The Butcher's Theater

They call the ancient hills of Jerusalem the butcher's theater. Here, upon this bloodstained stage, a faceless killer performs his violent specialty: The first to die brutally is a fifteen-year-old girl. She is drained of blood, then carefully bathed and shrouded in white. Precisely one week later, a second victim is found. From the sacred Wailing Wall to the monasteries where dark secrets are cloistered, from black-clad bedouin enclaves to labyrinthine midnight alleys, veteran police inspector Daniel Sharavi and his crack team plunge deep into a city simmering with religious and political passions to hunt for a murderer whos insatiable taste for young women could destroy the delicate balance on which Jerusalem's very survival depends.

A brilliant novel by a master of the genre, a vivid look at the tortured complexities of a psychopath's mind, a rich evocation of a city steeped in history -- this, and more, is The Butcher's Theater.

In his fourth mystery, Kellerman leaves Los Angeles and Alex Delaware, child-psychologist hero of When the Bough Breaks and Blood Test, for the richness of Jerusalem and the subtle complexities of Chief Inspector Daniel Sharavi. The latter is a Yemenite Jew, a quiet and intense war hero with a California-born wife and three young children. When the extensively mutilated body of a young Arab girl is found, Sharavi assembles a group of assistants whose varied ethnic origins represent the composition of the city and state. After a second Arab girl is similarly killed, the case is given political significance in the press, leading to an Arab-Jewish riot and more bloodshed. As the investigation intensifies, Kellerman intersperses chapters that reveal the development of the killer's psychopathology, but not his identity. A third murder focuses Sharavi's attention on Amelia Catherine, the city's U.N.-run hospital, where finally he and the killer meet in a prolonged and graphic fight to the death. Dense with the textures of life in modern-day Jerusalem, Kellerman's story is both police proceduralit is dogged investigation, international and high-tech, that puts the last pieces in placeand penetrating psychological suspense-thriller. Panoramic in geography, layered in history, the novel is powered by close attention to the interior lives and motivations of its major characters, one of whom, a psychologist, may well be the author in guest appearance. This is a major novel, Kellerman's most ambitious and strongest to date. 100,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Mystery Guild selections; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The horribly mutilated body of a young womanthe first of a grim seriesis discovered in Jerusalem, and Chief Inspector Daniel Sharavi takes charge. The ambitious scope of this extensively detailed and forcefully written novel, however, encompasses much more than mystery. Kellerman immerses the reader in the cultural ambience of Jerusalem and delves deeply into character and motivation; he creates well-drawn images, a vicious and unnerving psychopathic villain, and a chillingly gruesome confrontation scene. A stunning work from the author of When the Bough Breaks . REK
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.