The Golem of Hollywood (A Detective Jacob Lev Novel)

Jacob Lev gets reassigned to Special Projects for an unusual homicide which winds up taking him to multiple countries. What will be revealed?

While the writing is evocative and appropriately descriptive, the double story detracts from the pacing and focus. For the historical fictionalized Bible era

Show More

people and stories, it may prove more palatable to a greater number of readers to use less well known characters and not cram so much into such a short time frame. The connection between the stories is not wholly made until the very end of the book. The end of the tale is rather lackluster. It ends without a resolution. There is a beginning of a resolution, a promise of a resolution, but no resolution.

Ultimately, the homicide gets lost in the back story.

Overall, a frustrating read.

Show Less

Detective Jacob Lev, recently reassigned from Robbery-Homicide to Valley Traffic, suddenly finds himself transferred to Special Projects to investigate a murder. But there’s no body, just a severed head, and, to add to the puzzle, the Hebrew word for “justice” burned into the kitchen counter.

Show More

Jacob’s investigation reveals that the killer may have been responsible for other unsolved murders. As he seeks to identify the culprit, Jacob travels to several cities where the serial killer may have struck; ultimately his search for answers takes him to London and to Prague.

A parallel Biblical story, a mysterious woman, and a mythical creature from centuries past all add to the intrigue and eventually come together to play a part in unraveling the mystery and, in the process, changing everything Jacob Lev thought he knew.

This multi-layered story weaves its spell over the reader, keeping the pages turning far into the night.

Highly recommended.

Show Less

Wow, just wow! Father and son team up to write a tale of father and son, which turns out to really be about wife and mother. If you can open your mind to the possibilities of things that cannot be explained, then this is the book for you. We have Jewish rituals, mysticism, folk tales and humor to

Show More

glue this murder mystery together. I have to mention the dialog writing. I cannot count the number of times the chuckles came rolling out of my mouth. Detective Lev's dialog is to die for. I see some folks did not understand the symbolism of introducing the Adam and Eve story. This is a complex plot with many characters and many story lines. I had to study the text just like Lev's father is studying the Talmud. History is the key to understanding. This book makes the reader work. I was really entertained over the past two evenings. I was reminded of a British farce where doors open and close with actors rushing in and out. They are not making sense on stage at all, but we, as observers, see the bigger picture. Read intensely and then step back and reflect. Many thanks to the authors and the Penguin First To Read program for a complimentary copy of this treat.

Show Less

Full of plot twists that you'll never see coming The Golem of Hollywood is one of the best thriller's you'll read this year! When Jacob Lev is mysteriously transferred back to homicide to investigate a murder he discovers more than he bargained for. He only has a decapitated head to work with and

Show More

when its surprising identity is discovered it leaves him on a chase across the world. Not only must he discover the gruesome past of the victim but he stumbles upon a family secret as well.
The Golem of Hollywood is an engrossing thrill-ride that won't let go. You will enjoy this book!

Show Less

What is this book? Is it a Mystery? Fantasy? Horror? Gothic? Family drama? What? Normally, I don't have a problem with books that cross genres, but I'd like to think the author(s) know. Trouble is, I think the Kellermans do know what they're writing, but they forgot to include some of it. Stephen

Show More

King's blurb sums it up, "it sort of took my breath away." Mine too. When I got to the last line I was flummoxed.

Show Less

Mix a modern and complicated whodunit with the Jewish legend of the Prague Golem, add a recreation of the Adam and Eve and Tower of Babel stories and fold in a depressed, alcoholic Jewish cop coerced into a investigating and you get.... a zippy, snarky, smart and fun read.

More Jacob Lev adventures

Show More

to come?

Show Less

Main character Jacob Lev is mysteriously assigned to a police unit called Special Projects that seems just as mysterious as the details of Jacob's assignment.

I absolutely enjoyed the masterful writing in this book, but the double story was too much of a distraction. The switch between story lines

Show More

breaks the focus of the reader and becomes an interesting frustration. However, each story on its own is interesting.

While a good read, I found the conclusion of the book lacking in closure. I felt a little disappointed that I had spent so much time on the book.

Show Less

Fantasy or Mystery - one or the other. Two talented writers wasted their time and mine on this one. But from previous reviews, it seems I'm in the minority.

