The Crate: A Story Of War, A Murder, And Justice by Deborah Vadas Levison

Wild Blue Press, 2018

ISBN-13:978-1947290693

Available:  Paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook, audio CD

Two survivors of the Holocaust. A vicious murder.  A family navigating the ordeals depicted with brutal detail, and yet, with heart.

There are true crime stories and then there are books that delve so much deeper that they embed themselves under the skin and burrow into the psyche. The Crate is the latter: there are terrors between the covers.

Levison may be new to the writing world, but she has been at it for years as a journalist, which shows in prose that’s cut clean and yet conversational in tone.

The story concerns events in her own life. Her parents, Holocaust survivors who have built up successful, happy lives, purchased a house on a lake in Canada; a beautiful, serene getaway from the craziness of the big city. Debbie and her brother enjoy their years at the house, despite anti-semitic acts by their schoolmates. Once grown, the siblings bring their own children, allowing them to enjoy their escape without suffering the pain former generations have endured.

Their idyll doesn’t last. One day Debbie receives a call from her brother, who tells her that a body has been found underneath the house, hidden in a wooden crate. Immediately, their sanctuary is shattered. Police and media descend on the lake town and family, thrusting everything and everyone into chaos, and suspicion.

What ensues tests the resolve and mettle of the Vadas clan, as the investigation whirls and dives deep into the lives of those close to them. Levison transports the reader back to Nazi-era Hungary, where her parents relive the darkest parts of their lives. In doing so, she fortifies their characters and gives heft to a true crime story that could have been another run-of-the-mill documentary. The emotions Levison brings to the table scaffold the stories, both past and present, ratcheting the fear up to new levels, in both timelines, as the family struggles to cope with the new reality the crate has thrust upon them.

The payoff here isn’t who killed the victim and left the crate– it’s the entire package, constructed slowly but with precision that will leave most readers changed. Highly recommended for readers of true crime and Holocaust-related stories.

Reviewed by David Simms