Murder Over the Border

Murder Over the Border is a mystery, set in the context of the Middle East Peace Process. The hero, Yossi Abulafia, is an Israeli policeman who is on military reserve duty near the Jordanian border. Instead of watching the border, he is taking photos of antelope when the observation post he is sitting in collapses and he is seriously injured. During the accident, he unwittingly takes a photograph of what appears to be a murder on the other side of the border with Jordan.

As a result of his accident, he is transferred to a boring desk job that he hates. He tries to use his connections in the force and outside of it to investigate quietly what happened on the other side of the river. In the course of his new job, he travels to Amsterdam for a conference where he meets Aziz a Jordanian police officer. During the few days they are together, the two men get along very well, but are attacked twice by an unknown assailant - the ‘shooter’. The first attack passes without any damage, but the second is far more serious. Both men are shot, Yossi loses consciousness and is returned to Israel.

As a result of his second ‘accident’, Abulafia is forcibly discharged from the police force, due to his disabilities. He is semi-crippled, walks with difficulty and the aid of a cane. His close friend Yehiel, a lawyer and now special advisor to the Prime Minister, offers Yossi a job as his assistant. Yehiel is in charge of the secret negotiations being conducted with the Palestinians in Oslo and Yossi, who is not enthusiastic about the idea of talking to the PLO, becomes his general factotum and police liaison.

In the course of the negotiations, Yossi identifies one of the PLO delegates as the shooter from Amsterdam. He has also identified him from a photograph as being connected to the ‘murderer’ from across the river. Together with another friend Arieh, who is about to retire from the Mossad (the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service) he kidnaps the shooter and interrogates him. The interrogation ostensibly concerns the shooting in Amsterdam and the shooter’s connection to radical Palestinian factions. The Israelis wish to give this information to the leaders of the PLO delegation, so that they will know whom they have on their team (the shooter is operating under an alias) - the Israelis do not want to negotiate with the radicals and the PLO does not want them on their team. Yossi’s ulterior motive is to find out about the shooter’s connection to the man he suspects is a murderer.

The shooter is released, without his knowing who had kidnapped him, and allowed to return to the PLO team. The incriminating evidence is passed to the head of the PLO negotiators and the shooter is dropped from their delegation in disgrace. Yossi, in the mean time, has learned that Aziz survived the Amsterdam attack and now heads the Jordanian King’s personal protection unit.

The two men Abulafia and Aziz meet again in the middle of the Arava desert plain, during preparations for the signing of the Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan. ... And if you want to know how it ends, read the entire book!

A free sample section is available on request - just drop me a line at richard.steinitz@gmail.com

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