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When a worker, Jake Lefkowitz, at the New York newspaper, the Jewish Daily Forward goes missing, the men at the paper call on well-known Yiddish speaking detective Morris Weiss to find him. All involved, including Jake's wife, agree that calling on the police doesn't make a lot of sense, since the police aren't on the same wavelength and don't speak the same language as anyone who would be in the know. Morris and his nephew run a detective agency. Morris has been a Golden Glove Champion, a sergeant in the army during the War and now at 29 he's running a detective agency. He's successful because he understands the people who live in that area. He would not be at all as good a detective if called to work outside the Lower East Side. At first he thinks that Jake is a good man who might have come across something he couldn't handle, but as Morris investigates he discovers that Jake has made enemies of many bad guys. He's a gambler who frequented a popular club that's well known to be crooked. Jake also was stepping out on his wife with a blonde bombshell. When Jake's partner in crime, a man he owed big money to, is found dead, Morris understands that things are now getting serious and the danger level is rising. It's up to him to find Jake, if Jake is ever to be found. MURDER IN GOTHAM is very much a study in what the time period might have been like. The characters all seem to come from central casting, all fit the Damon Runyon stereotypes. Speaking Yiddish is mentioned almost on every page of this book but I found it strange and sad that no Yiddish is actually used. I was expecting Yiddish phrases to pepper the pages so that the book would sound real. I was also hoping that the readers could get a firm feel about the now dying language. I also found that Morris was far too sure of himself, far too positive that he would be the winner in every circumstance. That undercut any excitement in the story. Each of the very short chapters is headed by words of wisdom garnered, we are told, from the casebooks of Morris Weiss. But because Morris is so sure of himself, all the tension of the story dissolves. This also happens with the tight friendship between the Yiddish private detective and the Irish cop. It made life very easy for Morris, since he knew he had the power of the law on his side and again, because he was so certain of the friendship there was no anticipation in the story that something might go wrong for him. All in all the story introduced us to many different characters from the location, most of it was just a few moments of dialogue in short chapters that really didn't fill the story out. And with all the talk about Yiddish, I found that I missed seeing something of the language in use. MURDER IN GOTHAM didn't give a full story of the time period, just a small taste of the small section dealing with the low lifes of the Lower East Side.
Reviewed by A.L. Katz, March 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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