The Missing File (Avraham Avraham Series #1)

by D. A. Mishani

Overview

Detective Avraham Avraham must find a teenage boy who has vanished from his quiet suburban neighborhood.

Police detective Avraham Avraham knows that when a crime is committed in his sleepy suburb of Tel Aviv, there is little need for a complex investigation. There are no serial killers or kidnappings here. The perpetrator is usually the neighbor, the uncle, or the father. As he has learned, the simplest explanation is always the answer.

But his theory is challenged when a sixteen-year-old boy named Ofer Sharabi disappears without a trace while on his way to school one morning. There is no simple explanation, and Avraham's ordered world is consumed by the unimaginable perplexity of the case.

The more he finds out about the boy and his circumstances, the further out of reach the truth seems to be. Avraham's best lead is Ofer's older neighbor and tutor, Ze'ev Avni. Avni has information that sheds new light on the case—and makes him a likely suspect. But will the neighbor's strange story save the investigation?

Told through dual perspectives, The Missing File is a crisp, suspenseful tale that introduces an indelible new detective and offers an evocative portrait of suburban life and tension with a universal reach. As it draws to its startling conclusion, D. A. Mishani's twisting mystery will have readers questioning notions of innocence and guilt, and the nebulous nature of truth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062195395
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/19/2013
Series:	Avraham Avraham Series , #1
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	199,217
File size:	968 KB

About the Author

D. A. Mishani is a literary scholar specializing in the history of detective literature. His first novel, The Missing File, was the inaugural book in his literary crime series featuring the police inspector Avraham Avraham.

What People are Saying About This

S.J. Watson

“THE MISSING FILE is a wonderfully satisfying detective mystery, with a heartbreaking finale. A tense, gripping page-turner that I devoured in two days—it’s hard to believe it’s a debut.”

Editorial Reviews

Israeli author Mishani's excellent debut features police inspector Avraham Avraham, a mildly depressive type who lives in the rundown city of Holon. He has spent most of his time on investigations that require little thinking so when a woman reports her 16-year-old son's disappearance, the detective tells her to wait, since most runaways come home on their own. But the boy doesn't return. As the case progresses, it becomes progressively cloudier. Mishani tells his tale from the dual perspectives of Avraham and a neighbor whose preoccupation with the missing boy seems suspicious. An unanticipated admission leads to an unexpected conclusion, but there are surprises to the very end of this well-crafted book. VERDICT Avraham isn't at all like Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret but there's a commonality between Simenon's thrillers and this book, having to do with the dominance of place and atmosphere and the feeling detectives aren't supermen, just ordinary men doing their best at a nearly impossible job. Mystery lovers, especially fans of the late Israeli crime writer Batya Gur, will enjoy this work.—David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Library Journal

Mishani…clearly knows his field, and in Steven Cohen's smooth translation he delivers a solid brainteaser. But a more satisfying way to read this mystery is to take it for what it really is—a thoughtful character study of a good man deeply troubled by issues of innocence and guilt.

The New York Times Book Review - Marilyn Stasio

At the beginning of literary scholar Mishani’s outstanding first novel, Insp. Avraham Avraham of the Holon police tells a complainant that there are “no detective novels in Hebrew” because crimes in Israel are straightforward, with no real mystery. Subsequent events show that a crime committed in Israel can offer plenty of mystery. When Hannah Sharabi expresses anxiety about her 16-year-old son, Ofer, who’s failed to return home from school, Avraham dismisses her concerns of foul play. As time passes and Ofer doesn’t reappear, Avraham feels increasingly guilty. Officials soon launch an investigation, which becomes the obsessive focus of a neighbor of the Sharabi family, Ze’ev Avni, who tutored the high school boy. Avni can’t stop involving himself in the case in bizarre and self-sabotaging ways. Mishani, the editor of international fiction and crime literature at Keter Books in Israel, puts his expertise in the genre to good use in combining the procedural and the puzzle with artful misdirection. Agent: Marc Koralnik, the Liepman Agency (Switz.). (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

The sense of place here is fascinating, and the focus on Avi’s state of mind, which is plumbed continuously, brings psychological depth. Procedural details are intriguing, too. . . . Armchair-traveler crime aficionados will welcome Mishani’s debut and look forward to Avi’s return.

Booklist

D. A. Mishani’s The Missing File is the first installment of a gripping new crime series.

World Literature Today

[A]very well-written and well-plotted story.

Daily American

[A] promising debut…[that] examines issues of truth, lies and perspective…. Raders of edgy mysteries set in unusual places will eagerly await his planned sequel.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

[A] solid brainteaser…. satisfying…. a thoughtful character study of a good man deeply troubled by issues of innocence and guilt.

Marilyn Stasio

Mishani weaves a densely complex psychological mystery…[and] provides a stunning and surprising conclusion.

Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

THE MISSING FILE is a wonderfully satisfying detective mystery, with a heartbreaking finale. A tense, gripping page-turner that I devoured in two days—it’s hard to believe it’s a debut.

S.J. Watson

Impressive! . . . Dror Mishani writes with profound originality. . . . A truly interesting story.

Henning Mankell

[Mishani] has created a new…memorable…protagonist, Israeli detective Avraham (‘Avi’) Avraham. The translation is smooth, and the twist at the end is so unexpected that it is worthy of a more seasoned novelist. … Recommended

Theodore Reit

A missing person case provides an unexpected challenge for a suburban Tel Aviv police inspector. Aside from terrorism, there's very little crime in Israel. That, explains Inspector Avraham Avraham, is why so few detective novels are written in Hebrew. So when Hannah Sharabi comes to the station to report that her son Ofer left their apartment in Holon for school that morning and never returned, Avraham assures her that the 16-year-old probably left on his own and will eventually return. But Ofer doesn't turn up, and after a day, Avraham is forced to open an investigation. Much to his chagrin, young hotshot Eyal Shrapstein is assigned to help him. Shrapstein undermines Avraham's fragile authority almost as much as his older colleague Eliyahu Ma'alul supports him. Avraham's superior, Ilana Lis, is also supportive, but as the investigation stalls, her patience wears thin. Should Avraham focus more on Ofer's father, a seaman who was headed to Trieste when his son disappeared? On neighbor Ze'ev Avni, a teacher whose poor sense of boundaries may have pushed Ofer toward the edge? On one of the anonymous phone calls that make Shrapstein's ears twitch? Even a weeklong business trip to Brussels can't shake the Sharabi case from the mind of Avraham, who struggles to separate the truth from a tangle of evasions, misperceptions and outright lies. Mishani gives his unfortunately named sleuth a compelling debut in a complex case aimed straight at the reader's heart.

Kirkus Reviews