The Keller­man father and son Jonathan and Jesse have teamed up to write this nov­el of com­pelling sus­pense about reli­gious mys­ti­cism and vin­di­ca­tion. The duo bring a unique and grip­ping twist to a har­row­ing police story.

Jacob Lev is not your ordi­nary LAPD detec­tive. He is an unhinged, alco­holic, rabbi’s son who has recent­ly been uncer­e­mo­ni­ous­ly demot­ed to the Traf­fic Divi­sion. He is called in on a high­ly secre­tive case being over­seen by a clan­des­tine Spe­cial Projects team. A sev­ered head has been found in a house in the Hol­ly­wood Hills. The word ​“Tzadek” (jus­tice) has been engraved into the kitchen coun­ter­top. What does it all mean and what is the sig­nif­i­cance of the Hebrew word?

The action fol­lows Jacob through Hol­ly­wood, Lon­don, and Prague as he tracks down the clues. His many short­com­ings and con­fu­sions are con­stant­ly exposed in his work and actions. The case pro­vides Jacob with a path to trav­el through fam­i­ly secrets and find himself.

Detailed grit­ty police work, crime scene vio­lence, super­nat­ur­al mys­ter­ies, strange bugs, dis­ap­pear­ing women, and unre­solved issues and events are all expert­ly laid out. Inter­spersed through­out the riv­et­ing detec­tive por­tion of the book are bib­li­cal and myth­i­cal chap­ters eas­i­ly iden­ti­fied by their grey-col­ored pages. These chap­ters chron­i­cle the spir­i­tu­al and oth­er­world­ly jour­ney of Adam and Eve’s daugh­ter, Asham, from out­side the Gar­den of Eden to the present day. There are threads and con­nec­tions between his­to­ry, the super­nat­ur­al, and folk­lore that come full cir­cle to Jacob Lev’s life. The ques­tions of what is jus­tice, what is ret­ri­bu­tion, and what is a right­eous life are explored.

The leg­end and his­to­ry of the Golem of Prague, con­jured up by Rab­bi Judah Loew in the six­teenth cen­tu­ry to help and pro­tect Jews in time of need, is intro­duced. How and why it was giv­en life and formed with clay and the role it played in Jew­ish folk­lore is a major ele­ment of the book. How does the Old World Golem get to Hol­ly­wood and why will no trace of this police case ever surface?

This is a dif­fer­ent kind of book that enjoins the read­er to expe­ri­ence and inter­act with the sto­ry. Some may feel some frus­tra­tion or a dis­con­nect between the mod­ern and bib­li­cal sto­ries, or ques­tion the end­ing. The authors bril­liant­ly craft this orig­i­nal and sus­pense­ful nov­el, filled with psy­cho­log­i­cal insights and over­tones, reli­gious obser­va­tions, and char­ac­ter analysis.

Relat­ed content:

• Faye Keller­man read­ing list
• Orga­nized Crime read­ing list
• Mys­ter­ies read­ing list