Barbara Nadel
The East Ham Golem
A Hakim and Arnold mystery
From the author of the Inspector Ikmen series, inspiration for the BBC’s The Turkish Detective
The streets of East London are alive with different languages, cultures and religions. Private investigators Lee Arnold and Mumtaz Hakim are well-versed in the community’s tensions, the sad day-to-day reality that includes the desecration of graves at Plashet Jewish cemetery in East Ham. The vandalism of these final resting places leads to a disturbing discovery: one of the damaged coffins does not contain human remains but instead a sculpture of a man made of clay.
This so-called ‘golem’, a term from Jewish myth given to a figure brought to life by supernatural means, proves intriguing to Arnold and Hakim, even more so when it is stolen from a police storage facility in an armed raid. The case leads the pair deep into London’s past and its connections to wartime Prague, and on to the trail of a priceless jewel worth killing for.
