Today we have a sneak peek from the mystery/thriller by Richard Steinitz: Murder Over the Border.
Israeli policeman Yossi Abulafia is on army reserve duty, watching military movements on the other side of the Jordanian border. Through his telescope, he witnesses what appears to be a murder – in Jordan. While seeing this crime take place, his lookout post collapses and he is seriously injured – enough so that he is invalided out.
Taking a new job in the Prime Minister’s office, he gets sucked into the Oslo Peace Process, and uses his position to try to find the killer from over the border. Who is the ‘shooter’ and how is he connected to Yossi?
Murder Over the Border is available from Amazon.com and Amazon UK.
Here is an excerpt from Murder Over the Border…
As the car reached the bottom of the descent, he waited for it to pick up speed for the slight incline that led to the straight road that followed all the way to Aqaba. But to his surprise, the car slowed down and as it reached the curve at the bottom, instead of continuing on, it slowed down and came to a stop at the lowest point. The driver pulled off onto the right shoulder. It was then that Yossi saw that there was a passenger in the front right-hand seat. For a few moments, no one moved out of the car, and then both the driver and his companion got out and walked over to the edge of the shoulder. From here both looked down on to what was at this point a narrow stream of no more than two or three meters width, which would further south become the sluggish, muddy and shallow Jordan River.
Between the two men from the car there developed a discussion that quickly became heated and extremely vocal. From his vantage point over the border, even though it was some 800 meters away from the pair, Yossi could hear the sounds of the exchange, but could not make out what they were saying. They were arguing fiercely, and it was obvious that this was serious. They were now yelling at each other, pushing at one another with pointed fingers, as if to drive home a point.
The passenger turned his back to the driver, as if in disgust, and began to walk back to the car. The other man reached under his jacket, and … there was a gun in his hand. He called out to his companion, and the second man stopped and turned around. The two were now facing each other, shouting, and then it all began to happen at once.
Yossi had been leaning over the edge of the post, as if every centimeter he got closer to the argument would help him hear and see better. He leaned a little further, balancing the long lens in one hand and holding the body of the camera with the other. The early winter rains must have loosened one of the sandbags, for as he leaned over, the wall supporting the post began to collapse. At the very same moment that the driver pointed the gun at his retreating passenger, the entire structure of the outpost disintegrated. Everything that had been in the little position, including the large telescope, Yossi, his camera and the long lens began to fall down the hillside. The scope had a slight head start over Yossi but must have been slowed down by something, for they met half-way down. The last thing he remembered was the huge lens coming at him, and then everything went blank.
In the post above and in the Amazon “Look Inside,” this looks like an intriguing read. I was contemplating getting it when I noticed that chapter II (roman numeral 2) is formatted in the center alignment and chapters III, IV, and V are formatted left alignment. Then there appears to be a second chapter V formatted as center alignment. This was enough to give me pause, although the writing appears quite good, and I will likely still download the book. I could be misinterpreting something about the formatting, but it did catch my eye and make me hesitate.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the positive response, and you may be correct about the chapter headings/formatting. It’s not a big deal, and on the other hand, something I have had problems with. So my advice – just ignore them!
Hope you like the book,
Richard, thanks. I know people who live in glass houses…because I’ve had my own battles with ebook formatting. I agree it’s minor and I only wanted to raise it in this forum (since no one reads my comments 🙂 ) not elsewhere. The story sounds wonderful and I’m already captivated.