Proving the Angels Wrong

March 23, 2026 in Library Corner

By Robin Jacobson

Saul Golubcow’s Were the Angels Wrong? is both a marvelous whodunit and a moving meditation on the lingering aftermath of the Holocaust. This is the third book in Golubcow’s mystery series set in the New York City Jewish communities of the 1970s.

Frank Wolf and Family

One of the pleasures of the series is spending time with private detective Frank Wolf and his close-knit, observant Jewish family. Frank is an erudite, deeply ethical, Old-World gentleman, steeped in both Jewish and secular learning. Never without a suit jacket, even on the hottest summer day, he investigates baffling crimes, ably assisted by his grandson, Joel Gordon.

At the start of the series, Joel was a law student who could sometimes be impatient with his Zaida’s (grandfather’s) meticulous crime-solving methodology. By the third book, Joel is more mature. Now a lawyer working for a prestigious New York law firm, he is married to Aliya, a clinical psychologist, who contributes valuable insights into the cases. Joel’s grandfather and mother adore Aliya, often praising the wisdom of Joel’s “kallah” (bride).

Over Shabbat dinners of brisket and kugel, the family talks and laughs; they are forward-looking and optimistic notwithstanding the immense suffering they have endured. Before World War II, Frank was a professor of philosophy in Vienna. He and his daughter Molly (Joel’s mother) survived the Holocaust by hiding in a cellar for six years.

After the war, Frank and Molly emigrated to the United States and began a new life in Brooklyn. Molly earned a college degree, married, and began managing a successful jewelry store. Tragically, Molly’s husband died of cancer when Joel was a young teenager. Together, she and Frank guided Joel towards adulthood.

The Long Shadow of the Holocaust

Were the Angels Wrong? involves the murder of a Holocaust survivor. The suspected perpetrator is another Holocaust survivor, Martin Ross, who claims he is innocent. Martin is Molly’s beau, so Frank and Joel have a personal stake in the case as they team up to investigate the crime.

Suspecting that the roots of the crime lie in the war years, Frank and Joel delve into the histories of all parties implicated in the case. In the process, they stir up the ever-raw, morally complex issue of Jewish kapos. These were Jewish concentration camp prisoners assigned to positions of limited authority within the camps, such as supervisors of prisoner work details. Some kapos cruelly abused their fellow prisoners while others used their privileged position to help them.

Joel has never inquired too deeply into his mother and grandfather’s Holocaust experience, afraid to upset them or himself. He marvels at their seeming ability to have put their dark war years behind them. But in Angels, Frank acknowledges to Joel that “some darkness exists in all who survived the War – in our minds, in our hearts, in our bones.”

Nonetheless, Frank says, he struggles against the darkness within himself and in the larger world. He draws strength and purpose from Psalms 115:16: “The heavens belong to God – but God gave the Earth to mankind.” Recalling a midrash that describes the angels as outraged by God’s decision to entrust the precious Earth to flawed humans, Frank admits that the violence of human history could be seen to confirm the angels’ prediction that humans would be poor stewards. Yet, he insists, “As tired as we may be, as beaten down as we may be, it is our duty to strive every day to prove the angels wrong.” What an inspiring detective hero! Readers will look forward to more Frank Wolf adventures.