A shot in the synagogue parking lot brings Rabbi Avi London running. He sees a gun and a pool of blood. At least one person is probably dead. The rabbi knows he should have seen trouble brewing weeks before when discussions about death turned nasty. But he was busy then with life cycle events and November and December challenges. Now, despite the rabbi’s teachings, the murderer has put his plan into motion. Soon there will be enough people mourning his victims to ensure the minimum of ten men at the daily service, and he will be able to say his Kaddish.  

   MORE THAN A MYSTERY
 
Murder at the Minyan, the topical new novel by Shulamit E. Kustanowitz, is much more than it seems. Sure, it’s a mystery, but one that has no sex or profanity, very little violence, and it ends well. There’s some humor, the cast of characters is likely to seem familiar to any shul-goer, and nothing about the plot should cost the reader a night’s sleep. (CLICK HERE TO READ MORE)

He would do anything 
to get a minyan.

Anything.

          ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As the daughter of a Conservative rabbi, Shulamit E. Kustanowitz witnessed the joy of happy life cycle events as well as the grief of mourners and their zeal for saying Kaddish. More important, she gained an intimacy with Jewish tradition. As a Modern Orthodox adult, she authored A First Haggadah in 1979 and Henrietta Szold, Israel’s Helping Hand in 1990. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Record (of New Jersey), the Jerusalem Post in Israel and elsewhere.  She was managing editor of New Jersey’s Jewish Standard newspaper and wrote about Israel for Travel Weekly and the travel industry.