Lee Goldberg

CBR says “Eve Ronin” Series Could be the new “Bosch”

by

The CBR site, which covers pop culture television, just posted a new article arguing that Eve Ronin could be the new Bosch… and goes into more detail about my books and Madison Lintz’s casting as the lead. They say, in part:

The first novel in the Eve Ronin Series is called Lost Hills. The critically praised book even received a flattering blurb written by none other than Bosch‘s best-selling author, Michael Connelly. Of the novel, Connelly said, “Lost Hills is Lee Goldberg at his best. Inspired by the real-world grit and glitz of LA County crime, this book takes no prisoners. And neither does Eve Ronin. Take a ride with her, and you’ll find yourself with a heroine for the ages. And you’ll be left hoping for more.”

Ronin will need to prove she deserves her detective’s shield while grappling with the resentment of her colleagues. Her first case sees her investigating a missing mother and her two children.The fast-paced, dark, and gritty novel is praised for capturing the feel of California and depicting realistic police procedure. Much like Titus Welliver’s Bosch, Ronin is described as a flawed and complex character doggedly pursuing her investigation. While details are still sparse on Eve Ronin, it’s shaping up to be the perfect Bosch replacement series for fans still reeling from Legacy’s cancellation.

I hope they are right!

On the Fast Track… twelve years later

by
I’ve finally released a paperback edition of my novella Fast Track…twelve years after I released the ebook edition. Why the long wait? Because it wasn’t until recently that people started asking me for a hard-copy version. I think it may have something to do with the paperback releases of my Crown Vic novellas.
 
Fast Track is a project close to my heart. It’s a novelization of my screenplay for the 2007 film Fast Track: No Limits, which was shot in Berlin, starred Erin Cahill as Katie, Andrew Walker as Mike and Alexia Barlier as Nicole, and doubled as the pilot for a proposed television series. 
 
The movie was an international co-production that aired on television in Germany, France and Canada, and was released as a motion picture in many other countries around the world. For a while, things were looking good for the series. The production partners assembled a writers room, and the stories for the first season’s episodes were plotted. But international co-productions are a complicated business, the deal fell apart, and the TV series didn’t go forward. 
 
Erin Cahill and Andrew Walker went on to great success, especially on the Hallmark Channel, where they have each starred in many movies. Alexia Barlier became a major TV star in France, where she’s starred in several hit series, including Falco, The Forest, and Sophie Cross. And Pasquale Aleardi, who played Gregor Gargolov, most recently starred in the long-running German series Kommissar Dupin. I am pleased to say that we have all stayed in touch over the last twenty years and have remained good friends.
 
If you’d like to see the movie Fast Track: No Limits, it’s now available on Amazon Prime or on DVD from Maverick Entertainment Group.

Madison Lintz to star as EVE RONIN

by

I’ve been sitting on this news for a while now… but it’s finally out. Variety just broke the story.  Madison Lintz is attached to star and produce a TV adaptation of my “Eve Ronin” novels.  Here are more details:

Actress Madison Lintz, renowned for her ten-year run on Bosch, has officially signed on to star in and executive produce Eve Ronin, the television adaptation of #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg’s widely-acclaimed series of crime novels from Thomas & Mercer/Amazon Publishing.

This project marks a pivotal moment in Lintz’s career as she steps into the leading role on screen while also taking on a key position behind the camera. Her experience portraying police officer Maddie Bosch on the Amazon Prime TV series Bosch and Bosch: Legacy uniquely positions her for this new challenge.

“I am beyond thrilled to bring Eve Ronin to life,” Lintz says. “From the moment I picked up Lee’s books, I knew this was a character and a story I needed to be a part of.  Eve’s determination, complexity, and resilience make her a dream role, and I am honored to take on this challenge on both sides of the camera.”

Fallen StarThe Eve Ronin series follows the youngest homicide detective in the history of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Known for her tenacity and grit, Ronin tackles high-stakes cases while battling institutional resistance and her own personal demons. There have been five books in the highly-acclaimed series to date, selling over one million copies. The sixth, Fallen Star, comes out in October 2025. Hidden in Smoke, an Eve Ronin crossover with Goldberg’s bestselling “Sharpe & Walker” series, was released in April.

