Jonathan Dunsky books

Jonathan Dunsky is an Israeli mystery writer known for the Adam Lapid series, historical detective novels set in 1940s and 1950s Israel featuring a Holocaust survivor turned private investigator.

Adam Lapid Mysteries Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Ten Years Gone 2017 Buy
The Dead Sister 2016 Buy
The Auschwitz Violinist 2016 Buy
A Debt of Death 2017 Buy
The Unlucky Woman 2018 Buy
A Deadly Act 2020 Buy
The Auschwitz Detective 2020 Buy
A Death In Jerusalem 2022 Buy
In That Sleep of Death 2024 Buy
The Jewish Policeman 2026 Buy

Short Stories/Novellas

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Favor 2016 Buy
The Omission of Her Majesty’s History 2016 Buy
Rabbi Shmuel vs. the Lizard Demon Queen 2016 Buy
Family Ties 2017 Buy
Grandma Rachel’s Ghosts 2017 Buy
Tommy’s Touch 2017 Buy
Shootout With Death 2018 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Payback Girl 2018 Buy

Jonathan Dunsky is an Israeli author best known for the Adam Lapid mystery series. He lives in Israel with his wife and two sons. His first novels, The Dead Sister and The Auschwitz Violinist, were both published in 2016, and he has since expanded the Adam Lapid series to ten books.

The Adam Lapid mysteries are set in Israel during the late 1940s and 1950s, a period when the young state was absorbing waves of immigrants and dealing with the aftermath of the Holocaust. Dunsky’s protagonist is a Holocaust survivor and former Nazi hunter who works as a private investigator in Tel Aviv. The series has drawn comparisons to the classic hardboiled detectives of Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald, with Lapid navigating a city full of displaced people, political tensions, and buried secrets. Dunsky has also written standalone short fiction and the crime novel The Payback Girl.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Jonathan Dunsky written?

Jonathan Dunsky has written 18 books across 3 series.

What was Jonathan Dunsky's first book?

Jonathan Dunsky’s first book is Rabbi Shmuel vs. the Lizard Demon Queen, published in 2016.

What inspired the setting of the Adam Lapid mysteries?

Dunsky set the series in the early years of the State of Israel, a period rarely explored in mystery fiction. The 1940s and 1950s Israeli setting provides a backdrop of nation-building, post-war trauma, and social upheaval that gives the detective stories an unusual historical dimension.

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