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Jewish Literary Voices: A Federation Series in collaboration with The Jewish Book Council
When Mary Jane Bennett is found dead in her bed—alone, strangled by her own scarf, and with every door in the house locked—the medical examiner rules her death accidental, the result of a sex game gone horribly awry. State police decline to investigate further, but Queensbridge Police Chief Caleb Crane doesn’t buy for a minute that his good friend died this way, so he undertakes his own investigation. Facing town councilors afraid of bad publicity, an angry medical examiner, and his own personal demons, he labors to solve what he believes is the first-ever murder in his pastoral Berkshire Hills village. Complicating things: the list of suspects includes some of the people to whom he is closest—including his own wife.
Running throughout the book is the story of Purim and its messages. Who is the killer hiding behind a mask? Prepare for Purim together with beloved Berkshire resident Carol Goodman Kaufman.
Before evolving into a writer, Carol Goodman Kaufman worked as an industrial and organizational psychologist and criminologist. Her published works span multiple genres, including academic research, food history, travel, human interest, children’s literature, and mystery short stories. The First Murder is her first novel.
Purchase the book HERE and a portion of the proceeds will be donated back to a local independent bookstore in the Berkshires.