“Madison is the embodiment of Eve Ronin,” Goldberg says. “She brings both the raw intensity and vulnerability that define the character. Her passion for the project, coupled with her talent, ensures that the series will stay true to the heart of the books while taking Eve’s story in bold new directions.”

In addition to Lintz, the executive producing team includes industry veterans Craig Dorfman, SAG Award-winning actress Lorraine Toussaint (Orange Is the New Black, Selma, The Equalizer), as well as Derek Dudley and Shelby Stone of ID8 Multimedia, known for their critically acclaimed work on Showtime’s long-running, hit series The Chi and Goldberg (Mystery 101, Monk, Diagnosis Murder), who is presently a co-executive producer on Allie & Andi,  the new Brooke Shields mystery series for AMC/Acorn.

“Lee’s books have earned widespread critical praise and a dedicated fanbase of over two million readers,” says Shelby Stone. “Madison’s work over the years on Bosch has been extraordinary, combining heart-felt vulnerability and relentless determination. We believe that combining these two talents will make Eve Ronin a book-to-TV adaptation in the same league as Will Trent, Reacher, and Slow Horses.”

Lintz is represented by Greene & Associates and Link. Goldberg is repped by The Stein Agency and the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Crown Vic 2 is Here!

by
Crown Vic 2

I’m delighted to share with you my new novella Crown Vic 2: If I Were a Rich Man. You may be one of the hundreds of readers who already pre-ordered it… but because of an infuriating technical glitch by Amazon, you were notified that your order was cancelled and the book was not going to be released. Amazon has apologized to me for their mistake, and may be reaching out to you soon to let you know the novella is now available in ebook and trade paperback. 

But for the rest of you, here’s the story behind this new novella.  A few years ago, I released the first Crown Vic, a collection containing two short novellas, “Ray Boyd isn’t Stupid” and “Occasional Risk,” as an experiment. I wanted to see if readers would accept a character from me who isn’t the least bit heroic… an ex-con aimlessly wandering America in his used Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, going wherever his appetites lead him, thinking only of himself and nobody else. The stories were dark, funny, violent, and full of sex…very different from my other work. 

To my surprise, the response from hundreds of readers was a resounding Yes, we want more! There was even a five-star review from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, which called Crown Vic “a fun departure for Goldberg and a throwback to the thrilling and erotic men’s adventure novels of the 1970s.”  That was exactly what I was going for.

One of the readers who wanted more of Ray Boyd was my brother Tod, a New York Times bestselling author, who was gathering stories for Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir for Soho. He thought a Ray Boyd story would be perfect for it. I reminded Tod of how twisted, sexually explicit, and violent the Ray Boyd stories were, but he insisted that was exactly what he wanted for his holiday collection. 

Mostly, though, I think Tod was giving me an excuse to dip my toe into Ray Boyd’s world one more time to see if I wanted to seriously pursue writing a full-length book, or collection of novellas, about the character.

So I wrote “If I Were a Rich Man,” the longest, and certainly the most sexually explicit, story in his collection. I’m glad to say the critical response to the story was terrific, with positive reviews coming from many sources, including the Los Angeles Times. There has even been Hollywood interest in optioning the character for TV and movies, though I haven’t accepted any offers yet.

So yes, I do intend to write more about Ray Boyd, either in a book length collection of loosely-linked stories  or by occasionally writing and publishing individual novellas like this one between my other contractual commitments (like more Sharpe & Walker and  Eve Ronin novels).

If you enjoy this novella, and would like to see more of Ray Boyd, I hope you will consider posting a review on Amazon and letting me know what you thought of it.

Thanks!

Goldilocks…and the end of THE COSBY MYSTERIES

by
cosby mysteries

An episode of THE COSBY MYSTERIES that I co-wrote w/ William Rabkin & Terence Winter (who would later go on to win an Emmy on THE SOPRANOS and an Oscar nomination for THE WOLF OF WALL STREET) is up on YouTube. It’s called “Goldilocks” and I haven’t seen it in 30 years… but I will never forget it.

