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Lunch » Tags » Fiction » Reviews » Angel in a Foreign City by Moti Shapira

Angel in a Foreign City by Moti Shapira

1 rating: 3.0

Investigating a kidnapping leads to Mexico

Moti Shapira began his career as a detective for the Central Unit of Investigation in the Israeli Police Force. He continues to serve with a special anti-terror unit on the IDF Reserve Forces. Over the past two decades Moti has conducted … see full wiki

Tags: Fiction, Thriller, Novel, Kidnapping Private Investigator

1 review about Angel in a Foreign City by Moti Shapira

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A Good First Try by a New Author

Mar 6, 2009

by MichaelN

Rating:

I want to thank the author for providing me a reviewer's copy of this book. I could tell from reading this book that the author drew on his actual experience in the Israeli police in explaining how he conducts his investigation. This gave the reader a lot of insight. I agree with a previous reviewer that at times the writer was a little too clinical and needs to put a little more personality into his characters. Being a first novel, this should come with experience.

The story begins with Ethan, a private investigator who has moved from California from Israel where his reputation had been besmirched. Ethan is presented a case by his good friend Ron which offers a huge payday. He needs to travel to Mexico City to aid a wealthy businessman (Valencia) get his daughter back from kidnappers.

Having been to Mexico City many times I could vividly picture some of the author's scenes, especially from Chapultapec Park, which I have visited more than a dozen times. Ethan stays in the El Presidente Hotel (which is nearby in Polanco) which I have had many extensive stays at myself. I did question the ultra deluxe room that Ethan is described as having because my room was never anything more than an ordinary room. I am very familiar with the bar area in the hotel where several scenes take place and was able to vividly picture the scenes too.

While on the investigation, Ethan has to try to deal with Valencia's son-in-law and personal security head, Cortez. His involvement in the case is further complicated when he meets Lisa, a waitress who he has an immediate roamntic connection with. Ethan needs Lisa to help do some work for his investigation but cannot let her know any of the details of the investigation.

As the story plays out there is a lot of tension to find out if Ethan can rescue Valencia's daughter while dealing with Cortez' intervention and keeping Lisa safe.

One other piece of advice for the author is that the author seems to put in a lot of flashbacks in Ethan's mind that are interesting but seem to have little bearing on the plot at hand. (for example, there is a character that Ethan meets at a bar and the story of how Ethan previously dealt with the character seems to have nothing to do with the story at hand). Also, the way these flashbacks are introduced, it seems like the author assumes that the reader knows what he is talking about. While these flashbacks provided great information the way they were written were distractions to the story.

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