Wishnia, Kenneth, (The Fifth Servant: A Gripping Historical Thriller of Murder and Intrigue in Prague Under the Inquisition [hc, William Morrow, 2010] 978-0061725371 [pb, Wm. Morrow Paperbacks, 2011] 978-0061725388 [Set in 1592 Prague, this historical crime thriller follows Benyamin Ben-Akiva, a young Talmudic scholar who serves as the newly appointed shammes (caretaker). He is pressed into service as an investigator after a Christian girl is found murdered inside the Jewish ghetto, sparking a dangerous “blood libel” accusation. Benyamin works directly for Rabbi Judah Loew—the towering historical figure credited in Jewish folklore with creating the Golem of Prague. Wishnia presents a grounded, speculative origin for the myth. Rather than treating the golem purely as a supernatural creature made of animated clay, the book explores how the legend of a monstrous, defensive protector was birthed out of the very real, desperate political and physical maneuvers used by Rabbi Loew and his assistants to protect the community from an impending massacre. [Google/AI]
United States · Fiction author
Kenneth Wishnia
Kenneth Wishnia (born 1960, Hanover, N.H.) - B.A. from Brown University (1982) and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1996). Professor of English at Suffolk County Community College on Long Island. His work is deeply informed by Jewish history, theology, and the cultural intersection of Jewish identity with the “noir” genre. In his two Jewish Noir anthologies, he argues that the “tragic sensibility” of Jewish history aligns naturally with the grit of noir. He posits that while some faiths promise everything will turn out well if you follow the right path, in Judaism (citing Job), you can do everything right and still suffer—which he defines as the essence of “noir”. These anthologies tackle resurgent anti-Semitism, the long-term psychological effects of the Holocaust, tensions within ultra-Orthodox communities, and the contradictions of assimilation. The Fifth Servant (2010) and its follow-up novella, Burning Twilight (2024), are set in 16th-century Prague. They feature a Jewish sexton, Benyamin Ben-Akiva, solving a murder to save his community from blood libel accusations. His 2024 novel, From Sun to Sun, parallels a modern investigation with a reimagining of the biblical Book of Ruth. While his main mystery series features an Ecuadorian-American protagonist, Wishnia infuses the narrative with broader themes of Jewish-influenced social justice, ethnic identity, and the “vulnerability” of marginalized groups in New York City. [Google/AI]
Wishnia, Kenneth, (Burning Twilight: A Novella [Kindle format only, 2013] 978-0062321138 [In this sequel to The Fifth Servant, Wishnia continues this historical storyline and its connection to Rabbi Loew - Jewish Book Council
Wishnia, Kenneth [ed], (Jewish Noir: Contemporary Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds [pb, PM Press, 2015]) 978-1629631110
Wishnia, Kenneth & Chantelle Aimée Osman [eds], (Jewish Noir II: Tales of Crime and Other Dark Deeds [with foreword by Lawrence Block, pb, PM Press, 2022]) 978-1629638225
Wishnia, Kenneth, (From Sun to Sun [pb, PM Press, 2024] 979-8887440354