Cosby called two days before we wrapped the episode and asked us to add ninja assassins to the finale…”with those flying stars and everything.” We thought he was joking. He wasn’t. When we told him there was nothing remotely related to ninjas in the episodes, he said “there is now.” So we wrote the damn ninjas into the episode. But when he got the pages, he said it was obviously not our best work, and he wasn’t going to show up to shoot the finale.

So… the bad guys basically out themselves for the crime and then “Cosby” just shows up to arrest them. We used Cosby’s stunt double and footage from another episode to cobble together the incoherent ending. 

NBC took one look at the rough cut and said, you know, this is insane, let’s end our misery. We couldn’t agree more. They cancelled the show and we were paid off for the remaining four or five unproduced episodes. 

I haven’t been able to bring myself to look at this turd since then. Let me know how awful it is.

Eve Ronin returns…and Edison Bixby is coming

by
Hidden in Smoke by Lee Goldberg

I know I’ve been very quiet lately… but that’s because I have been so busy!

Edison Bixby is coming

Today I delivered my new novel, Edison Bixby, to my publisher, a couple of weeks before my deadline. The novel is about a ridiculously wealthy (and amazingly attractive) LAPD homicide detective, an expert on how the “built world” influences behavior, who suffers a career-ending injury… and now solves baffling murders with the help of a struggling actor. It’s a comedic whodunit, closer in tone to my sixteen Monk novels than the various police procedurals and the action-adventure novels I’ve been writing for the last decade or so.

It’s not that I don’t love writing those books – I do and there will be more of them – but I was itching to write my own take on the traditional whodunit, to create an extraordinarily clever detective who uses his unusual skills, and unique perspective on the world, to solve crimes that nobody else can.

I guess you could call Edison Bixby a twisted mash-up of Columbo, Monk, Burke’s Law, Nero Wolfe, and Sherlock Holmes. Whatever it is, it was blast to write. The downside, though, was that it took an enormous amount of research. My author’s note at the end of the book reads more like the  bibliography for a thesis than a thank-you and over-view of my research. But at least now I have all the information I need to keep on writing more Bixby mysteries… assuming enough of you like the book when it comes out next summer.

Hidden in Smoke is here

In the meantime, Hidden in Smoke, the third Sharpe & Walker novel (about a team of arson investigators) and the second cross-over with my long-running Eve Ronin series (about a relentless young homicide detective), just came out a few weeks ago. It has been selling great, and has scored some of the best reader reviews I’ve ever had, so it wouldn’t surprise me if there will be another Sharpe & Walker novel in my future and yours. 

Fallen StarEve Ronin is coming back

And coming this October is Fallen Star, the sixth Eve Ronin novel, and a cross-over with the Sharpe & Walker series.  I am very excited about the book, because it pulls together strands from the previous Ronin novels into a new mystery that imperils both Eve’s career and her life. The book stands alone, but will pack a stronger punch of you’ve read Bone Canyon (Eve #2), and Movieland (Eve #4). So you might want to read those two novels first…if you haven’t already. There’s are two surprise cameos in the book for those of you familiar with my backlist…

Speaking of Eve Ronin, there is some big TV news about her that I have been keeping to myself and have been itching to share. I still can’t give you any specific details. But I will say this much – an actress you know and love is attached to play Eve, a terrific showrunner is developing the series, and I have high hopes things will come together soon.

I’m Returning to TV…

Also on the TV front, a big studio behind some of your favorite crime shows and a great team of writers and producers are developing a series version of my genre-bending novel Calico…and I can’t wait to see what they come up with. They have some fantastic ideas for expanding on the novel and for using some material I cut from the original manuscript (as well as incorporating some of my ideas for the sequel).

And speaking of TV shows, I’m presently hard-at-work for my old friend Robin Bernheim, with whom I co-created the hit Hallmark series Mystery 101, as a co-exec producer and writer on a presently-untitled new mystery series starring Brooke Shields for AMC/Acorn. Not only do I get to work with Robin on this delightful show, but also with my good buddy Phoef Sutton, the Emmy-Award winning writer/producer of Cheers and Boston Legal, among many other series. And, like me, Phoef co-authored books with my friend Janet Evanovich.

