What’s the con­nec­tion between young gang mem­bers in Bal­ti­more and an assas­si­na­tion attempt on an Israeli offi­cial at a fundrais­er in the same city? Gidon Aron­son, own­er and oper­a­tor of a mar­tial arts stu­dio and part-time sub­sti­tute teacher, is involved in both: in the first case as a near vic­tim, in the sec­ond as the hero who trips up the would-be assas­sin and saves the day. Aron­son, trained in com­bat, has a secret past in Israel. He has been try­ing to live under the radar in his new home­town, but trou­ble seems to find him. That and his com­pli­cat­ed love life make for an inter­est­ing, read­able crime nov­el. Aronson’s detec­tive work leads him to a pri­vate school for trou­bled Jew­ish boys, with a branch in Israel. The pace real­ly picks up about two thirds of the way through, when the action moves to Israel and the read­er learns more about Gidon’s past life there. The author’s descrip­tions of Bal­ti­more and Jerusalem are vivid and detailed.