Mystery Time An American microbiologist dies on stage as he is about to lecture at a scientific congress in Prague, an apparent victim of local criminals. Professor Hildegard Kraus from Heidelberg and her Hungarian born colleague Alex Kertesz from Jerusalem, who hear his last words, are left wondering whether one the the assembled scientists might be the real killer. Whoever it was has also taken Hildegard's watch, a treasured family keepsake with an intriguing history. Booklist said about The Wish to Kill, the first Alex Kertesz mystery, "First novelist Hannah has hit upon an engaging premise;a mystery series starring a research scientist working at the University of Jerusalem. She has the makings of a good series: a sympathetic hero and an intriguing, nicely evoked setting." Murder with a French Accent, the second book in the series, takes Alex to a biotech company in Toulouse which runs into trouble trying to produce a genetically engineered strain of bacteria that he created. In Mystery Time, book number three, Alex and Hildegard are faced with two mysteries. One involves the death of their colleague and the other is the mystery surrounding the old watch and its special relationship to time.

Hungarian born microbiologist Alex Kertesz has developed a commercially valuable strain of bacteria in his laboratory at the University of Jerusalem. When a small French company acquires the rights to the organism a working visit by Alex is part of the deal. In fact the two owners of the company insisted that they needed his expertise to determine the optimum conditions for growing the genetically engineered organism, so it's surprising that when he arrives they're barely civil. Before Alex and lab technician Janine have even begun their project an apparent act of sabotage nearly destroys the whole concern. The problems at Agrogenie obviously are more serious than an epidemic of bad manners, and much more dangerous, especially for Alex. With an international cast of characters and a background ranging from the laboratory on the outskirts of Toulouse to picturesque Carcassonne and a trackless mountainside in the Pyrenees, Alex's problem solving skills are tested in a world far removed from the laboratory.