By Steve Steinbock
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Wishnia’s new standalone novel follows two strong female heroes separated by thousands of years, trying to solve crimes while seen as outsiders by those around them. In contemporary New York, Felicity Ortega Pérez is hired by a private-security firm to locate a former employee who disappeared after allegedly looting artifacts, including an ancient Hebrew scroll, from Iraq. Meanwhile 2,500 years earlier, a young “foreign” woman named Ruth is traveling with the Judean exiles, determined to learn the identity of her husband’s killer as she tries to find acceptance by her adopted people. The two stories form a compelling parallel narrative. The modern sections highlight Felicity’s progressive, revolutionary worldview as she’s thrown into a world of Bible-misquoting, mercenary defense contractors, while the chapters set in the ancient Middle East portray the return of Judean exiles at a time of political conflict within the Israelite community. The historical portions of From Sun to Sun provide a radical but historically plausible retelling of the story of the biblical Book of Ruth containing well-researched, thoughtful, and honest portrayals of a world quite different from our own.