Michael Ian Benjamin

Michael Ian Benjamin (est. birth 1944 in Leeds, England) - a retired Israeli psychiatrist and author, best known for his Oranit Trilogy. He immigrated to Israel in 1969, where he trained as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist. Served as a Major in the Israeli Defense Forces, specializing in the treatment of shell shock (PTSD) during the Yom Kippur War and seeing active duty in Lebanon. A founder and former member of the local council for the settlement of Oranit, which serves as the primary setting for his fiction. His books:

Crossed Lines - a politically-charged murder mystery set during the Second Intifada. It follows a Shin Bet investigator tasked with solving the two-year-old murder of an Arab collaborator near the Oranit settlement, unearthing a web of smuggling, forgery, and wartime trauma. 

Sins and Lovers: Continues the series’ blend of black humor and political suspense, focusing on personal and historical secrets that threaten the delicate social fabric between the settlement and nearby Arab villages.

Shadow in the Woods: During a local election, a vital witness goes missing as Oranit prepares to host visitors from a Polish village—the same village where many of Oranit’s founders survived the Holocaust.The discovery of two corpses in the woods linking the 1956 Kfar Kassem massacre to secrets from Nazi-occupied Poland. It delves into the divisions within Israel between religious and secular Jews.   [Google/AI &Amazon]

Benjamin, Michael Ian, (Crossed Lines [Oranit: Volume 1]) [pb, CreateSpace Independent, 2015] 978-1508804178

Benjamin, Michael Ian, (Sins and Lovers [Oranit, Vol. 2]) [pb, CreateSpace Independent, 2016] 978-1523628124

Benjamin, Michael Ian, (Shadow in the Woods [Oranit, Vol. 3]) [pb, Wise Media Group 2020] 978-1629671772