Painting a Burning House

Description

This smart timely thriller with heart, a sense of humor, and a psychotic heroine, explores the meaning of faith in a world whose every turn suggests disbelief, distrust, and doubt.

Having been discharged from the Mossad for shooting a fellow operative because he couldn’t take a joke, Dahlia Birn seeks redemption by bringing to justice Daniel Birnbach’s murderer.  Dr. Birnbach had made a momentous discovery, ancient scrolls that may indicate a mistake in the Torah. According to the scrolls, rather than blessing his son Ishmael and his progeny, the Arabs, Abraham cursed them, condemning them to eternal servitude.  Although the scrolls have yet to be authenticated, someone is killing to suppress them.  Dahlia chooses super-respectable lawyer, Marc Bloc, to be her silent partner—so silent that she neglects to tell him about the partnership.  When her beauty, brains, and Beretta fail to get results, she relies on the hallucinatory voice inside her head.  That voice, however, has its own Mephistophelian agenda.  Was Birnbach killed on orders of Middle Eastern emirs fearful that the scrolls would cause riots sweeping them from power?  Is Dahlia dangerously insane or is her schizoaffective disorder just part of her wacky charm?  Will Dahlia help Marc recover from his wife’s passing and reconnect with his Jewish roots or lead him to his death?  Are Marc’s and Dahlia’s struggles as futile as painting a burning house?

Previously Anticipated Advance Praise:

"Breathtaking! Heartrending! Read with a defibrillator and someone skilled in mouth-to-mouth nearby." 
- Jonathan Franzen or Jeffrey Eugenides

"The greatest heroine in the Western Canon, Dahlia Birn makes Mme. Bovary and Anna Karenina seem as cartoonish as Betty and Veronica."
- Allan Bloom, posthumously.

"Deadly and addictive, Dahlia Birn is the greatest heroin in the Western Canon."
 - William S Burroughs, posthumously

"The most nuanced and perspicacious analysis of the Middle East since the last time I addressed the issue."
 - Newt Gingrich

"Liked it. Hated it! Loved it!"
- Mitt Romney

"For a piece of the royalties, I’d fatwa Chan. Death to the great Satan! Death to Israel! Death to the Jews! Death to America!"
- Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene'i