Batya Gur

Batya Gur ( 1947 , Tel Aviv - May 19 , 2005 ) was an Israeli writer, specializing in detective fiction . She received a master's degree in comparative literature from the Hebrew University . She taught literature in high schools and spent a number of years in the U.S. Gur was known for her social and political sensitivity, and has published a non-fiction book called Next to the Hunger Road (Keter, 1990). She has also published several works of fiction, among them I Didn't Imagine It Would Be This Way (Keter, 1994). Gur served as a literature critic and essayist for the newspaper Haaretz . In 1988 she began writing a series starring the character of police detective Michael Ohayon: an educated, pensive, and intellectual detective who captivated the Hebrew reader. The first book was adapted as a film for Israeli television. In every book in the series Michael Ohayon enters a closed world, an isolated society, with rules of its own (for example psychiatrists, or members of a kibbutz ). By his fundamental approach and his inner understanding of human nature, Ohayon succeeds in breaking the ring of silence and solving the murder mystery on his way to the next book. Gur is infamous for basing some of her characters on real gossip in academic circles - like David Lodge - and for many readers part of the fun of reading her books is to try to match her characters with the real people who may have inspired them.¹