Kabbalah — David Scott Milton

Three men who grew up together in a tough Pittsburgh neighborhood-a football hero destroyed by drugs and spurious promise, a rabbi who doubts his abilities and calling, a bitter policeman eaten up by fear and envy-are linked again by a seemingly senseless killing. The ancient Jewish mystical tract known as the Kabbalah plays an important-and completely unforced-part in Milton's tense story, which ends up in a beautifully realized series of chilling scenes in Venice, California.-The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner