Raphael, Lev Books

The Edith Wharton Murders: A Nick Hoffman Mystery (Nick Hoffman Mysteries)

Lev Raphael

List Price: $11.95 By: Stonewall Inn Mysteries Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $1.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A new twist on an old genre 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

"The Edith Wharton Murders" has it all---good writing, a bright and charming amateur sleuth, and a fresh and ironic take on those well-worn groves of academe. Wait---before you groan and mutter something about "another campus mystery with cutesy cartoon characters as faculty members," give this one a try. You''ll find plenty of highly UNstereotyped profs---you probably had classes with some of them, maybe even Nick Hoffman himself. New t-shirt motto: I LUV LEV!

Editorial Review:

Whoever said that the pen was mightier than the sword might have had The Edith Wharton Murders in mind. In this campus mystery by the talented Lev Raphael, a conference on Edith Wharton becomes a killing ground when various literary factions carry their war of words a little too far--and someone ends up dead. At the heart of both the hostilities and the mystery is Nick Hoffman, a Wharton bibliographer saddled with the thankless task of moderating the conference. Once the murder has occurred, Nick must switch his focus from panel discussions to investigation, a course of action that provides plenty of opportunities for author Raphael to skewer the academic world he left behind.

Hot Rocks: A Nick Hoffman Mystery (Nick Hoffman Mysteries)

Lev Raphael

Amazon Price: $13.45 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Perseverance Press Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $1.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Hot ,"Hot Rocks" 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Raphael, Lev. "Hot Rocks: A Nick Hoffman Mystery", Perseverance Press, 2007.

Hot, "Hot Rocks"

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

The Nick Hoffman series has always had social observations and "Hot Rocks" is no different. This time the venue is a health club for the wealthy and the observations are wittier and funnier than ever. The seventh in the series, Lev Raphael does not disappoint a bit--in fact he outdoes the others. The club is brimming with those obsessed with toning their bodies and what an ideal setting for a murder.
If any of you belong to a health club, you are familiar with the types there as well as the aura that pervades, The personalities run the gamut and what a wonderful setting for a crime like murder. We know that health clubs foster jealousy and envy which can become rage quite easily. Raphael is, of course, aware that not everyone is into fitness so he gives us descriptions that are explicit.
Nick Hoffman a SUM professor, like myself, is an academic. Perhaps that is why I enjoy reading his adventures when he acts as a detective.
After the murder has been committed, the list of suspects includes trainers, wives whose bodies need work, club members who are possessed of arrogance and other wealthy characters. None of these are what they appear. Nick does not act alone. He has a fellow detective, Juno Dromgoole. Together they are quite a team--especially when they banter and show how ambivalently they feel for each other.
Nick has just returned from a Caribbean vacation and he knows he has to get back in shape afterwards. He goes, with his partner Stefan to Michigan Muscle but his workout routine suddenly is interrupted when he finds a dead body in the steam room.
What a perfect book to read at the beach. Raphael looks at the culture of the health club as well as American society using Nick Hoffman to satirize the rich. Stylishly written, you will be taken on a series of twists and turns through the world in which we live and you will be turning pages quickly. The writing is clear and probably some of the best that Raphael has done. Nick and Juno manage to get a good look at the life of the wealthy and as they do so, secrets are no longer secret and deceptions cease to deceive. Nick also has to deal with his own secrets and those of his partner who has a complicated past. The book is not just a story but a puzzle that the reader has to solve. Peppered with human characters that are identifiable as people we know, "Hot Rocks" is a fun romp. It isn't just a story, it's a trip. Nick is our driver and quickly becomes a friend who gives a social commentary which is honest and real. As excitement increases and we near a climax and think we have everything figured out, things change and the ride gains speed. I was somewhat sad t close the covers of the book because it meant I would be saying goodbye to friends I had made. But knowing that Raphael is a writer who just doesn't quit, I also know that I will be with Nick again in the eighth of the series.

Editorial Review:

When Professor Nick Hoffman and his partner Stefan return from a Caribbean vacation, Nick decides it's time to get back in shape at Michigan Muscle, a luxurious health club near the State University of Michigan. But every palace has its intrigue, and when Nick finds a dead trainer in the steam room, he’s drawn into a web of passion and privilege like nothing he’s experienced before. The prime suspect because he discovered the body, his academic and personal lives take unanticipated turns, and he gets a real workout in the bittersweet denouement.

