and biographies of GARY COOPER, CLINT EASTWOOD, JOHN HUSTON and DON SIEGEL. BEHIND THE MYSTERY was published by Hot House Press in 2005 and nominated by Mystery Writers of America for Best Critical/Biographical book in 2006.
Kaminsky held a B.S. in Journalism and an M.A. in English from The University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Speech from Northwestern University where he taught for 16 years before becoming a Professor at Florida State. where he headed the Graduate Conservatory in Film and Television Production. He left Florida State in 1994 to pursue full-time writing.
Kaminsky and his wife, Enid Perll, moved to St. Louis, Missouri in March 2009 to await a liver transplant to treat the hepatitis he contracted as an army medic in the late 1950s in France. He suffered a stroke two days after their arrival in St. Louis, which made him ineligible for a transplant. He died on October 9, 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 13, 2011
I read this and two other Abe Lieberman procedurals (Lieberman's Day and The last Dark Place) in short order. Best comparison is to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels. Recurring characters, similar crimes — including the bar mitzvah they all seem to be in eternal preparation for.
Good gritty stuff with nice terse and sometimes funny dialogue.
Good gritty stuff with nice terse and sometimes funny dialogue.
July 13, 2024
Enjoyable read to 5 stars for me. Was it perfect? No, because there is always too much repetition for back story of prior Lieberman novels of the series and also for case uptakes. BUT! Well the mood, the balance of plots toward depth of characters and ESPECIALLY of defining the perps as human and real. It's 5.
In this one we get more resolution about El Perro and also where Abe is put in fully raising his grandkids. Also much of the religious platforms on every side. But especially for the wedding and upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Both.
But was most superior about this book in particular is that the cases of multitudes overlap. And some are connected and some are not at all. Happening in various places but all being covered and attempting to be solved by Lieberman and Hanrahan's district. LIKE REAL LIFE. THERE IS NO SOLID PLOT in police work. Sorry, but that's mostly and completely often true.
This one approaches copper reality more than any detective, law officer, thriller good guy, or any such authority of order side genre that I've read in years. The moderns don't even come close in massive majority. And least in big city environment in this day of anti-cop baselines, even within our own local and national governments. One of the reasons the best are leaving and few are entering such a necessary field of work.
I only have two or three more of these to read, and they are now almost entirely as the Chicago I lived and remember so vividly. So I am tempted to pace them out. But I doubt I can.
Kaminsky gets humor into situation almost exactly in the manner of most of us who have lived with immense and nearly constant aggressions of every sort. Almost and usually totally unearned. So I appreciate that he got some of it down.
All the scenes on the rock piles and barriers lake front were excellent. Not exactly there at all and much farther south or near the Science of Industry Museum I have pulled a few out myself a few times. Many decades ago. Now you can't even park outside there and massive changes exist all the way to Rainbow Beach on 79th. And almost none of them are good changes either.
Reading other reviews, I am surprised at the anti-religious underpinnings for this one. Similar to the dissing and meanness against the obese- it's now one of the most flagrant prejudices that seem to be applauded and approved.
In this one we get more resolution about El Perro and also where Abe is put in fully raising his grandkids. Also much of the religious platforms on every side. But especially for the wedding and upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Both.
But was most superior about this book in particular is that the cases of multitudes overlap. And some are connected and some are not at all. Happening in various places but all being covered and attempting to be solved by Lieberman and Hanrahan's district. LIKE REAL LIFE. THERE IS NO SOLID PLOT in police work. Sorry, but that's mostly and completely often true.
This one approaches copper reality more than any detective, law officer, thriller good guy, or any such authority of order side genre that I've read in years. The moderns don't even come close in massive majority. And least in big city environment in this day of anti-cop baselines, even within our own local and national governments. One of the reasons the best are leaving and few are entering such a necessary field of work.
I only have two or three more of these to read, and they are now almost entirely as the Chicago I lived and remember so vividly. So I am tempted to pace them out. But I doubt I can.
