''The Righteous Men'' is a novel written by

Sam Bourne Jonathan Saul Freedland (born 25 February 1967) is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for ''The Guardian'' and presents the BBC Radio 4 contemporary history series ''The Long View''. He previously wrote for ''The Jewish Chronicle' ...

, a pseudonym of English journalist

Jonathan Freedland Jonathan Saul Freedland (born 25 February 1967) is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for ''The Guardian'' and presents the BBC Radio 4 contemporary history series ''The Long View''. He previously wrote for ''The Jewish Chronicle' ...

. The story is about a half-British news reporter, Will Monroe (Jr), Jewish Occult Mysticism,

Kabbalah Kabbalah or Qabalah ( ; , ; ) is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. It forms the foundation of Mysticism, mystical religious interpretations within Judaism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ...

Hasidic Judaism Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a Spirituality, spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most ...

, and the nefarious Christian sect known as ''Church of the Reborn Jesus''.

Plot summary

Will Monroe's normal life is disrupted when his wife is kidnapped while he is reporting on a story of a

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

man found dead in his isolated

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

. Further investigation into the death brings Monroe to the conclusion that the dead militia man shared an attribute with a New York City

pimp Procuring, pimping, or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute or other sex worker in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. A procurer, colloquially called a pimp (if male) or a madam (if female, though the term "pimp" ...

, also recently murdered. They were both described as being 'righteous'. As more murders of 'righteous men' happen across the globe, time seems to be running out for Will and the old and current friends he has enlisted. With a series of clues from a mysterious source, absurd twists and religious factors Will soon finds himself in the middle of a plot to bring about nothing less than

Judgement Day The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the ''Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus, Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God in Abrahamic religions, God of a ...

. The book focuses on the fact that several people have been murdered in what can only be described as a humane way. What these victims have in common is that they have been described by folk who knew them as "righteous" (hence the title) although they led some mundane or unethical existence (i.e. pimps,

drug baron A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or lord of drugs is a type of crime boss in charge of a drug trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Crime barons may be difficult to bring to justice: usually, they do not possess illegal goods. Ra ...

s or even

call centre A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center ( American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone ...

employees). Nothing seems to fit to connect the murders together. A rookie

NY Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

reporter is sent on a murder case (the pimp) and is then sent off to do a story in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

where he finds another victim here whilst trying to report on freak weather conditions. While he's away, his wife gets kidnapped by what turns out to be the

Hassidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

community in

Crown Heights Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard to the so ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. What these "Righteous Men" turn out to be are based on

Jewish folklore Jewish folklore are legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales, stories, tall tales, and customs that are the traditions of Judaism. Folktales are characterized by the presence of unusual personages, by the sudde ...

: that the world rests on 36 men who perform righteous acts to others. They themselves may not know that they are one of 36 and will always lead a life so far removed from what they are about. But without these men – the world will not be spared by God. So while the killing of the real 36 continues, the world (according to this story) is in grave danger. The killings seem to be done in the name of God; but as it is a Jewish story, why would they want this to happen? It turns out that the killings are being done by a faction of the Christian Church (The Church of the Reborn Jesus) who hold the notion that the Jews have forfeited their role as the chosen people (

replacement theology Supersessionism, also called replacement theology by its detractors and fulfillment theology by its proponents, is the Christian theology, Christian doctrine that the Christian Church has superseded the Israelites, Jewish people, assuming Jews a ...

) and by killing the 36 should bring about the

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

(something the Jews do not believe).

Reception

It was described as "The biggest challenger to

Dan Brown Daniel Gerhard Brown (born June 22, 1964) is an American author best known for his Thriller (genre), thriller novels, including the Robert Langdon (book series), Robert Langdon novels ''Angels & Demons'' (2000), ''The Da Vinci Code'' (2003), '' ...

's (author of

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...

) crown" by the British newspaper '' The Mirror''. The book made a brief appearance in the gossip columns when a damning review by

Michael Dibdin Michael Dibdin (21 March 1947 – 30 March 2007) was a British crime fiction writer, best known for inventing Aurelio Zen, the principal character in 11 crime novels set in Italy. Early life Dibdin was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire (now ...

, originally written for ''The Guardian'', appeared instead in ''The Times''. ''The Guardian's'' readers' editor discovered that when Dibdin originally submitted his review to ''The Guardian,'' he offered to withdraw it if it were deemed too awkward – an offer the editor,

Alan Rusbridger Alan Charles Rusbridger (born 29 December 1953) is a British journalist and editor of ''Prospect (magazine), Prospect'' magazine. He was formerly editor-in-chief of ''The Guardian'' and then principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Rusbridger ...

, accepted. ''The Righteous Men'' was picked as a Richard and Judy Summer Read in June 2006 and soon rose to the top of ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' bestsellers' list. It stayed on the list for several months and has now sold more than half a million copies in the UK; it has been translated into 30 languages.

References

External links

''Jewish Quarterly'' review
* on Unreality Shout {{DEFAULTSORT:Righteous Men, The 2006 British novels British thriller novels Works published under a pseudonym Novels about journalists HarperCollins books Jewish novels

Plot summary

Reception

See also

References

External links