Phoef and I are drawing heavily on our mystery writing and co-authoring experiences for this series, which is about a hugely successful author who reluctantly teams up with a young woman, an inexperienced “true crime” podcaster, to write her next crime novel…and they end up solving murders together. I think of it as mash-up of Murder, She Wrote and Hacks…with a touch of Remington Steele and Lucille Ball thrown in. Casting is underway on the six-episode first season, which starts shooting soon…so watch for news. 

What’s Next?

And in the midst of all that, while I’m waiting to hear what my publisher wants me to write next (will it be Eve Ronin #7, Sharpe & Walker #4, or Edison Bixby #2? I don’t know), I am back to work on a standalone crime novel set in Baker, CA.

I’ve been researching my “Baker” novel off-and-on for years, but made a big effort back in December 2024 and January 2025, reading a ton of books and articles, and spending days out in the Mojave interviewing sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, teachers, and residents. I was a quarter of the way into writing the book when I got the contract for Edison Bixby…and then got hired on Robin’s show. So I had to set the manuscript aside. But now that Bixby is in, and the scripts for the show are nearly complete, I’ve opened up my research binders and am slowly picking up where I left off…

So that’s the latest from me and my desk… and again, I apologize for being so quiet lately (aside from my relentless self-promotion, of course)… but the good news is it means you’ll be getting a lot more books and TV shows from me over the next twelve months or so.

The Fawcett Publications Scam

by
I’d love to give the scammers at Fawcett Publications a call for one of my video take downs, but I’m waaaay too busy. So I thought I’d share with you just how laughably inept their swindle is.
 
I got an email from “Blake Wallace,” their “Assistant VP,” who is impressed with my work and wants to help me reach a wide audience (see email below). I checked out their site and had a good laugh.
 
First, their “head office” in Anaheim, CA and their “regional office” in Rochester Minnesota are both apartments, according to Google Earth. Their “regional office” in Skokie Illinois is shared with Penguin Book Writers, a ghost writing service. They imply on their Penguin site that they have ghosted scores of bestselling novels, including TJ Newman‘s FALLING and the screenplay version, too! (See screen grabs).
 
They also imply that their expert ghostwriters wrote the Julie Andrews autobiography, the Philip Roth biography, and Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson (see screen grab).
 
Imagine my surprise when the photo for one of their top ghost writers, “JD Greear”, actually belongs to Emmy award winning writer/producer Phil Rosenthal (see screen capture below), creator of Everybody Loves Raymond. That one gave me a big laugh. How dumb and lazy are these scammers??
 
According to Google Reverse Image search, their photo for ghost writer “Gena Palumbo,” actually belongs to author Genevieve Wheeler, author of Adelaide. And their photo of ghost writer “Remi Blackwood” was stolen from Helen Elaine Lee, a professor at MIT and author of the novel Pomegranate.
 
It gets even better. They have a disclaimer in itsy-bitsy letters at the bottom of their Fawcett Publications site that says:
“Disclaimer: Fawcett Publications heavily draws its inspiration from Wilford Fawcett but is, regardless, an independent entity.”
And yet their logo says they were founded in 1919… the same year that Wilford Fawcett founded his company (see screen grab below). What an amazing coincidence.
 
They also claim to have 19 #1 NY Times bestsellers and have sold over 100 million books. And yet, their head office is in an Anaheim apartment. Clearly, those ridiculous claims “heavily draw” from the real Fawcett, too.
 
This is one lame-ass scam.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Hollywood Talent Agency / Writers Edge Production Scam

by

I got an amazing email the other day.

Dear Lee,

I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to reach out to see if you would be open to or considering pitching your book to production companies for a potential film adaptation. With the growing demand for book-to-film projects, this could be a great opportunity to bring your story to a wider audience.

To make this possible, we have submission specialist partners who can assist you in submitting your work to the right production companies. They work closely with industry professionals and can help navigate the submission process effectively.

Additionally, as part of this process, you will have the opportunity to speak with an award winning film adviser and studio manager via Zoom. This session will help prepare your work before submission and provide valuable insights into the adaptation process, ensuring you are well-equipped for the next steps.

