The First Word on The Last Word

Mark Baker, a frequent visitor here and an Amazon top reviewers, has given his eOpinion on DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE LAST WORD, the final book in the series. He says, in part:

About a quarter of the way into it, I was getting bored and wondering where it was going. Then things really took off and I was hooked for the rest of the book. And those events from the first quarter? Absolutely essential to what comes next.

[…]Not only does this book close out the book series, but it also serves as a finale for the TV show. Yet it leaves the door open for further adventures. Frankly, I’d love to know what happens to these old friends next.

This is a book for the fans. Anyone looking for closure for these characters should read it. I’m definitely going to miss them. I just hope that something changes and we can get more adventure with these characters at some point in the future.

The book officially comes out the first week of May, but I am already getting emails from people who pre-ordered it and have received their copies.

Diagnosis: DVD

Diagnosismurders2
TVShowsonDVD reports that the second season boxed set of DIAGNOSIS MURDER, which includes my first contributions to the show, will be released in June. Our mentor Michael Gleason (creator/EP of REMINGTON STEELE) was running DM during the second season and signed Bill Rabkin and me to write four freelance episodes, one of which turned out to be the season premiere. We were thrilled. But a few weeks later, we got hired as supervising producers on THE COSBY MYSTERIES. So we found ourselves balancing two jobs and two TV icons at once …Bill Cosby by day and Dick Van Dyke by night. We did it and somehow we even managed to write a pilot that year, too. Little did we know that our relationship with DIAGNOSIS MURDER was only just beginning.

Proofs as Proof

Novelist John Connolly just got the page proofs for his new book THE UNQUIET:

It’s always interesting to receive the proofs, as it’s the first time
that I get to see the book as it will look to the public, i.e. typeset,
and no longer simply my manuscript. At that point, a transformation
occurs in the way I view it. It is not just something that I rustled up
on my computer. It’s a book, and I judge it in a different way. I
notice elements that perhaps I did not recognise before. I become more
conscious of themes running through it, and I become aware, for want of
a better word, of the ‘feel’ of the book.

I know exactly how he feels. I just finished going through the proofs for DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE LAST WORD and I felt as if I was reading someone else’s book. It didn’t seem to have any connection to the "file" I emailed to my editor months ago. I was reading it fresh and I was surprised by some of obvious themes that ran that ran through the book…themes I wasn’t even consciously aware of as I was writing it. 

When I read the proofs, I find myself seeing the prose, the characters, and the plot differently than I did in the midst of working on the book. But most of all, reading THE LAST WORD, I was aware of a pace and rythmn to the story that I definitely didn’t feel while I was writing it in bits and pieces, at different times and in different places (L.A., Germany, Palm Springs… and at my desk, on airplanes, in hotel rooms, in waiting rooms, in my car, etc.)

The term "proofs" has a double-meaning to me. Holding the proofs, I have evidence to convince myself that what I wrote is actually a book…it’s the first time the story feels like a book to me instead of work.

Diagnosis Murder Galleys

Dmlastword
THE LAST WORD, the final book in the DIAGNOSIS MURDER series, will be published in May. If you are a book critic and would like a galley of the book for review,  please send me your name, the title of your publication (or the web address of your review site), and your mailing address.

Diagnosis Murder Song

Cleanedupmainv2
Look what I stumbled on…some band in England has recorded a spoofy song about DIAGNOSIS MURDER and posted a video on You Tube. I have no idea what the lyrics are, which makes it hard for me to sing-along. Can you make them out?

Double Takes

DIAGNOSIS MURDER: THE DOUBLE LIFE has been getting some very nice reviews from some very kind bloggers. Bill Peschel notes:

Fans of the “DM” series will know exactly what to expect: fast-paced
storytelling, some humor, and a nicely observed interaction between
Mark and his son, a homicide detective struggling to establish himself
away from his father’s accomplishments. It’s to Lee’s credit that, in a
genre that demands neat and tidy solutions, the personal conflicts
never get truly resolved, just as in real life.

Dm7a_1While the ScifiChick observes:

Goldberg weaves a complex mystery full of murders and puzzles. As
always, he gives Dr. Sloan so much depth, emotion, and humor that you
can imagine Dick Van Dyke playing the part on TV. Goldberg has proved
once again that he is a master of writing whodunits.

Chris Well says you don’t have to be a DIAGNOSIS MURDER fan to enjoy the book:

Goldberg does an excellent job of building on the
characters we know and love. He also displays a knack of creating
mysteries within mysteries, much like a puzzle box: no sooner do you
have one thing figured out than you discover it’s actually hiding
something even more sinister. As such, The Double Life is not just an excellent continuation of the series — but an excellent mystery novel.

And apparently Chadwick Saxelid didn’t take it personally that I killed him off in this book:
Dmlastword_1

Lee Goldberg has concocted a mystery concept so unnerving, it would even give veteran medical thriller writer Robin Cook the willies.

I want to thank all four bloggers for saying such nice things about the  THE DOUBLE LIFE, which leads directly in to THE LAST WORD, the final book in the series, which comes out in May. The cover for the book just showed up on Amazon (Click on the picture for a larger image).

The Double Life is Finally On Sale. You Can Breath Again.

Dm7a
In case I forgot to mention it, my seventh DIAGNOSIS MURDER book, THE DOUBLE LIFE, is now available in finer bookstores, truck stops, and places of worship nationwide.
I like to think of  THE DOUBLE LIFE as the second book in an unofficial trilogy that began with DIAGNOSIS MURDER #5 : THE PAST TENSE and that will conclude in May 2007 with the eighth and final DM novel, the appropriately titled THE
LAST WORD
.

You can order your very own signed and/or personalized copy of THE DOUBLE LIFE from the friendly mystery babes at Mysteries To Die For, who will gladly send your order anywhere in the world…and to most State and Federal prisons.

I Should Kill More Critics

I killed Chadwick Saxelid in the latest DIAGNOSIS MURDER novel, but that didn’t stop him from giving THE DOUBLE LIFE a great review.

For the seventh book in his series of Diagnosis Murder tie-ins, author Lee Goldberg has concocted a mystery concept so unnerving, it would even give veteran medical thriller writer Robin Cook the willies.

[…] mixing an emotionally nuanced character
study (of Steve Sloan, this time around) with an intricate puzzle of a
mystery, where finding out howdunit is just as essential, and
entertaining, as finding out whodunit.  Like the best of series
fiction, The Double Life both satisfies and leaves the reader hungry for more.

The Last Word

Dmlw3Here’s is the cover for DIAGNOSIS MURDER #8: THE LAST WORD, coming out next Spring. It’s likely, as the title suggests, to be the final book in the series…and I can promise you that it’s a worthy finale.  Dr. Mark Sloan and company face an old adversary and their biggest challenge yet.