Jonathan & Jesse Kellerman

Kellerman, Jonathan & Jesse Kellerman, [Jacob Lev], (The Golem of Hollywood) [hc, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2014] 978-0399162367 [pb, Headline, 2015] 978-0755395293 [Jacob Lev is a troubled LAPD detective: brilliant but emotionally damaged, alcoholic, estranged from his colleagues, and the son of a rabbi whose faith he has long since abandoned. After a drunken blackout, he awakens beside an unknown woman with no memory of the previous night. Before he can make sense of what happened, he is drawn into an extraordinary homicide investigation.

The case begins with the discovery of a severed human head in an abandoned Hollywood Hills house. Burned into the kitchen counter is the Hebrew word “Tzedek” (“Justice”), suggesting that the killer is deliberately invoking Jewish symbolism. Lev is assigned to a secretive Special Projects unit that suspects the murders may be connected to a series of inexplicable crimes.

As the investigation unfolds, Lev follows clues from Los Angeles to London, Oxford, and ultimately Prague, where the legendary Golem of Jewish folklore was said to have been created by Rabbi Judah Loew. The contemporary police investigation is interwoven with a parallel narrative reaching back to biblical times, exploring the origins of evil, Cain and Abel, divine justice, and the creation of supernatural beings. These two storylines gradually converge.

Rather than offering a conventional police procedural, the novel becomes a fusion of detective fiction, supernatural thriller, Jewish mystical fantasy, biblical reimagining, and philosophical meditation on justice, vengeance, free will, and redemption. Jacob gradually discovers that his own obscure family history is intimately connected to the mystery, forcing him to confront both his Jewish heritage and the possibility that ancient legends may be terrifyingly real. – ChatGPT ]

Kellerman, Jonathan & Jesse Kellerman, (The Golem of Paris) [hc, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015] 978-0399171734 [pb, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016] 978-0515156089 [More than a year after the traumatic events of The Golem of Hollywood, LAPD Detective Jacob Lev remains emotionally shattered. He has resumed drinking, is estranged from his father, and is haunted by memories of Mai, the enigmatic woman who may be far more than human. His rediscovered mother, long believed dead, remains institutionalized and unable to explain the secrets of her past. Meanwhile, the LAPD’s mysterious Special Projects Division continues to monitor him for reasons he does not fully understand.

Assigned to a dead-end archival post, Jacob becomes fascinated by an unsolved 2004 murder in Los Angeles: a woman and her young son were executed with chilling ritual precision. The case appears impossible to solve until Jacob uncovers striking similarities to an unsolved homicide in France. His investigation takes him to Paris, where another recent murder suggests that the killer—or someone imitating the killer—has resurfaced.

Working across France, the Czech Republic, Israel, Brooklyn, and California, Jacob gradually uncovers links between: his mother’s hidden life in Communist Eastern Europe, Soviet-era intelligence and secret-police operations, wealthy Russian oligarchs with violent pasts, an international conspiracy spanning decades, and the ancient legend of the golem, whose mysterious influence continues to shadow modern events.

As in the first novel, the investigation unfolds on two levels. One is a conventional detective story involving cold cases, forensic clues, and international police cooperation. The other explores Jewish mystical traditions, supernatural beings, and ancient struggles between forces of justice and destruction, leaving the reader uncertain where reality ends and myth begins. Note: The Kellermans did not continue this series because it did not sell well enough, according to statements made by Alex in 2025. – ChatGPT]