Please let me know if this is something you’d be interested in exploring, and I’d be happy to facilitate the connection. Looking forward to your thoughts.

–
jim Collins
Producer’s Representative
Hollywood Talent Agency

I was so excited! The “Hollywood Talent Agency” was interested in CALICO! I couldn’t wait to speak to a “submission specialist partner,” “film advisor,” “studio manager,” or “producer’s representative.”

So I immediately called “Jim Collins” at the “Hollywood Talent Agency” … and it was a guy in the Philippines or somewhere else outside the U.S. who’d never heard of Jim, the talent agency, or me… but would check with his “endorsement people” to see if I had an “endorsement” and would get back to me. I emailed Jim and let him know about the snafu. A short time later, I then got this email:

Dear Lee Goldberg,

This is Darius from the Writer’s Edge Production. I actually received an endorsement from Mr. Jim Collins for a discussion for your book Calico. It was too late for me to know that there will be someone who’ll call me. So I asked the Talent Agency if there is someone named Lee Goldberg that I am expecting.

So, I got your email from them and let me know when you’re gonna call for an discussion.

Best regards,
Phone: (323) 412-8503
Email: darius@writersedgeproduction.com
Website: writersedgeproduction.com

I called back… and let “Darius” know I was recording the call… and talked with him for over half an hour. The video is below, but I cut out about 15 minutes — the guy’s grasp of English was terrible, and he had a hard time carrying on a coherent conversation while also reading from, and trying to integrate, the dialogue from his sales script. 

Nothing he said made any sense at all. It was such an obvious, ineptly executed scam, that the call isn’t much fun to watch …and wasn’t a lot of fun for me, either, since it was hard work trying to follow what Darius was saying and because it was so ridiculously easy to trip him up with just a few simple questions.

As I expected, it turned out to be the old “pitch deck” scam. You are required to have them produce a video pitch for you, which they will submit (for a fee) to their “VIP contacts” at the studios, because that’s the only way to get your book considered.

For this service, I would get a “certificate of submission” to prove the pitch deck was sent out. He warned me that only 50% of these submissions result in an option.

The only new twist to the scam was that he told that I would get to work with “an award-winning film advisor” and “studio manager” who is also an “award-winning director” and “film teacher.” When I asked him who this was amazing person was, with a shelf of awards, he said it was the acclaimed filmmaker Warut Snidvongs.

So I looked up Warut on imdb….and he has one short film to his credit as a “collaborating director,” and multiple credits as a grip, gaffer and camera operator. I don’t know if this Hollywood superstar is really involved with “Writer’s Edge Production” or “Hollywood Talent Agency,” but his credits don’t exactly inspire awe …or suggest he has any experience getting books adapted into movies. I mentioned this to Darius, who said Warut is widely respected all over the world and is working on a major motion picture right now called “Red Card.” So I looked that one up on imbd… it’s a Mandarin-language film, with a whopping $100,000 budget, and Warut is a lowly camera assistant on it.

I asked Darius what advice Warut, who is obviously someone very low on the Hollywood production ladder, could give me on selling my book to the movies. Poor Darius didn’t know how to deal with that question. He fumbled through an answer that didn’t make any sense. I suspect that Warut is the guy who’d be producing my useless pitch deck… if, indeed, Warut has anything to do with this lame operation.

When I revealed to Darius, mostly because I was exhausted by now trying to parse his bad English, that I am a bestselling author and experienced TV producer… and that I am well aware of the pitch deck scam…and that I take great delight in outing people like him on social media…he was flummoxed.

Darius said what they do isn’t a scam because they disclose to people that they only have “50/50 chance” of getting an offer from a studio.

I said what makes it a scam is that you aren’t actually a literary or talent agency. Studios don’t require a pitch deck with a book or screenplay submission. You don’t have any VIP connections at the studios. And you, “Darius,” aren’t who you say you are…

This is all about getting aspiring authors who know even less about Hollywood than you do to pay you outrageous amounts of money for a useless pitch deck and other “services” that will never get their book sold to anybody. But it will empty their bank accounts. That is the scam, and I will let everybody know it.

