Murder in Lisbon Half a Millenium Ago

The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, by Richard Zimler, is a murder mystery set in 16th century Portugal. The novel starts with the author's foreword, explaining how he came across a bundle of manuscripts in a house in Constantinople written by one Berekiah Zarco. Zarco's manuscripts detail the events of April 1506 in Lisbon, when he and his fellow Jews suffered violent reprisals during the massacre of the Jews during that period. A few years earlier, Jews had been forced to convert to Christianity - these so-called "New Christians" often maintained their Jewish practices in secret, much to the consternation of the Old Christians. Without the protection of King Manuel, thousands of Jews were killed, their shops and homes looted and burned. Amid this chaos, the twentysomething Zarco, a manuscript illustrator for his uncle Abraham, a revered mystic of Kabbalah, comes across the bodies of both his uncle and a young woman in a secret chamber in Zarco's house.

But the chamber is not looted and there are other suspicious circumstances surrounding the bodies; these murders were not the random violence of anti-Semitic fury, but rather cold-blooded murder by someone who knew Abraham well. What follows is Zarco's frantic investigation into the murder of his uncle. He tries to discover who had the means and motive to kill Abraham, who the deceased young woman was and why she was killed, all while avoided marauding gangs of Old Christians consumed with hatred for him and his ilk.

As historical fiction, Kabbalist is an interesting look into a specific period in the unfortunate history of the persecution of the Jews. I knew nothing of the Lisbon massacre, and as such this was an educational read. As a mystery novel, however, Kabbalist comes up short. The first third of the novel contains a good opening and convincingly brings the reader into the world of early-16th century Lisbon, but as the mystery part of the novel develops, the narrative loses steam and ultimately ends in anticlimactic fashion.

It's informative and entertaining, and it's a quick read, but in the end it's rather lackluster as a mystery novel.