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 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.
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