Hip Set", by Michael Fertik

A murder mystery

In a few words:

This fiction is of Oscar Orleans a Congolese refugee in Israel. His knowledge of Hebrew makes him the perfect liaison to the African refugee community living in the worst Tel Aviv’s ghetto.

The drama:

When the body of a young South Sudanese has been found murdered, his old friend Inspector Kobi Sambinsky of the Asylum Units calls on him for help. What is known is that the 18 years old shared the unusual name, Kinga, with a controversial most dangerous warring faction from eight years earlier. Oscar and Sambrinsky set out to find out what happened to the poor man.

Venturing into the heart of Tel Aviv’s Sudanese underground populated with violent mob will prove to be a challenge for Kobi and Oscar.

My thoughts:

Because my lack in knowledge of Israel languages and cultures I struggled with terms and orientation and find reading this novel to be somewhat a challenge...at least at first.

The narrative incorporates current issues such as immigration and Russian mafia into a fast- paced police detective work. “Hip-Set” is discipline and doesn’t deal with stereotypes characters rather they project genuineness of people who live in the secular world with all their aspirations: good and bad.

The main players are Oscar Orleans, Detective Kobi Sambinsky, Officer Angelika Cone, Pastor Michael Alou Kuur Kuur and Ruben Dumanovsky, the alleged Russian immigrant.

From the start we are introduced to Oscar and later on to the alleged Russian mobster and getting to know them is an in-depth examination into religion, immigration, myth and murder. Near the end, the narration smoothly brings us into the world of ancient times giving us an insight on the myth of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon hidden treasure and the prized gold chain. But where did this sidebar lead to?

In the last scene it all comes to fruition and I will let you read the book to find out.

Happy reading.

I received a free copy of this book and I leave a voluntary review, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.