Lone Wolf in Jerusalem: A Historical Thriller About Resisting The British Occupation of Palestine

When I saw Lone Wolf in Jerusalem by Ehud Diskin on Net Galley, it intrigued me.  I had read books taking place in British Mandate Palestine, but I hadn't seen this sort of focus before.  Since it was a Read Now book, I was able to download it right away.  So when publicist Wiley Saichek asked me if I wanted to review it, I said that I already had a copy for review.

                         

Although Lone Wolf in Jerusalem is primarily a thriller, I find myself wanting to discuss characters. I loved  Shoshana.  Her character arc of recovery from her experiences during WWII really pulled me in to the book.  Yet I have to say that at the beginning of the novel, I found the perspective of the protagonist understandable, but not sympathetic.   David Gabinsky, the main character, was an anti-Nazi resistance fighter and a Holocaust survivor when he arrived in British Mandate Palestine.   He decided to take action against British police officers on his own.  With his background, I understood why David did not distinguish between the Nazis and the British occupiers.  He saw himself as continuing his World II struggle against the enemies of Jews.

Before writing this review, I thought about how I wanted to approach the issue of terrorism.  I re-read my review of  The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi which partly took place in British Mandate Palestine.  You can find it here.  In that review, I remarked about terrorism that "I tend to draw the line at the victimizing of innocent civilians." This expresses my opinion on the subject in a nutshell which is why I am quoting it in this review.  I learned from Lone Wolf in Jerusalem that a Jewish terrorist organization of this period known as the Lehi attacked British civilians in direct opposition to the policy of the Irgun, a much better known anti-British Jewish terrorist organization.  My feeling is that the Irgun policy makes an important ethical statement. At one point in this book, David realized that he had victimized innocents in one of his actions, and came to regret it. Diskin shows us a protagonist who evolves in his thinking, and becomes more sympathetic over the course of the novel.

While I knew something about the Irgun before I read this book, I was extremely uninformed about the Lehi.  I had known that it was called the Stern Gang by its opponents.  So after writing the above paragraph,  I did some research.  British historian Colin Schindler's website pointed me in the direction of The Stern Gang by Joseph Heller.  I'll definitely want to read it. The Lehi didn't play a significant role in Lone Wolf in Jerusalem, but Diskin's content about the Lehi in this novel caused me to think that I wanted to know more.

 Diskin's military background lends tremendous verisimilitude to the action scenes in this thriller.  There is a great deal more talk about strategy and tactics than I am accustomed to seeing in thrillers, but they weren't just dry discussions.  Diskin contextualized strategy and tactics within the life of the protagonist.  David's choices were accompanied by flashbacks when they were related to specific memories from his experiences. 

I am usually disappointed by bestsellers when I read them, but this Israeli bestseller was both intense and informative.