Let's Get Criminal: An Academic Mystery

Lev Raphael

List Price: $11.95 By: St. Martin's Griffin Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Huge Disappointment 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Having read and enjoyed some of Lev Raphael's short stories, I was curious to see how his themes of gay identity, Jewish identity and academic life would translate to the mystery genre. In a word: UGH! Against the backdrop of this silly and poorly constructed mystery, those themes seem very forced or as if they were mere afterthoughts.
Despite the author's noble attempt to portray a gay couple in a believable state of domestic bliss and strife, (rather than the usual overly glamorized or repulsive caricatures) Nick & Stephan's relationship is barely developed and not at all compelling - if we were not informed that the two were life partners, we might think that they were roommates who simply got on each other's nerves. Raphael's presentation of the couple's flair and love of beautiful, civilized things as a beacon in the otherwise dull college town is a cute premise, but the lavish descriptions of home-cooked gourmet meals served with caviar, fine art on every wall, and extensive world travel are simply ridiculous. These flights of fancy simply make the characters less believable.
Other details and characters are equally preposterous - namely, the hip female cousin who draws on her experiences as a former fashion model to help Nick solve the crime. The dialogue is not realistic and often very trite. Raphael's use of metaphor is particularly painful - when referring to the writing style of a former student who is also on the wrestling team, the author proclaims "His prose was as lean and powerful as he was." Yak! The story moves very slowly and then seems to gloss over important details. The characters are largely incredible and the writing is surprisingly amateurish compared to some of the author's short stories.
One final gripe - without giving anything away, I'll advise readers to keep their eyes open for a wanna-be witty line towards the end of the book that is so obviously lifted from the 1930s movie "The Women". Does Raphael think that no one but he has seen this campy classic adored by so many gay men? This whole story really just falls flat - I think the author is out of his league and should stick to the short-story genre.

Editorial Review:

When Perry Cross, an outsider, is hired to fill a new position at the State University of Michigan, fellow teacher Nick Hoffman finds the situation curious. But his curiosity changes obsession when he learns that his longtime lover, Stefan, shares a past with Cross. Now Cross has been murdered, and both Nick and Stefan are prime suspects.

Tropic of Murder: A Nick Hoffman Mystery (Nick Hoffman Mysteries)

Lev Raphael

Amazon Price: $11.86 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Perseverance Press Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $1.34

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It's winter, but academic madness is in full bloom at the State University of Michigan. Untenured English professor Nick Hoffman is trying to keep out of the line of fire as three senior professors battle to be department chair--all of whom hate each other and demand Nick’s support. The situation implodes when an emergency meeting turns the department, and normal academic procedure, upside down. In an intense atmosphere of mounting crisis, Nick and his colleagues lose rights and autonomy, and he is desperate for a quick getaway. Nick's partner, Stefan, suggests an idyllic week at a Caribbean Club Med. The island of Serenity, however, proves to be anything but serene. Once again, Edith Wharton scholar Nick Hoffman, who grew up in New York City without even being mugged, finds himself face-to-face with murder. His winter vacation in paradise becomes a nightmare as he learns the truth of the warning that You can run, but you can’t hide. And on a tiny island, there’s nowhere even to run...

The Death of a Constant Lover: A Nick Hoffman Mystery (Nick Hoffman Mysteries)

Lev Raphael

List Price: $12.95 By: Stonewall Inn Mysteries Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $1.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Studying at the (fictional) State University of Michigan can be murder--at least in Lev Raphael's brittle, bright, and brash books about Nick Hoffman.

Hoffman teaches in the university's EAR (English, American Studies, Rhetoric) department and is very popular with his students. However, he has just turned 40 and is seriously worried about getting tenure. Also, his supervisors tend to view him as an under-published scholar, and, with some justification, a walking crime zone. The truth is that Nick attracts murder like a magnet. This time out, a student named Jesse Benevento--son of a history professor--is stabbed to death before Nick's very eyes during a campus riot. Nick and his novelist lover, Stefan Borowski, are sucked into a case that turns even uglier when a second murder occurs. As Nick struggles to solve the murders, his colleagues whine and bicker, a graduate student stalks him, and more violence erupts on campus.

