Joshua Cohen

Past Imperfect Joshua Cohen

When his rabbi calls him after Yom Kippur, private eye Benjamin Gold thinks it's just to yell at him for skipping services--but it's even worse than that.

It turns out that Benny missed more than some prayers and a sermon: While everyone else was atoning for their sins, a fight broke out in synagogue when a visitor accused one of the leading members of the congregation of being a Nazi collaborator.

Is Mendel Kahn the upstanding benefactor of Cleveland's Jewish community he seems to be? Is his real-estate fortune the product of ten years of hard work and good luck, or does his success have a more sinister origin? Is he even Mendel Kahn--or is he really Yitzhak Fried, who exploited and tortured his fellow Jews during the War?

As Gold digs into Kahn's dark story, he learns that the man's present is bad enough: he's a slumlord, a gangster, and a sadist. He also doesn't appreciate being investigated...and he has some large and dangerous friends. Can Benjamin Gold survive long enough to uncover the real story of Mendel Kahn's past?