The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon

This book is set in an alternative history, where the state of Israel fell in 1948, and Jewish people were offered a temporary homeland in Alaska (which is about to revert back to the United States at the time the novel occurs). Meyer Landsman, a policeman who's made a mess of his personal life, gets involved in a case in which a man is murdered in the fleabag hotel he calls home. As he continues to investigate the murder, despite pressure to stop from higher-ups, he finds the plot's tied into far more than just one murder--and has political and religious consequences that will affect everything he knows. This book was a great story--and the pace really picked up after the first few chapters. A great read.