Hold the Cream Cheese, Kill the Lox: A Ruby, the Rabbis Wife Mystery (Ruby, the Rabbis Wife Mysteries)
by Sharon Kahn
Category: Fiction

Acclaimed mystery writer Sharon Kahn returns with a flavorful new crime novel set in that most unlikely of Jewish population centers, Eternal, Texas. Ruby knows she's in for trouble when her longtime nemesis, Essie Sue, talks her into housing Essie Sue's twin cousins, Lester and Larry. The boys are in town for pre-Bar Mitzvah schooling from Rabbi Kevin Kapstein. They will be no trouble, says Essie Sue. Famous last words. Ruby, a rabbi's widow, has never felt much sympathy for Rabbi Kevin, but that's about to change. They now have something in common: their determination to survive Lester and Larry. Whoever coined the phrase "the terrible twos" didn't know Lester and Larry, "the terrible twelves." Kevin will teach; Ruby will house; and Essie Sue, ever the hostess, will orchestrate the grandest Bar Mitzvah feast in Temple Rita's history. And the star attraction -- besides Essie Sue, of course -- is sure to be Herman Guenther, master lox cutter, who recently moved to town from New Jersey. But when Herman meets an untimely demise from his own slicing knife, Essie Sue's plans seem all but ruined. Not to mention Herman's. Something's strange about this murder, as Ruby is quick to discover. Tracing the victim's roots back to Nazi-era Denmark, Ruby soon puts the lox on the platter in a chase that takes her from Eternal to Alaska to New York. She asks some poignant questions along the way and hears some shocking answers. Sharon Kahn's witty Ruby, the Rabbi's Wife Mysteries have universal appeal, as they make us laugh at ourselves even as we watch Ruby unravel the puzzles of life. With both humor and insight, Kahn proves once again that she's at the top of her form.