Consulting Detective

Detective Mihdí Montgomery is not your average mystery novel detective. Far from being a hardboiled, reticent loner, he is an outgoing, happily married father of two children who relies on spiritual principles for guidance in both his work and personal life. But when a rabbi is murdered in a Jewish synagogue in an apparent hate crime, Detective Montgomery’s faith is put to the test. A rabbi in the Beth Shalom Synagogue has been murdered through a blow to the head with a heavy brass candleholder, and hateful graffiti has been spray-painted throughout the synagogue. As he begins interviewing people with connections to the killing, Detective Montgomery finds that different people had plenty of motives to murder the rabbi. Perhaps it was the real estate agent who was hoping to buy the synagogue if people moved out. Perhaps it was the jealous ex-boyfriend of the woman who was in love with the rabbi. Or perhaps it was the white nationalist who has a history of posting racist flyers in the area. With such a diversity of suspects, Detective Montgomery must move quickly to pinpoint the suspect if he is to keep the synagogue, the town, and his family out of harm’s way.

Alan Manifold is an internationally recognized expert in the field of Library Automation and has published numerous articles regarding the expanding role of information technology in libraries. He has received several awards in his field, including the Distinguished Talent Visa Award, which was given to him by the Australian government in 2015. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. A singer and composer, he currently sings with Perfect Chord, the Bahá’í choir of Melbourne, Australia and was an organizer of the first Australian Bahá’í Choral Festival in 2015. He currently works for the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia and is a long-time fan of the mystery genre. He lives in Rosanna, Australia. Consulting Detective is his first novel.