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Alvin Abram's Maxie Lewis novels are the kind of regional Canadian crime fiction that gets almost no shelf space in American bookstores and that deserves more attention than it has had. Unlikely Victims is one of the stronger Maxie books, with the Toronto-Jewish neighborhood textured into every chapter and the case (a small-business owner's death that the family does not want investigated too closely) opening into a longer wartime story.
Abram writes the Spadina-area communities with the affection of a lifelong resident. The Yiddish-inflected dialogue is rendered without translation footnotes and the rhythm carries you. The procedural beats are competent without being showy.
Three stars. Recommended to readers interested in regional Canadian crime fiction or in postwar Jewish-Toronto history.
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