Book of Zev

The Book of Zev by Marilyn Ida Horowitz is a mystery thriller that puts two more or less ordinary people at the center of a terrorist plot. Sarah, a chef running her own catering business, has survived her divorce intact, balancing red wine and with yoga practice. Zev himself is a thirty-something devout Jewish man still living with his parents. When a brush with death sends Zev’s life careening off the tracks, Sarah and Zev’s lives to collide, and when they do, through the insights of a powerful psychic, lives hang in the balance.

This book is well-written, though the deviations into scripture and about Judith could have been articulated more succinctly. It’s a book that begins slowly, but readers who stick with it will be pleasantly surprised. Zev is a believable, interesting character, and while the conversations about God might be a little much for the less devout, it’s a well-constructed story. The parts that describe Sarah’s cooking are mouthwatering, you can almost hear Zev’s mother’s voice nagging at him and see his father’s disapproving frown. It’s a slow burn of a novel, dependable in its telling, but possessing a solid payout at the end.