Kaminsky gets humor into situation almost exactly in the manner of most of us who have lived with immense and nearly constant aggressions of every sort. Almost and usually totally unearned. So I appreciate that he got some of it down.
All the scenes on the rock piles and barriers lake front were excellent. Not exactly there at all and much farther south or near the Science of Industry Museum I have pulled a few out myself a few times. Many decades ago. Now you can't even park outside there and massive changes exist all the way to Rainbow Beach on 79th. And almost none of them are good changes either.
Reading other reviews, I am surprised at the anti-religious underpinnings for this one. Similar to the dissing and meanness against the obese- it's now one of the most flagrant prejudices that seem to be applauded and approved.
October 3, 2020
Reading a number of Kaminsky books in a row has me viewing this one at the end of the buffet. This was the most disappointing of the lot spanning various Kaminsky series. Most missing was a solid plot. This is more of a look at the lives of a few different sets of characters that briefly encounter hooligans, planning a marriage and religious ceremony.
The writing meanders through the sections of life stories, which hop over each other throughout. I found it all aimless and really didn't care whatever happened to who. I knew the reoccurring characters, but the hop, skip approach didn't work for me. That, the very weak "mystery" and lackluster writing by Kaminsky this time around has me coming to ....
Bottom line; i don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
The writing meanders through the sections of life stories, which hop over each other throughout. I found it all aimless and really didn't care whatever happened to who. I knew the reoccurring characters, but the hop, skip approach didn't work for me. That, the very weak "mystery" and lackluster writing by Kaminsky this time around has me coming to ....
Bottom line; i don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
February 26, 2020
Wonderful
I decided to give this a 5
There are a few minor plots that occur during this book. I liked how these were very descriptive and the relationship to the main characters or main plot was done beautifully.
And then add the storyline of your main characters Abe and Bill. And of course their relationships with the leaders of the China gang and the Latino.
The banter and subtle jokes
I loved this book.
I went to Wikipedia to read about the author. Sad to hear of his passing many years ago. I have. 3 left to read in the series and I will savor them.
I love this series.
I decided to give this a 5
There are a few minor plots that occur during this book. I liked how these were very descriptive and the relationship to the main characters or main plot was done beautifully.
And then add the storyline of your main characters Abe and Bill. And of course their relationships with the leaders of the China gang and the Latino.
The banter and subtle jokes
I loved this book.
I went to Wikipedia to read about the author. Sad to hear of his passing many years ago. I have. 3 left to read in the series and I will savor them.
I love this series.
January 16, 2020
Stuart Kaminsky, JRR Tolkien, Robert B Parker, Leo Tolstoy, Stuart Perrin, PG Wodehouse, Mark Twain, yes, these are my favorite authors. I rea
enjoyed reading this beautifully crafted book. The inner and outer dialogues and terrific characters, locales, descriptions are completely satisfying. Timeless, great read!!!
enjoyed reading this beautifully crafted book. The inner and outer dialogues and terrific characters, locales, descriptions are completely satisfying. Timeless, great read!!!
October 30, 2020
A solid episode in the Lieberman saga.
January 11, 2021
another excellent read ...
August 8, 2021
Solid dialog, interesting characters
August 20, 2023
Not sure why this one has such a low average rating. By far the best, Abe Lieberman novel to date. Truly enjoyed Hanrahan’s wedding and Wu’s acceptance of their nuptials.
May 8, 2024
Excellent page-turning mystery with a great surprise ending.
January 25, 2017
First, my disclaimer: I really love this Stuart Kaminsky's series featuring the sad-faced Jewish detective, Abe Lieberman and his Irish-Catholic partner, Bill Hanrahan, aka "rabbi" and "father Murph." Ok, so now on to the book:
Although not the best of the series, it delivers on the main ingredients that make Kaminsky such a talented writer: quirky characters, memorable dialogue, particularly of the "ethnic" variety, and a solid plot line with a few twists thrown in. Although anyone can enjoy one of these books, anyone who has grown up in a Jewish neighborhood in a major city will have an edge-- just a little extra laugh and nod-- as Kaminsky captures small elements of that life so well as to have the reader laugh out loud or feel the need to read passages to friends/family members.
