The Sam Klein Mysteries
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The Blood Libel
published by Great Plains Fiction, 1997
Sam Klein is a streetwise minder at a local brothel
who investigates the murder of a Polish girl —
a murder blamed on a North End rabbi. His search
for the real killer is frustrated by battles with
ethnic intolerance and with authorities who insist
they've found their man.
The Blood Libel brings the vivid, turbulent times
of turn-of-the-century Winnipeg to life, using
the "wickedest city in the dominion" as
a setting for this complex and chilling mystery
thriller. The novel captures the indomitable spirit
of immigrant life in Winnipeg's fabled North End,
and creates a detective hero for the ages in Sam
Klein, whose pursuit of justice goes to the heart
of the immigrant experience as "foreigners" in
a strange, new land.
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- Winner of the Margaret McWilliams Medal for
Best Historical Fiction
- Short-listed for the Chapters/Books in Canada
First Novel Award and the Arthur Ellis First
Mystery Novel Award
- Published in Germany as Mit falscher Zunge
by BTB-Random House Germany
- Optioned for a feature film
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Praise
- “Allan Levine delivers something far more substantial
than a murder mystery…in this story of politics and
prejudice…The fair, balanced perspective distinguishes
The Blood Libel and makes it an intelligent book that
is —without for a moment detracting from its intensity. ”
—Books in Canada
- "Historians seldom extend their talents to murder
mysteries, but Allan Levine has done just that, and
The Blood Libel turns out be chilling and believable…”
—Peter C. Newman
- "This novel, set in Winnipeg in 1911, has a
lot going for it. First, there's the setting, lovingly
evoked by Levine, a historian. Then there's the premise,
the dreadful blood libel accusation against the Jews,
used by successive regimes as an excuse for murder,
massacre and violence. Finally, there's a clever character
named Sam Klein, who makes his living guarding a whorehouse
and who makes a fine amateur detective… much to enjoy
and fans of Winnipeg local history will love this book
."
—The Globe and Mail
- "An excellent book, both a stimulating history
lesson and an absorbing adventure tale ."
—Winnipeg Free Press
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Sins of the Suffragette
published by Great Plains Fiction, 2000
When Sam Klein investigates the murder of Emily
Munro, a suffragette with many sordid secrets,
he enters a world of women's rights in 1914 Winnipeg.
Here he encounters famous activist Nellie McClung
as well as the uneasy tension between Victorian
morality and real life.
Like its predecessor, The Blood Libel, Sins
of the Suffragette transports readers back
in time to experience the streets, sounds, and
smells of "the wickedest city in the Dominion" where
immigrants from the city's tough North End struggle
to find an identity in a world dominated by white
middle-class WASPs.
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- Short-listed for the Carol Shields City of
Winnipeg Book of the Year
- Short-listed for the Margaret McWilliams Medal
for Best Historical Fiction
- Published in Germany as Die Sünden der
Suffragetten by BTB-Random House Germany
- Featured at the Berlin International Literature
Festival
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Praise
- "Allan Levine's Winnipeg bursts with civic pride,
simmers with political and police corruption anda seethes
with racial tension. It smells of chicken soup, cigars
and opium. Its residents live out their lusty lives
on the snow clogged streets…History, told through
lively characters and washed down with side dishes
of seances, suffragists and sex, and the suspense of
a good whodunnit."
—Winnipeg Free Press
- "When we first met Winnipeg investigator Sam
Klein, it was 1911 and he had just ferreted out the
truth behind the "Blood Libel"…Now
Klein is back in a better book with a tighter plot…"
—Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail
- "By the first page and half I was hooked!"
—Lethbridge Herald
- "(Levine's) account of Winnipeg's early settlement
is brilliantly woven into a tale of nail-biting suspense."
—Canadian Book Review Annual
- "This is one of those rare novels that manages
to both entertain and instruct. There are several credible
and complex mysteries embedded in the story and their
solutions are embellished and augmented by a wealth
of historical, social, and local detail."
—Quill & Quire
From Germany:
- "Fortunately, Allan Levine does not write dry
historical novels…but exciting historically rich
and detailed crime stories…The plot is so winding
and the characters intriguing. That makes Levine absolutely
worth reading.”
—Abenzeitung (Nuremberg and Munich)
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The Bolshevik’s Revenge
published by Great Plains Fiction, 2002
The 1919 Winnipeg General Strike is the dramatic
backdrop for the third installment of the Sam Klein
Mystery Series. The "war to end all wars" has
just ended, the Bolsheviks have seized power in
Russia and most of the Western world is convinced
that a widespread workers' revolt is imminent.
Winnipeg is no exception as sector after sector
of the city is shut down by a massive General Strike,
and when one of the city's most prominent capitalists
is murdered, detective Sam Klein is called in to
solve the case before the city erupts in chaos.
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- Short-listed for the Margaret McWilliams Medal for
Best Historical Fiction
Praise
- "Who needs James Bond? Sam Klein is back to
save the world, or at least Winnipeg."
—Winnipeg Free Press
- "This is great fun, and fans of Faye Kellerman
will love the family and religious threads woven into
the plot."
—Globe and Mail
- "The yarn Levine spins for Klein to tie the
homicides together skillfully blends elements of mystery,
romance, history and politics with lots of conflicts
and plenty of action and intriguing suspense."
—Mystery Review
- "History needs to be kept alive, not just in
Canada, but around the world. And judged on that level,
Levine's book is a triumph, fascinating and arguably
timely. No sooner had I finished it, than I headed
to my local library to learn more about the 1919 strike.
I also dusted off my mental to-be-read pile, where
I moved Sam Klein's two previous adventures closer
to the top."
—januarymagazine.com
- “Three thumbs up!"
—Ron Robinson, CBC Radio
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