Interesting, really "tight" plot, believable characters: Set in the 1930's in the British Mandate of Palestine, this provides some history about that time period in a very readable way. Ivor Castle is a British Jew recently graduated from Oxford and sent to Palestine in order to assist an experienced Jewish lawyer in the defense of two Russian Jews who are accused of killing a man who has bartered a sort of peace with Nazi Germany some Jews to leave Germany. This idea is controversial from both the right and the left.

Ivor is sent to question a young woman who supposedly saw the two men in a cafe at the time the murders took place Tsiona is a free-spirited artist who has made pictures of the men, but when did she actually draw those pictures. Ivor falls madly in love with Tsiona. Meanwhile other factions are working to free the men, such as Ivor's college acquaintance who tells him that an Arab man will confess to the murder, which he does, only to later refute the confession.

The plot is easily followed with no extraneous threads, the writing is clear, the situations are believable. It was a book I almost wanted to reread just to see who neatly the plot comes together. Great writing set in an interesting place which shows how very complicated the Israel/Arab situation is ( )