Sad to learn

from the Literary Saloon at the complete review that the Israeli novelist Batya Gur has died. Her books are really wonderful, sort of the ideal detective fiction (not at all like Henning Mankell or Ian Rankin in their texture, but similarly a very well-executed version of a very good kind of thing). I think my favorite is Murder on a Kibbutz: A Communal Case, but I've also got a soft spot for A Literary Murder and Murder Duet--oh, they're all great, anyway, and I think that The Saturday Morning Murder is the first in the series. Highly recommended--they are often compared to P.D. James, but they are much better than any but the couple best classic James novels, and infinitely better than any of her recent ones.