Murder Under the Bridge, Mystery Set in Palestine, Debuts Online

Murder Under the Bridge is a bold new concept in fiction. Not only is it probably the first mystery with lesbian content to be set in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Kate Raphael decided to offer her debut novel as an online serial, one chapter every several days.

The book features two strong-willed feminist heroines. Rania is the only female Palestinian police detective in the northern West Bank. She is also the mother of a young son, in a rural community where many feel that mothers should not have such demanding careers. Chloe is a Jewish American dyke with a video camera and a big attitude, anxious to right every wrong caused by the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The two women team up to track down the killer of Nadya, a trafficked Uzbek worker in one of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Rania is determined to use the case to impress her boss; Chloe wants to get a Palestinian friend out of jail so she can concentrate on seducing a beautiful Australian woman. Initially suspicious of one another, Rania and Chloe forge a friendship as their search for truth takes them from checkpoints and prisons to brothels and beaches.

Kate Raphael was a peace worker in Palestine for eighteen months, coming and going between 2002 and 2005. In late 2004, while passing a particular West Bank spot in a taxi, she thought, “This would be a great place for a mystery to begin.”

“I’ve been an avid mystery reader for many years,” says Raphael. “I was intrigued by the idea of using popular culture to help people understand a conflict that is portrayed in the media as complex and intractable. I wanted to show the lives behind the headlines.”

The result is Murder Under the Bridge, a sprawling, complex mystery with smart, sharp-tongued protagonists readers instantly fall in love with.

“It really takes me back to that area,” commented Starhawk, author of The Fifth Sacred Thing and The Spiral Dance. “You’ve captured the details and the atmosphere so well, and I love your main character. I can’t wait to find out what happens next!”

Raphael feels that the online serial offers new opportunities to create an interactive, multimedia reading experience.

“When I first moved to the San Francisco area, Armistead Maupin’s ‘Tales of the City’ was running as a daily newspaper column,” Raphael said. “I remember how I would look forward to it every day. All of George Eliot’s novels were originally serialized. So was a lot of Dashiell Hammett’s detective fiction. The serial really lends itself to the mystery genre. You try to end each installment on a cliff-hanger of some kind.”

Raphael posts one chapter of Murder Under the Bridge every several days on a blog. The text is augmented with photos and maps of the area where the novel is set, links for further reading, and there will soon be videos available on the site as well.

Kate Raphael makes her home in Oakland, California, where she is active with LAGAI-Queer Insurrection and Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!). She is a member of the editorial collective of UltraViolet (http://www.lagai.org/ultraviolet.htm) and a producer on KPFA/Pacifica Radio Womens’ Magazine. In 2004, she was chosen as community grand marshal of the San Francisco LGBT Freedom Day Parade.

Read Murder Under the Bridge online at http://www.murderunderthebridge.com. To arrange an interview or reading, contact Kate Raphael at katrap [at] mindspring.com.