Two things in my opinion distract from this grisly novel that could have been titled The Mystery of the Decapitated Heads. First, it is well over 500 pages and I really didn't think the plot warranted that kind of verbiage. Secondly, there are a series of historical side stories between some of the

Show More

chapters that distract rather than add to the flow of the story. I suppose that they were put there to give some kind of understanding about the tradition of the Golem in Jewish History but I just scratched my head after reading about a dozen of these. Only for the most rabid Kellerman fans.

Show Less

This story starts with detective Jacob Lev, a 32 year old who is an alcoholic. He is transferred to the Traffic Department to then be mysteriously moved to "Special Projects" because of his Jewish background. He is tasked with solving a bizarre murder. Between Jacob's story, we get a biblical story

Show More

about Cain and Abel.

This is a very strange story and hard to understand. It jumps between stories and it also jumps between time periods. I never got into it and struggled to finish it. I wanted to read it because I love Jonathan Kellerman, but I think I will skip Jesse next time...

Show Less

LAPD detective Jacob Lev, former Orthodox Jew and son of a rabbi, an alcoholic and a chronic relationship ruiner, has been demoted to traffic detail, so it’s a surprise when he’s suddenly assigned to a murder case- based on the fact that he is Jewish, and the Hebrew word for ‘justice’ was

Show More

found burned into the granite countertop at the crime scene. It’s a hard crime to figure out; the ‘body’ is only a severed head found in an abandoned Hollywood house. He’s suddenly working for a division of the LAPD called ‘Special Projects’, which no one has ever heard of before. He’s working out of his apartment, with a computer that seems to have some kind of censoring software on it, and has been given a credit card with an amazingly high limit on it- that doesn’t work at the convenience store but will buy plane tickets.

Meanwhile, in the other story line, Cain and Abel are having problems: arguing over who gets to marry their sister Asham. She cannot make up her mind; her other two sisters are already married to the brothers but she remains single. After Cain kills Abel and flees with his wife, Ashem goes on a quest to find him. What happens to her eventually has everything to do with Lev’s murder case, in a roundabout way.

Everyone is keeping secrets from Lev, even his father. It’s an incredibly tangled tale, but it all sorts out in the end- well, mostly. It’s a combination police procedural, mythology, and fantasy, with some elements of horror thrown in for good measure. At first Lev seems like a pretty unlikable protagonist, but he grows on you, if only because pretty much everyone can identify with his frustration. I really enjoyed the book, and couldn’t wait to see what on earth would happen next.

Show Less

Don’t expect the traditional who dunnit police detective murder mystery Alex Delaware style story in “The Golem of Hollywood.” The distinguished father and son authors Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman, have written an extremely unusual novel. It combines the traditional Judaic traditions that

Show More

Faye Kellerman, mother of Jesse and wife of Jonathan, has incorporated in her novels, with the Alex Delaware style police procedural murder mystery, and a totally new supernatural mystical element. The Kellermans plan a two-book “Golem” series. “The Golem of Paris” will follow “The Golem of Hollywood,” a year later.

The story evolves through protagonist Jacob Lev, a burned out, alcoholic homicide detective assigned to the Hollywood division, Sam Lev, Jacob’s father and a rabbi, and Mai, an incredibly beautiful mystical young woman. You realize that this isn’t the ordinary novel when a strange section entitled “The Offering” comes between chapters seven and eight. The sixteen pages in this section are printed strangely, on grey-blotched paper. Next you notice that the entire 550-page book has similar sections interspersed among the normal chapters about Detective Jacob Lev’s pursuit of an eerie killer of killers.

The inserted sections are really a stand-alone story based on Jewish folklore: The Golem of Prague. Gradually, the mystical tale is interwoven with the real-time investigation by Detective Lev, resulting in an epic climax.

Both Kellermans are talented, skilled, award-winning writers. Jonathan is known for his Alex Delaware mystery series and has won the Edgar and Anthony awards. His son, Jesse, is a novelist and playwright. His play, “Things Beyond Our Control,” won a Princess Grace award. “The Golem of Hollywood,” reflects their proven ability as authors.

If you approach “The Golem of Hollywood” with an open mind and patiently absorb the concurrent tales, it should provide an interesting, enjoyable reading experience.

