I fully admit that my knowledge of Israel and its history is lacking and I therefore found myself learning throughout this novel.

Maror is the story of a war for a country’s soul – a dazzling spread of narrative gunshots across four decades and three continents. Whilst I think narratively that the serial killer plot is wrapped up a bit early and the actual ending isn't quite as punchy as I expected it to be, there is no denying that this is pretty brilliant stuff. The book is a retelling of Israel's nationbuilding through the lens of its criminal underbelly, taking inspiration from multiple real-life events that occurred in Israel between 1970 and 2001 (roughly). Gripping, dynamic, page-turning and also enlightening, this has a distinct atmosphere and style of its own.

It might help to have a little knowledge of Israeli history as keys moments from that countries past feature centrally here, and Tidhar doesn't take the easy route of leading his reader by the hand. Central to the whole story is Cohen (no first name ever given), the career cop who is involved with nearly every event in the tale.

And hell, as with Adrian Tchaikovksy, even if you're not quite sold on one there'll be another along in a minute; this isn't out until August, but the main reason I've got around to finishing it now is that I already have another Netgalley ARC of his next one afterwards, and that looks right up my street.Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit. The style of the writing reminds me of A Visit From the Goon Squad in that there’s multiple characters across a timeline and their stories all connect.

From here Tidhar makes bold leaps in time and space in a broad narrative on the pragmatism of power.

I have only read Lavie Tidhar's science fiction work, but that is so well-written and character driven that I had no doubt that he would be able to operate in a different genre. The book constantly touches on the Israeli state, there is a section about how illegal settlements become legal when no-one chases them down (and that this is broadly state policy anyway who cares). And it has the edge over Ellroy that where he's riffing on generations of other books and films about bad shit going down in LA, relocating all those damaged veterans and drug deals and shady land trades to the far end of the Mediterranean instantly changes the story, even before you factor in the suicide bombs and the long wars and the differences in culture. It's crime fiction where the crimes become cumulative, where the idea of corruption and organized crime are exactly what a new nation requires for a certain kind of legitimacy. For those who do not know, until 1947 when the United Nations partition plan created the State of Israel and the ending of the British Mandate dating from after the First World War, the area was known as Palestine.

As a British reader, I have at least a sort of osmotic familiarity with most of the bands and shows and brands and films that get dropped into US crime stories to build a sense of place and particularity, but here some of the names are the same and others really aren't. This is crime writing in the tradition of Balzac and Dickens and a major achievement, full of sound, fury, drugs and blood. Likewise with the incidents, as the characters twine around each other over the long, violent decades: sometimes I know a war or an assassination is coming, but a scandal or a disaster can still blindside me. Indeed, the very structure of the novel is somewhat biblical, more a series of books rather than one sequential story.

Avi is at home with the Goldins (including little Natasha Goldin, the young sister who later - but at the beginning of the novel - becomes Avi's lover) when the news comes of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination. Already compromised and caught up in local gang feuds, Avi is drawn into the orbit of the enigmatic, Bible-quoting Chief Inspector Cohen, who occupies a rotten core of collusion between business, organised crime, politics and law enforcement. I almost gave up with this violent sprawling narrative set over fifty years of Israeli history, because my initial interest was vitiated by the non-stop killings, beatings and torture that pepper the first chapters.