The Thirteenth Hour: 8a Novel

Two women--one Arab and one Jewish--become embroiled in a deadly terrorist scheme that explodes into savage violence in this gripping debut thriller from Sofer, a journalist who lives in Israel. Deborah Stern is an American-born biologist in Jerusalem to research a skin disease common among Arab children. One afternoon, she narrowly escapes the violence of Ibrahim, a Muslim fundamentalist who has just massacred four Jewish mothers on a public playground. Terrified, Deborah joins a women's self-defense class where her handsome instructor, Raphi Lahav, seduces her into working for the Israeli General Security Service. Deborah's Palestinian counterpart is Ibrahim's sister, Raba Alhassan. Raised in Detroit, she's returned to Jericho to live with the aristocratic Palestinian family of her husband, a famous heart surgeon. She is coerced into joining an ultra-violent fundamentalist cell by threats against her husband's life. On one level, the narrative concerns the courage of two women whose lives converge when terrorists plan to blow up the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, in an attempt to smother peace negotiations. On a deeper, more sinister level, it concerns the potentially violent nature lurking just below the surface of eminently civilized women. Deborah and Raba find new depths of anger in reacting to the cruelty that adds a visceral lash to the narrative: a bomb blast hurls an innocent child through a bus windshield; a woman is tortured; a throat is slashed ear to ear; a man kills by thrusting a knife into his victim's gut and twisting it back and forth ""as if he were wringing out a towel."" Suspense builds until the final confrontation in a Bethlehem school, where the anguished issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict are played out in bloody fashion. While Sofer is not yet a smooth stylist, she succeeds in conveying the psychological climate of a troubled land through a timely and resonant story. (Nov.)