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On Good Friday of 1592, a Christian child is found murdered in a shop in the Jewish ghetto of Prague. In this city, Christians and Jews observe an uneasy truce, and while many Christians are willing to do business with their Jewish neighbors, ignorance and prejudice run deep in the Christian community. When the murdered girl is found to have been drained of blood, it seems certain to most of the Christian citizens that the Jews are responsible for they believe that Jews use blood in their ceremonies, particularly the blood of children. A young rabbinic scholar from Poland is charged with solving the mystery, but is hampered not only by the three day timetable given to him by the sheriff of Prague, and the arrival of a Bishop intent on rooting out heresy in the city, but also by the fact that it is not only the sabbath, but the beginning of Passover. The central character, Benyamin Ben-Akiva, is a free-thinker and a newcomer to the Jewish community in Prague, and so is not welcomed by all. He does, in fact, meet with a certain amount of hostility from some of the local rabbis and their followers which makes his job all that much more difficult. But he presses on because he must, because a man's life hangs in the balance and because the Talmud teaches that "Whoever saves one life saves the world."
I have to confess that I'm not a big fan of the mystery genre, at least in part because they are largely -- almost by definition -- plot-driven, and I tend to prefer character-driven stories. But Wishnia overcame my resistance almost immediately with his note on language at the beginning of the book. Not only is his use of language brilliant, but his characters are beautifully drawn, giving the book a richness that I find wanting in so many other examples of this genre. Benyamin is a complex man; freethinker, frustrated lover (His wife has left him and his desire to win her back forms an underlying theme of both hope and despair as he's constantly forced to choose between acting on his impulses and acting in accordance with his faith.) scholar and reluctant detective. He's always aware of how short of perfection he falls, and yet has faith that God will understand that he does what he does for the right reasons.
But this is more than a mystery with well-written characters, it's a lesson in history with the interaction of Bohemian Jews and Christians as central focus. Wishnia shows us both Christian and Jewish society in 16th century Bohemia, their differences and their similarities. He shows us how damaging hypocrisy and intolerance have always been, the value of faith, above and beyond any sort of codified belief system, and the dangers of fanaticism particularly when wedded to ignorance.
If I have any complaints, they're not deal breakers. I love the characters so much that I wanted to know what happened to all of them, which of course would make the story much longer and impossibly cumbersome. But at least a couple of the characters who captured my imagination got what I consider to be short shrift. I think Kassy Boheme could have driven a whole book on her own as could Trine or Reyzl or even Anya. In fact, Wishnia's female characters are so delightful, I hope he might go with a female protagonist in a future novel.
It's a good mystery, but "The Fifth Servant" is far more than that. Even if you're not a mystery fan, you might want to give it a try. I think you'll find, as I did, that it's well worth your time.
I have to confess that I'm not a big fan of the mystery genre, at least in part because they are largely -- almost by definition -- plot-driven, and I tend to prefer character-driven stories. But Wishnia overcame my resistance almost immediately with his note on language at the beginning of the book. Not only is his use of language brilliant, but his characters are beautifully drawn, giving the book a richness that I find wanting in so many other examples of this genre. Benyamin is a complex man; freethinker, frustrated lover (His wife has left him and his desire to win her back forms an underlying theme of both hope and despair as he's constantly forced to choose between acting on his impulses and acting in accordance with his faith.) scholar and reluctant detective. He's always aware of how short of perfection he falls, and yet has faith that God will understand that he does what he does for the right reasons.
But this is more than a mystery with well-written characters, it's a lesson in history with the interaction of Bohemian Jews and Christians as central focus. Wishnia shows us both Christian and Jewish society in 16th century Bohemia, their differences and their similarities. He shows us how damaging hypocrisy and intolerance have always been, the value of faith, above and beyond any sort of codified belief system, and the dangers of fanaticism particularly when wedded to ignorance.
If I have any complaints, they're not deal breakers. I love the characters so much that I wanted to know what happened to all of them, which of course would make the story much longer and impossibly cumbersome. But at least a couple of the characters who captured my imagination got what I consider to be short shrift. I think Kassy Boheme could have driven a whole book on her own as could Trine or Reyzl or even Anya. In fact, Wishnia's female characters are so delightful, I hope he might go with a female protagonist in a future novel.
It's a good mystery, but "The Fifth Servant" is far more than that. Even if you're not a mystery fan, you might want to give it a try. I think you'll find, as I did, that it's well worth your time.
