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Run You Down

Review

Run You Down

Rebekah Roberts, a reporter for the New York Tribune, a daily tabloid newspaper based in New York City, is easing her way back into work after almost being killed while covering the story of the murder of Rivka Mendelssohn, a woman who was a member of a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn. Instead of chasing stories all over town, Rebekah is working second shift in the office of the Tribune doing rewrites when she receives a request to look into the death of a young wife and mother who was part of another Jewish community in Roseville, New York, a town situated approximately an hour north of the city.

Familiar with Rebekah's work on the Mendelssohn case, Levi Goldin, the 28-year-old widower of Pessie Goldin, makes contact with Rebekah through a mutual friend to see if she will investigate his wife's death. Afraid that Pessie's death was a suicide, her family insisted on a quick burial and minimal police involvement immediately following the tragedy. Levi, however, believes that rather than taking her own life, Pessie may have been murdered.

"This page-turning mystery is riveting and relevant to today's headlines, and adds suspense to an emotionally charged story that reveals a glimpse into a world those outside of it know little about."

Although Rebekah was raised by a Christian father far away in Florida, she does have a little-known tie to the Jewish community. Her mother, Aviva Kagan, was a Hasidic Jew who ran away from her ultra-Orthodox family in Brooklyn to follow love. A few months after giving birth, however, Aviva returned home to New York without leaving behind a word of explanation for baby Rebekah or her father. All her life, Rebekah wondered about the truth behind the disappearance of the mother she's never met.

In one of those funny twists that fate so often throws our way, Rebekah's mother has recently located her and is now trying to make contact with her daughter. Undecided as to whether or not she wants to get to know her mother, Rebekah has yet to return any of her phone calls when she finds herself once again thrown into the midst of Orthodox Judaism.

As she begins delving into Pessie's death, it becomes clear that it isn't just Pessie's family of origin who doesn’t want the details of her demise divulged. Pessie's tenuous ties to a white supremacist group lead Rebekah to believe that someone didn't want Pessie to reveal any of the secrets to which she was privy, forcing them to silence her in the most effective way --- by killing her.

As she makes progress on her investigation, Rebekah learns that her mother has ties to the members of this Jewish community. When she tries to contact Aviva, she receives her voicemail message repeatedly, and when she drives by Aviva's house, it appears dark and unlived in. Could her mother's disappearance mean that she knows something about the truth Rebekah is striving so hard to discover?

Told in alternating chapters from the points of view of Aviva and Rebekah, RUN YOU DOWN (the sequel to INVISIBLE CITY, Julia Dahl's first novel) reveals the truth behind Aviva's abandonment of her daughter and highlights Rebekah's growth into a mature young woman and successful reporter. This page-turning mystery is riveting and relevant to today's headlines, and adds suspense to an emotionally charged story that reveals a glimpse into a world those outside of it know little about.

Reviewed by Amie Taylor on July 17, 2015

Run You Down
by Julia Dahl

  • Publication Date: March 8, 2016
  • Genres: Fiction, Mystery
  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Minotaur Books
  • ISBN-10: 1250043425
  • ISBN-13: 9781250043429