He called me an awful, dishonest person.

That almost made the half-hour I wasted on this worthwhile.

UPDATE: Here is a video of the call. 

My Exchange With a JK Rowling Imposter

by

I got a ridiculous email from a scammer pretending to JK Rowling. It’s such an inept, lazy, obvious scam, that it’s hard for me to believe any reasonably intelligent person would fall for it. But I was curious how this would lead to me sending one of the richest authors in the world some of my money. So I replied…

======

From: J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Subject: Book
To: <lee@leegoldberg.com>

Hi,

An introduction would be nice.

I’m Joanne Rowling, the author of (Harry Potter). I’ve read books by you that I find interesting and I’d like to work with you personally. As long as you’re honest and committed, I’m happy to work with you. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this so I can give you more information and advice.

Best wishes,

Author
Joanne Rowling

On 3/13/25, 04:30 Lee Goldberg wrote:

Sorry for the delay. I was traveling overseas and didn’t have Internet. I am thrilled to get your note! I love your books. Tell me more! But I have to warn you, Stephen King also emailed me while I was away about working with him, and I’m a huge fan of his, too. I’m torn!

Lee

On 3/13/25, 04:30 J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com> wrote:

I’m glad you were able to respond and have a safe trip. I don’t mind, you can collaborate with Stephen King. I have a book event coming up and I’d love for you to attend. Have you heard of my charity? I’d appreciate it if you could make some donations to the charity.

Best regards 

Joanne Rowling 

On 3/13/25, 15:30 Lee Goldberg  wrote:

What a funny coincidence— Stephen King also asked me to donate to his charity! What’s yours? 

On 3/13/25, 12:15  J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com> wrote:

Lumos, which focuses on ending the institutionalization of children and ensuring that they have safe, loving homes and family care. 

How much are you trying to donate so that I can send the account details of the relevant secretary?

On 3/13/25, 23:50 Lee Goldberg wrote:

I didn’t say that I want to donate… but I will think about it. Tell me more about the writing project you have in mind for us. Which novel of mine did you read and what did you like about it? How does it relate to the book you have in mind?

It seems odd to me that you haven’t discussed that with me yet, only your charity. Surely as a billionaire, you can fund the charity entirely yourself. You could donate your half of the royalties from our book to them.

On 3/14/25, 8:15 J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com> wrote:

Hidden in smoke, this was the book of yours that I read and liked. The project is coming out very soon, I just wanted to inform you about it. Harry Potter. It would be better to explain it in person than to talk about it via messages. I have done more for my charity than you think, but I think I need support from my colleague.

On 3/14/25, 8:24  J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com> wrote:

Have you figured out what you want to donate to the charity? I am worried about it because the children need help in any way, and I am asking you for a favor because I want you to work with me.

On 3/14/25, 18:58 Lee Goldberg wrote:

Hidden in Smoke hasn’t come out yet…how did you read it?

And what is the project  you are referring to? (Harry Potter) isn’t something new for you. This focus on me sending your charity money sounds like a scam.

I have friend in Scotland who knows you well.   I am going to have Ian forward these emails to you for confirmation. Let me know when you hear from him.

On 3/14/25, 11:55 am  J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com> wrote:

I know it may sound surprising to you, but I have an inside’s view of every area where books are published. Donating to my charity is something you should be happy about, as it brings many benefits, such as attending several of my book readings and meetings. My new project is not about Harry Potter, but about a storyline related to it. I will explain it to you in more detail, when you visit London.

On 3/14/25, 11:59 am  J. K. Rowling <JoanneRowling@publicist.com> wrote:

No one knows me better than myself. And if you misunderstood our conversation for something fraudulent is an accusation you don’t want to mention. I am very well known for my reputation.

On 3/14/25, 12:09 pm Lee Goldberg wrote:

My friend didn’t wait to forward the emails …he called her. 

She wasn’t very happy to hear about this scam. I think you’d better start running.

========

That bit about my friend calling JR Rowling is a lie, of course. But I don’t feel bad about misleading a scammer. Obviously, I didn’t hear back from “JK Rowling” again.