A suspenseful, historical murder mystery, The Masqueraders follows a cast of flawed and unapologetic women as they forge a place for themselves in a deeply divided world.

THE MASQUERADERS
by Betty Shamieh
Avid Reader Press, Spring 2028
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

When we meet Leila, her husband Meir has just flown her from their small Palestinian village to France to tell her he is not who she believes him to be. He is a spy—and has been from the moment they met.

Decades later, their Americanborn daughter, Eve, stands over her father’s body, murdered by stabbing. She is meant to fulfill the role of grieving daughter, but instead her training as a forensic pathologist has her thinking about cause of death, suspects, and motives. Eve knows about her father’s past, and her first suspect might have been her mother had she not been long dead.

Across an ocean, Raphaella, one of the Israeli agents who recruited Meir, has also just learned of Meir’s death and has her own questions: is someone hunting her former operatives?

Inspired by the true stories of Israeli spies who married Palestinian women and fathered children while undercover in the 1950s, The Masqueraders asks: what are the limits of love? What betrayals can be forgiven? How far is too far?

Betty Shamieh is the author of the novel Too Soon and fifteen plays. She is the playwrightin-residence at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Her six New York play premieres include the sold-out off-Broadway runs of Roar and Malvolio, a sequel to Twelfth Night, which were both New York Times Critic’s Picks. Shamieh was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and named a UNESCO Young Artist for Intercultural Dialogue. She is a founding artistic director of The Semitic Root, a collective that supports innovative theatre cocreated by Arab and Jewish Americans. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, she lives with her family in San Francisco.