Hakim and Arnold Books In Order

Publication Order of Hakim and Arnold Books

Hakim & Arnold Series
Hakim & Arnold is a literary series by London-born English novelist Barbara Nadel. An Essex resident, her childhood career dream was Egyptology. Barbara is a psychology graduate, and once worked as a psychiatrist; her writing pastime become her occupation, especially for monetary gain after her husband’s termination of employment.

Barbara’s literary influences include English authors Gilda O’Neill, Agatha Christie, Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens, and Edward Lear. Barbara has been publishing since June 1999, when her debut Belshazzar’s Daughter was released. She particularly writes detective stories and historical fiction with London and Turkish settings.

Books in the Hakim & Arnold Series
Barbara’s notable Inspector Ikmen series, which comprises of 20+ instalments that include Belshazzar’s Daughter, is the highest-rated; followed by her Hakim & Arnold series whose first book, titled A Private Business, is originally dated July 5, 2012.

A Private Business’ protagonists: Lee Arnold who is an irreligious Londoner, former military man, former policeman, divorcee, and private detective who owns the Arnold Detective Agency; and his co-investigator Mumtaz Hakim Baharat, a female Muslim of Bengali origin who may marry Aziz Choudery through a marriage of convenience. An indebted psychologist and step-mother of a teenage girl named Shazia, Mumtaz is widowed following her husband Ahmed’s murder. Both detectives have had dysfunctional families.

The fictitious A Private Business is set during the real-life London 2012 Summer Olympics among anxious community. A religious washed up female comedian named Maria Peters—like her dead friend Betty, Maria is a drug abuser too—wants Lee and Mumtaz to investigate a suspected stalker who may have a connection to the suicidal Maria’s beloved but unethical pastor Paul Grint. Mandated to secure the Olympics, investigator Violet Collins reconnects with Lee and befriends Mumtaz.

Dated July 4, 2013; set in Upton Park, Newham, An Act of Kindness is the second book in the Hakim & Arnold series. The newly introduced major characters include housewife Nasreen and her lawyer husband Abdullah Khan. Abdullah is an untrustworthy, brutal, secretive and short-tempered law graduate of the University of Manchester. Nasreen befriends and feeds a traumatized, homeless former soldier named John Sawyer whose unexpected murder prompts her to direct Lee and Mumtaz to investigate Abdullah’s mysterious background that relates to the thematic organized crime.

Dated September 4, 2014; Poisoned Ground is the third book in the Hakim & Arnold series. In Poisoned Ground, Mumtaz is dealing with Salwa el Shamy, her unseemly Egyptian client; Salwa believes that her husband, an alleged terrorist who is currently serving his sentence at HM Prison Belmarsh, was wrongly convicted. Thus, the aim of Mumtaz’s investigation is to exonerate the husband; Mumtaz’s hopes to find proof that may incriminate his accuser Dr. el Masri at the latter’s workplace, the Ilford Psychiatric Hospital.

The fourth book in the Hakim & Arnold series is called Enough Rope, which was first released on August 6, 2015. In Enough Rope, Lee and Mumtaz are investigating a kidnap for ransom case; where the target is Harry whose mother is called Tina and father is a senior policeman named Paul Venus. Harry’s parents decide to pay the first ransom, resulting in a series of ransom demands that prompt Paul to borrow money from a criminal. Using Mumtaz’s Muslim associates and getting inside information from detective sergeant Violet Collins; the duo’s investigation reveals office abuse, power play, organized crime involving an influential Bangladeshi household, and the blowback from economic inequality.

The fifth book in the Hakim & Arnold series is titled Bright Shiny Things, which was first released on April 20, 2017. In Bright Shiny Things, Lee lets Mumtaz use her Muslim heritage to help his one-time military colleague, a former Iraq War-era army translator named Abbas al’Barri. Abbas wants the duo’s intervention so as to communicate with Fayyaad, his brainwashed and extremist son. Fayyaad has seemingly since joined ISIS—the Middle Eastern violent extremist organization—but a recent puzzling message to his father hints otherwise. Thus, Abbas anxious to know about his son’s possible defection.
The sixth book in the Hakim & Arnold series is titled Displaced, which was first released on July 19, 2018. In Displaced, Lee and Mumtaz are investigating on behalf of a sickly man called Irving Levy. Incidentally, Irving is on his deathbed—he has leukemia—but the wealthy man lacks a next of kin who could be willed his extensive estate. Irving’s quest for a kin gets a major boost after reports of her long-lost baby sister, called Miriam, in a cold case dating back to 1963. Thus, Lee and Mumtaz are not only investigating Miriam’s disappearance from an amusement park, but also the identity of Irving’s mother.

The seventh book in the Hakim & Arnold series is titled A Time to Die, which was first released on July 23, 2020. The 500-meter-long Woolwich Foot Tunnel—an underwater tunnel on River Thames—inspired A Time to Die. It is about the then boy named John Saunders and his sister, the then girl named Brenda. Apparently, John used the foot tunnel in 1976 while visiting Brenda. However, it is not until after 42 years—fast forward to 2018—that John exits the tunnel. His sister is unconvinced, especially how John substituted his British accent for an American. Now, Brenda wants Lee and Mumtaz to authenticate it.

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Kathy Reichs is the author of the Speaking in Bones (July 2015), which is the 18th book in the Temperance Brennan series. Detective Temperance Brennan is investigating allegations of cult-related killings.

Richard Montanari is the author of the Shutter Man (February 2916), which is the ninth book in the Jessica Balzano & Kevin Byrne series. Hereby, investigator Kevin Byrne teams up with state attorney-cum-detective Jessica Balzano to investigate a mafia-affiliated serial killer named Billy who has face blindness.