Lineup by Liad Shoham

A brutal rape occurs in the northern part of Tel Aviv.  The young woman who is raped is a reluctant reporter, but her parents convince her to notify the police about what has occurred.  Detective Eli Nahum is assigned to the case and is determined to find the rapist.

The victim's father watches outside her apartment, and is rewarded with finding a man skulking around the area at night.  He takes a picture and follows him home, sure that he has found his daughter's assailant.  After confronting her with the picture and getting a reluctant identification, he calls Nahum and turns in the man, Ziv Nevo.

Nevo was in the area, but not as a rapist.  A year ago, he had been fine with a job he enjoyed and a marriage with a small son he adored.  But a series of bad decisions had taken away his job, his marriage and his son, and he is left destitute and unable to find work.  He reaches out to a former friend in the Army, and finds some work, but soon is wrapped up in the clutches of the Israeli mob.  Now Nevo is in fear of his life as both the police and the mob are sure he is someone they need to put away for a long time.

Liad Shoham is one of Israel's leading crime writers, and an attorney.  American readers who haven't had a chance to sample Israeli crime writing will be interested to read this novel, his fifth bestseller.  The plot is intricate, and the characters are finely drawn.  In addition to Nevo and Nahum, there are portraits of a crime reporter looking for a big break, a prosecuting attorney who knows something is wrong although she doesn't know what, the head of the Israeli mob, the editor of the local newspaper, and the other police Nehum works with.  All the threads are woven together into a garment sure to please the reader.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.