A Possibility Of Violence

By D.A. Mishani

The second in D.A. Mishani’s acclaimed literary crime series featuring Detective Avraham Avraham

An explosive device is found in a suitcase near a daycare centre in Holon, a quiet suburb of Tel Aviv. A few hours later, a threat is received: the suitcase was only the beginning. And it was.

Inspector Avraham Avraham, back in Israel after a long vacation he had taken to recover from his last case (in the acclaimed The Missing File), is assigned to the investigation. Anxious about the nursery’s children, he acts fast. He has a number of suspects, though, and one of them, a father of two, has seemingly gone on the run. Is he related to the suitcase and the threat? Is he trying to escape Avraham’s investigation, or did he commit another crime, possibly more terrible, one that no one knows has been committed?

Told from alternating perspectives, A Possibility of Violence is the story of Avraham’s attempt to redeem himself from the trauma and failure of his first investigation, through a case even more deceiving and hideous. And it is a story of a father on the run, desperately trying to save his children from something he dares not reveal.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781443412452

D.A. Mishani

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.

Reviews for A Possibility Of Violence

[herschelian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

On the whole I was rather disappointed by this book, it had all the ingredients needed to make it a gripping police thriller, but somehow it never really took off. It was interesting reading a book set in Israel - the action takes place in Tel Aviv - but the main two characters,Inspector Avraham and the man he is suspicious of, Chaim Sara - seemed very strange and muddled in their thinking and actions. Avraham seemed more inclined to make up his mind about the guilt of Sara without any hard evidence, and was trying to make Sara's actions fit with his thinking which completely coloured his actions, and was very unprofessional for a cop. Sara just seemed strange altogether, there were so many unexplained loose ends about his behaviour. One thing particularly annoyed me, this is the 2nd book featuring Avraham and quite a bit of it was taken up explaining the details of the case that was featured in the 1st book, thus spoiling it for readers who were not reading the series in order. Towards the very end of the book, for no apparent reason, some details were given of what is obviously going to be a new case, and then just left dangling - presumably they will feature in book three. I nearly DNF this book.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the second book in a series set in Tel Aviv. I have not read the first, but I feel as if I have: the entire plot seemed to have been reproduced here to demonstrate why the detective, Avraham, needs to redeem himself. The last chapters spend a page describing the new case he is supposed to be investigating - will that form book three?The story centres around the discovery of a fake bomb outside a daycare and this is reasonably satisfactorily tied up. During the investigation of this case, Avraham becomes convinced that one of the eventually exonerated suspects, Chaim, is hiding something and it gradually becomes clear that Chaim's wife has disappeared. The narrative perspective throughout the book switches between Chaim and Avraham.On the plus side, I enjoyed reading a novel set in Israel. On the other hand, I found the chapters told from Chaim's point of view confusing and a bit disturbing. I kept waiting for something terrible to happen to his sons. The story wrapped up at a point where I was still expecting a final twist which would tie up all the loose ends. What was the story with Jenny's first husband? Who wrote her the letters she claimed were from her sister? Did Ezer really witness all the nighttime activities he claimed to be aware of? Were the references to Ezer's first father really so easily explained away?Avraham has (of course) a troubled personal life - his girlfriend who is supposed to be moving to Israel to live with him dumps him. In a bizarre final chapter he confronts her, learns that she got cold feet and had an affair, whereupon he proposes and she accepts. Hmmm...

[ashergabbay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"אפשרות של אלימות" ("The Possibility of Violence") sees Inspector Avraham return from a vacation in Europe, where he took time off to recover from his mistakes in the first investigation into the case of a missing child. He is now faced with a case involving a suitcase with a fake bomb placed not far from a kindergarten in his hometown of Holon. A suspect is immediately apprehended, but is released after a few hours. Avraham interviews the woman running the kindergarten and believes her story. The reader already knows things are not what they seem.The father of a child who frequents that same kindergarten is the main character in the book. He is somehow involved, but it is not clear how. His rocky marriage to a Philippine woman, mother of his two children, ends mysteriously. The woman apparently went back to the Philippines but local police does not have any record of her entering the country. It is all very strange, and Mishani keeps the mystery going until almost the end of the book.While I found the story intriguing, I wasn't as drawn into it as in the first book by Mishani. Something in the plot doesn't seem right and the solving of the case leaves many unanswered questions. Mishani is a good writer. I'm sure he'll recover from the "second book syndrome" and continue to provide us with good entertainment.