Really more of a 3.5 star review. Nahai writes about the Persian Jewish community from an insider's perspective. In addition to the details about Persian-Jewish life and culture, the authentic L.A. details add snap and pizzazz to a story about a no-good evil man whose apparent murder is rejoiced upon by many and seemingly deserved. There's a lovely magical realism, too, and it not only works in historical flashbacks, but contrasts nicely with the contemporary settings.

Nahai's take is a little more cynical than I'd like, and it rubs me wrong that she bashes nearly every character who exhibits religiosity as a hypocrite. She tears apart the characters so hard that it's difficult to like any of them or to keep reading, at times. And the ending is a bit unclear. Has our Iranian-American detective really solved the case? I would have liked a bit more attention to the details of the investigation. And do we really need the fake blog post at the end? (It doesn't sound like a blog post, is part of my problem, and it's very meandering in structure.)