This is the first entry in a crime series featuring Israeli detective Avraham Avraham. While I found it somewhat slow moving, I much prefer that to crime novels that are all action and shoot-'em-up.

This case involves a school-boy teenager who left for school one morning and never came home. At first (and probably for too long) the case is treated as a simple runaway situation.

The interesting twist about this book for me is that Avraham's hobby is to read detective novels and prove to himself that the solutions the fictional detectives in these novels come up with are incorrect, with Avraham then determining what the correct solution is. Here, after the case of the missing teen is solved, Avraham's girlfriend poses an alternative solution, equally plausible. As the book ends, we cannot know whether the potential new culprit will be pursued, whether there will be further investigation, or whether the case will stand closed as is.

Which is why I have to go on to read the next volume--will there be further developments regarding this first case? And will alternate solutions be offered in all Avraham's cases?

Recommended.

3 stars ( )

Très agréablement surpris par cette intrigue et cette "construction" de personnage. A suive! ( )

She's Got Books on Her Mind

Avraham Avraham is an investigator who usually has to deal with mothers who want their daughters followed or class bullies to get reprimanded so when a new mother walks in telling him that her son is missing he thinks nothing of it. He think he ran away or will come back soon after a wild night partying because nothing ever really goes wrong where he lives. This time he is proven wrong. Racked with guilt he gets on the case as soon as he can to find the missing boy. He tries to make up for lost time but seems more frazzled than usual with this case. Meanwhile there is Ze'ev, the missing boy's neighbor and once English tutor, who seems to take a great interest in the case. He's a little more than suspicious when he starts wanting to see Avraham all the time to tell him the type of person Ofer really is. This is a mystery that will keep you questioning until the end: W hat really happened to Ofer Sharabi?

Avraham is supposed to be this great investigator so initially I thought he would have it all together. He dismisses this mother's fears that something horrible happened to her son which I can easily forgive him for because it was an obvious mistake. The thing about Avraham and all the characters were that they were the quiet, pensive type so any shake or disruption in how their world is startles them. Avraham seemed not to recover for most of the story because he felt so guilty for not taking the case so seriously in the beginning. I know that's not supposed to be the case based on something the book said later on but it feels that way. I like that Avraham was the quiet, pensive type like I think all the other characters were like too. It created this atmosphere of just... quiet tension. Tension when things didn't go a certain way. Again like the whole world turned upside down because things weren't how that character thought it would turn out.

Ze'ev was such a great character. When his part came around I made sure I paid attention. There were always moments with him where I'm surprised Avraham didn't turn around and say "Did you really just say that?" I mean he gave off definite crazy vibes. Him and his "relationship" with Ofer was all up in the air throughout the book. You think you know what he's about and what's going to happen but in the end you really don't. All I can tell you is that I felt like it was obvious he had something to do with Ofer's disappearance throughout the book. I felt like if I was there listening in or seeing what he was doing I would have stopped what I was doing, raised my eyebrow, and seriously doubt what type of person he was and what he had to do with Ofer's disappearance. The stuff he does or says... he's so suspicious! I mean WOW. This guy... How can you not question his motives?

So it definitely kept my attention. I really liked that this book was a translation from Hebrew. I liked that the book's main character, Avraham, referenced a couple of times about how come there wasn't any Hebrew crime novels or something to that affect. And here this book is. I really enjoyed the feel of the book and the intelligent way about it (in a good way). It kept me interested from start to finish and that's all you can really hope for in any book. I am so surprised by the number of surprises in this book which might not make sense but it is true. More accurately I am surprised by the twists because there oh so good twists people. They make me so happy it's crazy. It feels like they come out of left field or something. It makes you think.

I really wonder how this series is going to continue because it did have two POV's for this first book. One was an investigator and another was someone close to the person that everyone was looking for. Is the author planning on continuing with that theme or is it going to be based solely on the life of Avraham Avraham? Also, with that ending... What's going to happen with that!? Such a crazy ending. I absolutely loved it. I feel like the author might just leave it like that but then again it's like you can;t possibly leave it like that... I really enjoyed almost every aspect of this book. The feel of it, it's characters, and the intelligent way about it. It's just so good. I hope to continue on with this series and to read more books by this author. ( )

from Amazon
In The Missing File, Israeli detective Avraham Avraham must find a teenage boy gone missing from the suburbs of Tel Aviv in this first volume in a fresh new literary crime series by D. A. Mishani.

Crimes in Avraham’s quiet suburb are generally not all that complex. But when a sixteen-year-old boy goes missing and a schoolteacher offers up a baffling complication, Avraham finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew about his life.

Told through alternating points of view, The Missing File is an emotionally wrought, character-driven page-turner with plenty of twists and turns. It’s a mystery that will leave readers questioning the notions of innocence and guilt, and the nebulous nature of truth.

The above review omits mention of the extremely strange character Ze'ev Avni, who insinuates himself so persistently into the investigation that his guilt seems glaringly obvious even to the slightly inept Detective Avraham Avraham. A premise of the book, and one that is stated bluntly at the outset, is that Israel has little serious crime and few crime novels are set there or authored by Israelis. Without these two elements, the peculiar Avni and the lack of crime, the plot would be thin; in the event, however, this is a richly psychological novel. ( )

The Missing File is a debut crime/procedural novel by D. A. Mishani, an Israeli crime writer, editor and literary scholar. When Hannah Sharabi, the mother of teenager Ofer Sharabi, reports her son as missing in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Detective Avraham Avraham is sure that he will turn up and doesn't take her seriously. However, when she returns the next morning saying Ofer is still missing, Avraham realizes that he must start an investigation into the missing teen. The obvious suspect is neighbor Ze'ev Avni who was also Ofer's English tutor. Since the reader is privy to Ze'ev's thoughts and actions, he is clearly the main suspect right from the beginning.

Avraham approaches his investigation almost reluctantly and with what feels like a lot of trepidation. He does not seem to have a great deal of confidence in his abilities and in his team. In contrast to the clever, spot-on detective of most police procedurals who is one step ahead of everyone, Avraham is seemingly one step behind and confused. It is an odd feeling in a crime novel to wonder if the detective is up to the challenge of the investigation. In the meantime, the reader knows all about the activities of neighbor Ze'ev and he is clearly setting off all sorts of red flags.

The story does take a turn and comes together in the end but it follows few of the formula's we are used to, especially concerning the twist at the very end (which I wondered if it was the true reason earlier, so other's might also guess this.) Avraham is a protagonist who doesn't seem to have many heroic virtues, which can make it difficult to feel a great amount of sympathy for him. On the other hand, The Missing File is written to reflect a more realistic picture of an investigation rather than the idealized fictional version we are all so used to seeing.

There were some instances where I felt like something was lost in this translated novel, but since I have an advanced reader's copy some of those mis-steps could have been corrected in the final published novel. In the end I did feel connected enough with Avraham to want follow him on future investigations and maybe get a better hold on this melancholy character.
Highly Recommended


Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the
publisher and TLC for review purposes.
( )