The Vanisher Variations

There’s trouble afoot in Regency London’s Jewish community, and no one to stop the crimes-until wealthy-widower-turned-sleuth Mr. Ezra Melamed teams up with an unlikely pair: General Well’ngone and the Earl of Gravel Lane, the leaders of a gang of young Jewish pickpockets.

What does the wealthy wife of a Junior Lord of the Treasury have to do with London’s Jewish community? In the opinion of Mr. Ezra Melamed, nothing! But when the lady disappears during a visit to Brighton to take the cure, her rich and powerful family decides that only Mr. Melamed can find her.

Who would wish to harm the young lady? And is she still alive? The lady’s family are pressing him for answers, but to Mr. Melamed’s consternation, every clue he turns up seems to vanish - like the steam from one of Brighton’s famous vapor baths.

The Vanisher Variations is the fourth book in the Jewish Regency Mystery series, a refreshingly different look at Regency England which combines lovably quirky characters with a generous dash of humor.

Libi Astaire is an award-winning author who often writes about Jewish history. In addition to her Jewish Regency Mystery Series featuring Ezra Melamed, General Well’ngone and the Earl of Gravel Lane, she is the author of ＂Terra Incognita,＂ a novel about modern-day descendants of Spain’s crypto-Jews, ＂The Banished Heart,＂ a novel about Shakespeare’s writing of The Merchant of Venice, and several volumes of Chassidic tales. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel.