The Jewel

Theft, murder, romantic intrigue – everything is here, and so is the disarmingly honest amateur sleuth, Lizzy Badihi. Lizzy’s mother, Batsheva, is confined to a convalescent home for the aged, having cracked three ribs trying to retrieve a live carp from her bathtub. Visiting her mother, the last thing journalist Lizzy expects to run into is a double murder, but when patient Shifra Levitt is found dead in her bed from a bullet wound, holding a gun, Lizzy is there. Then follows the killing of Judy Bismut, chief nurse, which propels Lizzy into a hectic investigation. She searches the turbulent past for the answers, specifically a controversial affair that took place in Palestine during World War I, when some young Jewish idealists volunteered their services as spies for the British army in the struggle against the Ottoman government. Helped by Betty Pascal, Lizzy finds that the 80-year-old story continues to haunt the convalescent home. As in past investigations, Lizzy is gruff and determined and makes herself extremely unpopular. Here, too, her large, labyrinthine family serves as both help and hindrance.