Show Less

The idea of the novel is interesting - combine a serial murder spree with a story about one of Cain and Abel's sisters. And if you look at the two stories separately, they actually work (to some extent anyway - the connection points are weakening both stories enough to stop me from saying that the

Show More

book contains two really good story.

At biblical times, we start following the sister - through times I had read about before and times I had not. In our time, detective Jacob Lev is pulled into a special branch of the police seemingly only because he is Jewish. It takes a while for the real motives to be revealed and it takes a set of serial murders, a trip to Prague and UK and the Golem of Prague to get us there but we do get the answers.

The mix of the genres is not a problem. What really bugged me was that in more than one case it was used as an easy way out of a situation - for example when Jacob was forced to dig his own grave, it was supernatural being that came to save him (with the police coming almost immediately after that). Even if that is a viable way to resolve the issue, it was happening way too often in the novel.

I will probably pick up the next book in the series - despite the lazy writing, there were enough good parts to make me care about the characters. Even when they were behaving as if they had been hit repeatedly on their heads before making a decision...

Show Less

The book fails miserably at at trying to combine mystery, thriller, fairy tail, and religious plot. A total waste of time.

Outside the quirky writing style that fell flat of its intent, this novel had potential and grew interesting only to let me down by the end with its lack of sense, closure with relevance to the story and as I call it: A-ha factor. I'm a definite fan of Mr. Kellerman, just not of his son's

Show More

injection. I'm always remiss, giving less than 3 stars, writing is fretful hard work, but I'd be doing a disservice giving anything more.

Show Less

Disappointing. I expect better from Kellerman. After reading a book, I usually pass it along to a friend. Not this time. This book, will be going into the recyclable trash and hopefully return as something of value.

I'd won this book as an ER book, but never received it from the publisher. So when I saw it in the library I went ahead and picked it up. I read 160 of the books 550 pages before I moved on to something more interesting. This book just never seemed to be going anywhere. In this time we had no

Show More

clues, no leads, and lots of characters with more than enough flaws. I just couldn't get into it and I found the inserted biblical time story just detracted even more from a story that just wasn't going anywhere. I've been a long time fan of Jonathan Kellerman but this one written with his son just didn't do a thing for me.

Show Less

I really enjoyed this book. I like the way Kellerman merged the concept of the golem with his take on the Garden of Eden story. The combination of these elements with a murder investigation was very smoothly done and the result is a lovely book. If this one stays in print long enough to become a

Show More

classic I could imagine it being reprinted with one of those pretty covers they give to modern editions of great classic novels. Such a cover would be more fitting than the one chosen for this edition.

(I received my copy of this book free in exchange for a fair review.)

Show Less

I'm a big fan of Jonathan Kellerman, and this was an interesting departure from the norm. It felt like a blend of myth, suspense, crime, and horror, all pulled together into a story that was more steeped in religion and layers than I'd expected from it. All told, there were moments where I was

Show More

frustrated with the structure and felt some lagging in where the focus was spent, but I did really enjoy it. I think I might have enjoyed it more if I'd had fewer preconceived expectations based on prior experience with Kellerman's work, but I'm glad to have read it and I look forward to the next book in the series.

Recommended.

Show Less

I would so have appreciated this story more if I had more of a background in Jewish mysticism. Detective and alcoholic Jacob Lev is put on a case of finding out who left a head (no body) and the Jewish symbol for justice on the counter. The tale entwines the biblical stories of Cain and Abel, the

Show More

golem of Prague and other Rabbi Loew with modern times. I like Kellerman's prose, but lack of knowledge limited my understanding of the story's ending.

Show Less

Something new from Jonathan Kellerman. Still a fast paced mystery/thriller, but a new protagonist, the hapless Jacob Lev, who is drawn into events as mystical as they are puzzling when a modern day serial killer confronts an ancient and mysterious legend.

Love the intricate weaving of the story as

Show More

it shifts in time and character. Difficult to put down, and a fascinating new read.

Advanced reader copy provided by edelweiss.

Show Less

The Golem of Hollywood is an interesting book. It is not only a suspenseful serial murderer case but it is also Talmudic with the story of the creation of the golem and how it protects the main character. The story is very Jewish. One could call this a Jewish thriller story that should definitely

Show More

be read or listened to before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. It is very intriguing how the Kellermans were able to intertwine the ancient Jewish Talmudic story with present day. The book received five stars in this review.

Show Less