Allan Levine

Allan Levine (born in 1956 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) – Canadian historian, journalist and author specializing in historical mysteries and non-fiction. Author of the 4-volume Sam Klein Mystery Series, set in early 20th-century Winnipeg, Manitoba. Sam Klein is a street-wise Jewish immigrant who transitions from a brothel bouncer and “minder” to a private investigator. The books are noted for their meticulous historical accuracy, blending real-life events and figures—such as activist Nellie McClung—with fictional detective work. They explore the “wicked” side of early Winnipeg, focusing on the tension between the city’s rough North End immigrants and the wealthy WASP elite. 

Levine, Allan [Sam Klein Mystery Series #1] (The Blood Libel [pb, Great Plains Fiction, 2001] 978-0969780458 [Winnipeg, 1911: Sam Klein is introduced as a bouncer at a local brothel who must solve a murder involving a “blood libel” accusation—a false claim used to incite violence against the Jewish community.]

Levine, Allan [Sam Klein Mystery Series #2] (Sins of the Suffragettes [pb, Great Plains Fiction, 2001] 978-1894283168 [Winnipeg, 1914: Klein investigates the murder of Emily Powers (or Emily Munro), a suffragette with a hidden, controversial past. The case takes him from the local streets to New York City as he navigates drug conspiracies and political corruption.]

Levine, Allan [Sam Klein Mystery Series #3] (The Bolshevik’s Revenge [pb, Great Plains Fiction, 2002] 978-1894283335 [Winnipeg, 1919: Set against the backdrop of the Winnipeg General Strike, a now-married Klein is pulled into a maelstrom of labor unrest and Bolshevik fears. He must investigate a death linked to the strike while balancing his role as a family man.)

Levine, Allan [Sam Klein Mystery Series #4] (The Bootlegger’s Confession) [pb, Great Plains Fiction, 2016] 978-08880159903 [Winnipeg, 1922: In this “reboot,” Klein investigates the death of a man connected to bootleggers in a border town. The story is inspired by the real-life 1922 unsolved murder of Paul Matoff during the prohibition era.]

Sam Klein’s Jewishness is a foundational element of the series. His identity as an outsider—a “foreigner” in a city dominated by a British-descended elite—drives his perspective as a private investigator. The Jewish immigrant experience, facing poverty, social exclusion and anti-Semitism, is depicted throughout. Klein has to contend with one of the oldest anti-Semitic tropes – the blood libel – in the first volume of the series. The series highlights the ethnic intolerance of turn-of-the-century Canada, where Jewish characters must deal with a justice system often biased against them. Because Klein exists on the fringes, he acts as a bridge between the “raw and ribald” immigrant world and the official authorities. His Jewishness provides him with the motivation to seek justice for those the mainstream system ignores or actively targets. [Google/AI]

Note: Allan Levine’s book on Canadian Jewish history, Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience, is discussed in the non-fiction section of this Bibliography.