Roger L. Simon

Roger L. Simon (born 1943 in New York City) – novelist and screenwriter. Graduated from Dartmouth College and the Yale School of Drama. Beyond writing, he served as a president of the West Coast branch of PEN, sat on the Writers Guild of America board, and co-founded the political news website PJ Media. His Moses Wine, a Los Angeles-based private detective, was a groundbreaking character for the private-eye genre: a “hip, political, and edgy longhair” who was proudly Jewish and often smoked marijuana. Jewish identity and themes evolve throughout the series: 

Identity & Heritage: Wine is often portrayed as a secular Jew with roots in Berkeley radicalism, contrasting with the traditionally “ethnicity-devoid” detectives of earlier noir fiction.

Raising the Dead (1988): In the sixth novel, Wine travels to Israel to clear an Arab organization of murder. The plot involves “fanatic Jewish religious leaders,” terrorists, and the complexities of his homeland.

Director’s Cut (2003): Set in post-9/11 Prague, Wine investigates threats against a film crew making a love story about the Holocaust. The story features the Grand Rabbi of Prague and explores antisemitism and modern terrorism.

External Perspectives: The series frequently uses Wine’s Jewishness to highlight social absurdities, such as an FBI computer system flagging the Jewish detective as a potential associate of terrorists.  [Google/AI]

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #1], (The Big Fix) [hc, Andre Deutsch, 1974] B0033M2WUI [pb, Straight Arrow Books, 1973] 9780879320485 [pb, ipicturebooks, 2010] 978-1876963330 [Wine is hired by an old girlfriend, Lila Shea, to locate Howard Eppis, the elusive leader of the radical Free Amerika Party. Eppis is believed to be orchestrating a smear campaign against liberal Democratic presidential candidate Miles Hawthorne by distributing forged campaign literature linking Hawthorne to extremist causes.

Before Wine can complete the assignment, Lila is murdered. What begins as a political investigation becomes a murder case involving wealthy backers, former New Left activists, Chicano radicals, and political operatives. As Wine traces the conspiracy through the remnants of 1960s idealism, he uncovers a cynical plot in which personal ambition, money, and political manipulation have replaced revolutionary ideals. The novel culminates in the exposure of the real conspirators behind both the murder and the campaign sabotage. The main Jewish component is not the facts of the case, but rather Wine’s character, especially his outsider’s perspective, self-deprecating humor, intellectual skepticism, and moral ambivalence. His Jewishness is an integral part of who he is, but it is not heavily emphasized in the investigation itself. – ChatGPT]

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #2], (Wild Turkey) [hc, Straight Arrow Books, 1974] 978-0879320829 [pb, ipicturebooks, 2011] 978-1876963385

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #3], (Peking Duck) [hc, Simon & Schuster, 1979] 978-0671228804 [pb, ipicturebooks, 2011] 978-1876963422

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #4], (California Roll) [hc, Villard, 1985] 978-0394537115 [pb, ipicturebooks, 2011] 978-1876963361

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #5], (The Straight Man) [hc, Villard, 1986] 978-0394558370 [pb, ipicturebooks, 2013] 978-1876963538

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #6], (Raising the Dead) [hc, Villard, 1988] 978-0394564418 [pb, Warner Books, 1989] 978-0446348225

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #7], (The Lost Coast) [hc, HarperCollins, 1997] 978-0060177072 [pb, ipicturebooks, 2011] 978-1876963484

Simon, Roger L. [Moses Wine #8], (Director’s Cut) [hc, Atria, 2003] 978-0743458023

Simon, Roger L., (Emet [hc, Green Hills Books, 2026] 979-8994109328 [pb, Green Hills Books, 2026] 979-8994109311 [When Nashville is shaken by the brutal murder of a young woman visiting from New York, Rabbi Benjamin “Ben” Golub—a reluctant spiritual leader whose faith has long wavered—finds himself drawn into a crisis far larger than grief and consolation. The crime unmoors his congregants, ignites simmering fears, and pulls the rabbi into the orbit of two people connected to the victim: Ed, a Serbian-born sculptor with a past marked by war, and Tamara, a sharp-witted New York publicist fleeing her own heartbreak.

But when a freak tornado hits the city, exposing strange phenomena in the rabbi’s own backyard, Ben confronts something he never expected: evidence that an ancient Jewish legend may be more than myth. What begins as a whispered joke—a lump of mud shaped like a man—soon reveals a terrifying capacity for action. As violence escalates, anti-Jewish hatred rises worldwide, and the rabbi’s private doubts collide with what he witnesses, Ben must decide what he truly believes—and what he is willing to unleash. Because the line between protector and monster is thinner than anyone imagined. And truth—emet—has consequences. – Amazon]