The Rabbi Ben Mysteries Series

Meet Rabbi Ben, master of Torah, Talmud and Taekwondo, kick-ass computer whiz and a quick study on the dark side of human nature. A knight errant and roving troubleshooter, Ben’s clientele invite him into situations where police are unwelcome and discretion is paramount. When $3 million suddenly appears in a California synagogue's bank account, its leaders wonder if their prayers have been answered—until the money evaporates as mysteriously as it appeared. Where did the millions come from? Where did they go? Ben is hired to get some answers. Young, single and handsome—in a short, redheaded kind of way—the congregation’s divorcees and unhappy wives scheme to extend Ben’s stay, preferably in their beds. Ben fends off their not unwanted advances; he harbors as many secrets as the synagogue leadership. When Ben is mistakenly arrested for the murder of Temple Beit Joseph's beautiful administrator, he plunges into a dangerous, confusing world of mirrors where friends become foes and no one can be trusted. Ben’s investigation leads him to a decrepit cemetery, a mysterious private bank, a shofar-blowing part-Korean-Jewish cabinet-maker, a Latino gang-banger, and the ultimate in money laundering techniques. Never mind surviving a hit-and-run murder attempt and defusing a clever bomb in his living room. You don’t have to be Jewish to be enthralled by Rabbi Ben’s audacity, inventiveness and courage. For Whom the Shofar Blows is an engaging, thrilling read from start to finish.

Rabbi Ben, hero of For Whom the Shofar Blows, is back—and more than ever, he’s not your bubbe’s rebbe. Lured to a clandestine meeting with the President of Israel, Ben is asked to find the long-missing third of the Aleppo Codex, the oldest and most authoritative copy of the Hebrew Bible—more than 1,000 years old and rivaled in historical importance only by the Dead Sea Scrolls. Intact until the 1947 sacking of the Great Synagogue of Aleppo, Syria, its surviving pages are now in the Hebrew Museum in Jerusalem. But Rabbi Ben is told that the missing pages have reportedly surfaced in Brooklyn’s Syrian Jewish community, only to vanish again. It’s a job that only Ben can handle. Plunging into an ingrown and quasi-medieval culture, Ben learns that others seek the Codex, and they don’t play nice. His guide to all things Aleppo-On-Gravesend Bay is Miryam Benkamel, the sassy, sexy, and smart grand-niece of the late and increasingly mysterious man rumored to have smuggled the missing Codex pages out of Syria. Ben must dig deep in his black fedora for tricks to outsmart those who want the pages for themselves. Sparks fly as Ben and Miryam work together to solve the decades-old mystery, and Rabbi Ben feels the heat...in more ways than one!

Rabbi Ben, hero of For Whom the Shofar Blows and A Scribe Dies in Brooklyn, is back. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times—newly-engaged, Ben is in Pittsburgh for a medical procedure. Before passing out in the street, Ben saves a boy from an attacked by a trio of school bullies. He awakes in the home of the boy’s mother—Abby Silverblatt, older sister of his ninth-grade girlfriend. Invited to services at the Sanoker Shul, Abby’s tiny synagogue, Ben is asked to give a guest sermon—their Rabbi, Geltkern, has disappeared. Abby, her wife Yolanda, a Pittsburgh cop, along with Stan Bernstein (who helps run the shul) ask Ben to look into Geltkern’s disappearance. Oh, and could he fill in for him while he’s at it? Ben just wants to take it easy, but how can he say no? Sifting through the clues of Geltkern’s disappearance, Ben discovers unusual goings-on at the synagogue. Papers are missing, a mysterious motion-detection camera alerts someone far away when the building is occupied, and a night intruder visits the premises. When Bernstein is found dead in his office, his files stripped bare, Ben knows he’s touched a nerve. The more Ben uncovers, the less it makes sense—until he begins to suspect that perhaps Geltkern isn’t really a rabbi. Using Talmudic logic and dodging several attempts on his life. Ben pieces together the puzzle, and comes up with millions of reasons why someone would want him out of the picture. With the help of a bowling alley’s oversexed accountant hoping to score a strike with our red-haired hero, Ben unravels an elaborate plot that goes back to Sanok, Poland on the eve of World War II, and beyond. It is a far, far better thing that he does, than he has ever done.