On The Bookshelf

Y ez tt aalri

tz etoiffin

Banquet and Party Room

A husband-and-wife team takes a 1930s amateur
detective on a series of great adventures.

22812 Wood07

you're in another time, and you won't
want to leave. The authors of the
series, who are working on a third
Belle Appleman mystery, are the hus-
t all started with a glance into
band-and-wife team of Sidney and
the river. Belle Appleman, an
Dorothy Rosen of Champaign, Ill.
amiable and hard-working
Sidney bases much of his material
employee of the Classic
on his own upbringing. His father, an
Clothing Co. (not to mention amateur
immigrant from Romania, was a
sleuth), and her pal Nate are having a
Marxist — you'll meet up with a
pleasant Sunday afternoon stroll when
handsome Marxist in Death & Blintzes
Belle sees a corpse in the water.
—
who worked, you guessed it, at a
Even worse, it's the body of Jeanette
factory. His future wife was
clothing
Laval, an utterly alluring
from Ukraine. The two met
young woman who works
Sidney and Dorothy in Boston, "fell in love and
with Belle and Nate at
Classic Clothing. What pos- Rosen: He writes the got married and had me,"
gruesome details and Sidney says.
sibly could have happened
she makes sure the
Sidney describes his
to Jeanette?
dialogue
is
realistic.
father
as "a self-made intel-
Belle is determined to find
lectual"
who had a huge
out.
library
of
Yiddish
books
— not that
In 1985's Death & Blintzes
his son always recognized his interests.
(Academy Chicago Publishers; $10.95
"In college I took a course in
paperback), Belle made her first
Voltaire, and when I told my father he
appearance — and yes, ultimately
said, 'Have you read Candide yet?' Here
solves Jeanette's murder. Now she's
was this man I thought just worked in
back, in Death & Strudel (Academy
a clothing factory. I went into shock.
Chicago Publishers; $23), this time to
He even had Candide in Yiddish."
unravel the mystery of how a young
Though Sidney's father was a "self-
girl came to die in the drugstore where
professed
atheist," his mother, a home-
Belle sells cosmetics.
maker, was not. The two never quar-
Both books are terrific mysteries.
reled about religion, nor did Sidney
They're fun, there are no shockingly
have much religious affiliation.
graphic or tasteless scenes, they're
Until one day.
well written and they really will keep
His father suddenly announced, "It
you guessing.
would make your mother very happy
Especially impressive is the snappy
if you were bar mitzvahed."
dialogue, an area where so many oth-
Sidney replied, "But Dad, I don't
erwise competent writers fail.
know any Hebrew."
Set in the 1930s, the books are filled
So his father arranged for him to go
with details that make you feel like

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Special to the Jewish News

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