A few parts of this book felt a bit "stock" for anyone familiar with this series, such as the inevitable inclusion of Emiliano "El Perro" Del Sol, the psychotic, despotic gang leader who has a distinct affection for Rabbi and will do favors / watch out for him now and again. Their relationship and the exchanges between them provide some of the book's funniest scenes, second only to the also mandatory scenes in the T&L Deli, owned by Abe's brother, where the "alter cockers" (old, mostly Jewish men) gather daily for breakfast and intellectual exchange (e.g., "...what, again with the bowel movements?..."). These are my favorites, as they provide guaranteed laughs to break up whatever disturbing violence and crime has formed the central story line for Abe and Bill to solve. I'd love to have a regular booth there and enjoy a bagel with a "shmear" of cream cheese and coffee. I'll have to settle for another good read-- and invite others to stop by as well.
Although not the best of the series, it delivers on the main ingredients that make Kaminsky such a talented writer: quirky characters, memorable dialogue, particularly of the "ethnic" variety, and a solid plot line with a few twists thrown in. Although anyone can enjoy one of these books, anyone who has grown up in a Jewish neighborhood in a major city will have an edge-- just a little extra laugh and nod-- as Kaminsky captures small elements of that life so well as to have the reader laugh out loud or feel the need to read passages to friends/family members.
A few parts of this book felt a bit "stock" for anyone familiar with this series, such as the inevitable inclusion of Emiliano "El Perro" Del Sol, the psychotic, despotic gang leader who has a distinct affection for Rabbi and will do favors / watch out for him now and again. Their relationship and the exchanges between them provide some of the book's funniest scenes, second only to the also mandatory scenes in the T&L Deli, owned by Abe's brother, where the "alter cockers" (old, mostly Jewish men) gather daily for breakfast and intellectual exchange (e.g., "...what, again with the bowel movements?..."). These are my favorites, as they provide guaranteed laughs to break up whatever disturbing violence and crime has formed the central story line for Abe and Bill to solve. I'd love to have a regular booth there and enjoy a bagel with a "shmear" of cream cheese and coffee. I'll have to settle for another good read-- and invite others to stop by as well.
November 1, 2011
Got this book in a double shot format with Bright Future at a library fire sale. Having never read anything by Kaminsky I didn't know what to expect. I was pleased. It's obvious this book is somewhere in the middle of the series, and it really doesn't matter. The bits and pieces about previous books make me want to go back and read those books, but they don't take me out of the current situation. Interesting characters and a bunch of stories are going on at once. The ending is satisfying and it left me wanting to find out more about Liberman and his cohorts.
February 17, 2016
New author for me - I liked him. Kaminsky writes a good mystery with a lot of humor. Not a big surprise on who the main murderer was, but liked the characters, the different side plot stories and especially the humor. I want to find the first book of this series with the Jewish police detective Abe Lieberman. I'd also like to try some of Kaminsky's other series, too.
November 1, 2019
The "anniversary" jewelry store heist, the bar mitzvah, Hanrahan and Iris get married, three punks try to mug a man who later ends up dead but did they kill him? Another enjoyable installment in the Abe Lieberman series.
Our second Lieberman read-aloud with Lutrecia and #24 on our 2016 Read-alouds list.
Our second Lieberman read-aloud with Lutrecia and #24 on our 2016 Read-alouds list.
November 12, 2008
Marriage of Father (his partner);jewelry robbery/murder; lakefron murder/suicide; Joe Liberman to speak at charity event at the temple
August 28, 2010
Actually 3.5 stars. I hadn't read a Lieberman story in a while, and this one was just the way I remembered them. That's a good thing.
December 13, 2013
Torn between a 2 and a 3 on this one. It was okay, but lacked much of the interpersonal and personal musings of Lieberman that I look forward to so much.
June 13, 2010
absorbing Chicago mystery
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews