Plans go astray when Herman, the master lox cutter, is found sliced by his own knife, and Ruby is off on another mystery--one which takes her to Alaska and to New York. She solves the crime--actually, two crimes--with the help of the two men in her love life and her best friend and e-mail correspondent, Nan.
It's all much fun and entertainment. I do hope Sharon Kahn is hard at work on the next installment in this series!
Herman fails to show up at a meeting with Essie and Ruby so the two ladies journey to his home only to find the grandmaster murdered. While Essie bemoans the impact on the twin's Bar Mitzvah, Ruby investigates by back trailing where Herman has been to include Alaska and New Jersey. Ruby finds herself up to her gefilte fish in a lox conspiracy that dates back to the Nazi occupation of Denmark.
HOLD THE CREAM CHEESE, KILL THE LOX is an amusing cozy that provides the audience insight into pre-Bar Mitzvah training. The story line is humorous because of the actions of Essie groaning over the murder's impact on the Bar Mitzvah and the havoc caused by the non-mench twins. Though why Ruby and Essie gallivant to Alaska and New Jersey to solve the homicide seems weak, the motivation for murder is fun to follow. Sharon Kahn serves up a taste of Jewish American life with a few kibbutz to nosh on inside a cozy that is clearly not chopped liver.
Harriet Klausner
List price: $16.95 (that's 30% off!)
Anyway, widowed Ruby is a computer consultant in Eternal, Texas where the place to go for bagels is The Hot Bagel owned by Lebanese Milt Aboud. While waiting for her weekly bagels Ruby witnesses the death by cinnamon cyadide bagel of a member of her temple's congregation. Naturally, everyone but Ruby thinks Milt did it and she sets out to prove he didn't .
Until she does, you get to enjoy the cowboy-booted congregation of the Temple Rita (Don't ask!), the overly opinionated new-rabbi-to-be (Don't call me Kevin, call me Rabbi Kapstein) who would like to turn ex-rabbi's wife Ruby back into a rabbi's wife and Essie Sue Margolis Temple Rita's self-appointed everything who wants to erect a statue of her murdered sister on the temple steps in the guise of Queen Esther.
Even though I uncovered the identity of the murderer long before Rudy, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The not very subtle but totally funny combination of the Jewish and Texas cultures is to die for. Try it, I'm sure you'll like it. I'm actually ordering Ruby's next two adventures right now!