Aviva Kagan was a just a teenager when she left her Hasidic Jewish life in Brooklyn for a fling with a smiling college boy from Florida-and then disappeared. Twenty-three years later, the child she walked away from is a NYC tabloid reporter named Rebekah Roberts. And Rebekah isn’t sure she wants her mother back in her life.
But when a man from the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Roseville, N.Y. contacts Rebekah about his young wife’s mysterious death, she is drawn back into Aviva’s world. Pessie Goldin’s body was found in her bathtub, and while her parents want to believe it was an accident, her husband is certain she was murdered.
Once she starts poking around, Rebekah encounters a whole society of people who have wandered “off the path” of ultra-Orthodox Judaism-just like her mother. But some went with dark secrets, and rage at the insular community they left behind.
In the sequel to her Edgar Award finalist Invisible City, Julia Dahl has created a taut mystery that is both a window into a secretive culture and an exploration of the demons we inherit.
Published June 30, 2015.
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Praise for Run You Down
[A] strong sequel…Aviva emerges as a woman with the great strength to survive suffering on a biblical scale.
— New York Times Book Review
Dahl’s smart, twisty plot and suspenseful tone will grip mystery and thriller lovers until the final page.
— Library Journal
Dahl is an evocative writer, never more so than when she’s describing the nascent yearnings of those younger members of [the ultra-Orthodox Jewish] community — gay, vaguely feminist, simply different — who can’t quite fit in, but can’t quite leave.
— NPR’s Fresh Air
[A] smart, well-plotted thriller with engaging characters and a unique setting.
— The Miami Herald
Excitingly messy with drama.
— The Toronto Star
Written strongly, without pretense, this is much more than your run-of- the-mill crime novel…Full of suspense, this is an engrossing mystery fans will love. 4 stars.
— RT Book Reviews
[A] compelling mystery with an explosive climax.
— Booklist
This page-turning mystery is riveting and relevant to today’s headlines, and adds suspense to an emotionally charged story that reveals a glimpse into a world those outside of it know little about.
— bookreporter
This is a multi-layered book with many serious themes: family, religion, love, loyalty…But what I really loved is Dahl’s exploration of moral ambiguity…I was so invested in the characters that I burst into tears and wept through most of the final chapters.
— Criminal Element
Dahl has firmly established herself as a first-rate crime fiction writer, with a refreshingly unique twist to her stories.
— The Times of Israel Blog
Fans of Faye Kellerman will find this series as good as her early work and will love Rebekah Roberts.
— The Globe and Mail
Enthralling and enlightening…[Dahl] has created a multi-dimensional female protagonist who is well developed and does what she needs to do in spite of suffering with self-doubt and even depression.
— Reviewing the Evidence
‘Invisible City’ and ‘Run You Down’ mark Dahl as a terrific new suspense writer whose does not sacrifice serious thought and character study for pure plot.
— New York Examiner
[Dahl] has captured the nuances of the hasidic world.
— Hadassah Magazine
RUN YOU DOWN is a fast-paced read with insights into Jewish ultra-Orthodoxy and those who long to leave it.
— Jewish Book World
Read about Julia Dahl’s Edgar-Award-nominated first novel, Invisible City, and about her third novel in the Rebekah Roberts series, The Missing Hours.