If you like the way Raphael puts the camp into campus, his two previous titles, The Edith Wharton Murders and Let's Get Criminal, are both available in paperback. --Dick Adler

Burning Down the House: A Nick Hoffman Novel (Nick Hoffman Mysteries)

Lev Raphael

List Price: $24.95 By: Walker & Company Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $0.57

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Taut, twisted and telicious... 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I have read all the Nick Hoffman series and they keep getting better. Mr. Raphael knows how to superbly blend Judaica, gay relationships and academia. It is not often a mystery story also informs, such as, the tensions of a gay male marriage or the inside backstabbing of college campuses. I know these climes. Mr. Raphael makes them palatable, funny (some times) and delighfully wicked. I pass at least 5 bookstores a day en route to work, and I have chased down Mr. Raphael's works for his use of language, his integration of wonderful quotes and for making the reading experience a woven tapestry, not some wretched car chase. Bravo! I say this as a reader of history, mystery and biography who comsumes 6-10 books a week. I won't suffer through anything unless it scintillates. This author does.

Editorial Review:

Nick Hoffman's State University of Michigan is a place where the Borgias and the Marx Brothers would be equally at home. Heading into the Christmas season, SUM is being torn apart by bizarre attempts to make it more diverse while an autocratic new provost pushes for a White Studies program and Nick faces not only a tenure battle but conflicting requests for support in a battle for department chair.

With his professional life a mix of seasonal chaos and departmental warfare, Nick discovers that he's not only attracted to the outrageously sexy Juno Dromgoole and disturbed by these disorienting new feelings in his life, but also the target, along with Juno, of a vicious harassment campaign that escalates into stalking, assault, and attempted murder. There's certainly no shortage of suspects, only solid clues. The decisions Nick faces may change his life forever...if he survives.

Little Miss Evil: A Nick Hoffman Mystery

Lev Raphael

List Price: $23.95 By: Walker & Company Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nick Hoffman, the crime-solving Edith Wharton scholar who's starred in three previous mysteries by Lev Raphael, still doesn't have tenure. His boyfriend Stefan's position in the English department at the State University of Michigan is a little more secure, but Stefan's career as a novelist is stalled in traffic, and the appointment of the gratuitously nasty Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Camille Cypriani--"a cross between Anita Brookner and Judith Krantz"--to a newly endowed chair in the department isn't doing much for their relationship. But that may also have something to do with the strange attraction that Nick, who's never been sexually interested in women, suddenly feels for Juno Dromgoole, the outsized and outrageous professor who's counting on his support in her quest for chairmanship of the department.

The English and Rhetoric faculty are already in an uproar over downgrades in status and pay, and on the heels of Camille's controversial appointment, a rumor that a new department of "White Studies" is in the offing sweeps the campus, further highlighting the intense rivalries and petty politics of the university. Then Camille is strangled with a leopard-print scarf that looks suspiciously like Juno's, and Nick's own life is threatened. It falls to Nick's cousin Sharon, a plucky woman whose problems are a lot graver than academic infighting, to point him in the right direction and wrap up the somewhat muddled plot.

Raphael is fast with the wisecracks and heavy with the references to pop culture. He's clearly spent a lot of time watching slasher movies and reading suspense thrillers, which fits neatly with the oversubscribed class Nick teaches on the mystery novel but detracts from the narrative's pacing. It may be time for Raphael to take Nick out of the ivied halls and put his smarts to work in another setting. But if murder in the groves of academe is your thing, consider Little Miss Evil as an extra credit assignment. --Jane Adams

The German Money

Lev Raphael

List Price: $20.65 By: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $6.70

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Paul Menkus has spent his life running–from New York,the city of his birth; from his beautiful beloved; from contact with his own brother and sister; but mostly from his mother, a Holocaust survivor of unparalleled coldness. Her shattering inability to offer warmth and approval, or even remotely show love, has scarred each of the Menkus children—Dina has fled the country and married a devout Catholic; Simon has led a sexually profligate life addled with drugs. Upon their mother’s mysterious death, the children dutifully return home in search of answers to the family’s legacy of unhappiness. But only more questions confront them: Why and how did this healthy woman die? Why did she divide their inheritance so that Paul, the errant son to whom she hadn’t spoken in years, was singled out to receive the largest share, the dreaded "German money," a bequest of a million dollars accrued from invested German reparations to survivors … a gift as cynical as it is generous.

Navigating the rocky shores of family memory, picking up the pieces of a life torn apart by his parents’ history, Paul discovers the unthinkable, and in doing so finds the courage to stop running from a legacy which is painful to embrace but impossible to forget.