Murder Under the Fig Tree: A Palestine Mystery - Paperback

by Kate Jessica Raphael (Author)

Hamas has taken power in Palestine, and the Israeli government is rounding up threats. When Palestinian policewoman Rania Bakara finds herself thrown in prison, though she has never been part of Hamas, her friend Chloe flies in from San Francisco to get her out. Chloe begs an Israeli policeman named Benny for help--and Benny offers Rania a way out: investigate the death of a young man in a village near her own. The young man's neighbors believe the Israeli army killed him; Benny believes his death might not have been so honorable.
Initially, Rania refuses; she has no interest in helping the Israelis. But she is released anyway, and returns home to find herself without a job and suspected of being a traitor. Searching for redemption, she launches an investigation into the young man's death that draws her into a Palestinian gay scene she never knew existed.
With Chloe and her Palestinian Australian lover as guides, Rania explores a Jerusalem gay bar, meets with a lesbian support group, and plunges deep into the victim's world, forcing her to question her beliefs about love, justice, and cultural identity.

Author Biography

Kate Raphael is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, feminist, queer activist, and radio journalist who makes her living as a law firm word processor. She lived in Palestine for eighteen months as a member of the International Women's Peace Service. She spent over a month in Israeli prison and was eventually deported because of her activism. She has won a residency at Hedgebrook and been a grand marshal of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade. She produces the weekly radio show Women's Magazine on Pacifica's KPFA, which is heard throughout Northern and Central California. Her debut Palestine mystery, Murder Under the Bridge, won the 2016 International Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) Silver Medal for Mystery.