The Man With The Iron-On Badge

That New Book Smell

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1594143722My author’s copies of THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE arrived today. There is nothing like opening that box and seeing all those copies of your book. Unlike seeing your writing credit on TV, it’s a moment that never loses its charge. When you can take that book out of the box and stick it on your shelf, that’s when it all becomes real.

To be honest, I had real doubts this day would ever come. There was quite a while there when I wondered if the manuscript was destined to end up in a desk drawer. Even if it had, I couldn’t complain too much — in some ways, it’s been the most financially lucrative novel I’ve written. A script I based on it got me the gig to write the DAME EDNA movie. Although the movie wasn’t made,  I wrote the script and the check cleared.

Now that BADGE has come out, and received the best reviews of my career, I figure everything else is gravy.

Publishers Weekly Gives BADGE a Rave

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I’m pleased to report that, on the heels of the starred review from Kirkus,
THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE got a rave today from Publisher’s Weekly.
Approaching the level of Lawrence Block is no mean feat,
but Goldberg (the Diagnosis Murder series) succeeds with this engaging PI novel,
the first of a new series. Harvey Mapes, an overeducated security guard for a
Southern California gated community, is pulled out of his rut when a wealthy
resident hires him to tail his wife. Genre readers won’t be surprised that this
simple assignment turns more complicated, but those who like their mean streets
settings to be coupled with a twisty solution will enjoy the surprise ending.
While Mapes’s rampant sexual appetite may not be for everyone’s taste, readers
who devoured Block’s brilliant Chip Harrison mystery picaresques (which doubled
as affectionate pastiches of Nero Wolfe) will find Mapes a worthy (if slightly
more mature) successor to Harrison and clamor for more. Agent, Gina Maccoby.
(Oct.)

Keenan on BADGE

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Mystery lover Vince Keenan, columnist for the excellent Mystery File newsletter, had some very nice to things to say about THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE on his blog today.

Harvey Mapes drifted into security work because he thought it
would be like MANNIX or one of his Gold Medal paperbacks. He stays in it because
it gives him time to read more Gold Medal paperbacks. When a resident of the
gated community where he works hires him to tail his wife, Harvey finally gets
his chance to make like Spenser.

The book is about Harvey’s discovery
that real-life crime isn’t like the fictional variety at all. At first, the
differences are played for laughs, but when Harvey’s case takes a tragic turn,
Lee never loses his footing. Harvey actually matures on the page, a
transformation made evident in the character’s distinctive voice. He stops
wising off and starts wising up.

Thanks, Vince. And where’s the next issue of Mystery File? I’m going through withdrawal.

I’m Going to Be Blushing All Weekend

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I made my daily visit to Ed Gorman’s blog and was shocked out of my seat by the kind words he had to say about THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE.

What makes the novel so remarkable–remarkable enough for me to put it
on my Edgar short list along with Terrill Lankford’s Blonde
Lightning–is the way, like the best of the Rockford episodes, Goldberg
is able to parody his standard SoCal moments while telling a
convincing, even moving tale about the real nature of SoCal streets and
the real nature of heroism.

The novel owes more to literary pieces than to genre ones because here
the narrator’s voice is more important than plot, something you find in
novels such as Richard Price’s Ladies Man (modern) and J.D. Salinger’s
Catcher in The Rye (classic). And as in both of those novels, Goldberg
creates an Everyman, a man who just doesn’t fit anywhere, a man who is
driven to find some small justice in a world where justice is just
another commodity to buy and sell. You can almost hear Holden Caulfield
hectoring you, telling you that you’re a sap to believe all that
hi-faultin’ nonsense about the hallowed justice system working for one
and all. He knows better and you should know better, too.

I may be blushing all weekend. To be compared on any level besides "this book is also written on paper" with Richard Price and J.D. Salinger just floors me. Thank you, Ed. Now how the hell am I supposed to get back to writing MONK #2 after that?

One of a Kind Blurb

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My friend author Lewis Perdue, in the midst of his legal tussles with Dan Brown, actually found time to read a galley of  THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE and had some good words for the book on his blog.

Get this book. Read it. And if you’re in the doldrums, suffering from the
heartbreak of psoriasis, the humiliation of herpes, or the agony of a lawsuit
with Random House, you will feel better after the first chapter.

Now that would make a one-of-a-kind blurb!

Rough Edges Goes Easy on BADGE

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Author James Reasoner flattered me today with some very nice words about THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE on his blog.

This book starts out as a fine example of the humorous “lovable schmoe” school of detective fiction, and Goldberg does a good job with that part of it, but then it takes a sudden turn into darker and more dangerous territory and becomes even better. The plot becomes more complex and so
do the characters, and while Goldberg plays scrupulously fair with his clues, nothing and nobody turns out be exactly that they seemed at first. Add to that some very smooth prose and a sense of compassion for
the people he’s writing about, and you’ve got one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. Highly recommended.

Thanks so much, James!

 

A Great Way to Start The Week

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I’m stunned, thrilled, and flattered to report that Kirkus Reviews has given my new novel THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE a starred review in this week’s issue. I wish all weeks started off this good.

*A star is assigned to books of unusual merit, determined
by the editors of Kirkus Reviews.

"Veteran
TV writer Goldberg (Beyond the Beyond, 1997, etc.) tests a gatehouse security
guard to his limits when he agrees to shadow a homeowner’s
wife.

International movie distributor Cyril Parkus doesn’t think his wife
is having an affair, but he knows there’s something wrong with her. So he hires
Bel Vista Estates guard Harvey Mapes, whose professional experience is limited
to watching monitors and writing out courtesy tickets, to follow her around
Camarillo. Harvey watches Lauren Parkus drink coffee, gaze at the ocean, drive
to a pawnshop and meet a man he’s sure is blackmailing her. As a reward, he’s
summarily dismissed with a bonus over the $150 a day he requested and treated to
the horrifying spectacle of Lauren doing a swan dive off a freeway overpass.
Shocked that his investigative work had such a tragic ending, he digs deeper
into the case and soon unearths secrets as dark and twisted as anything Hammett
or Chandler ever dreamed up—although his own role models are mostly TV shamuses like
Joe Mannix, Dan Tana and Jim Rockford. Working with his friend and sometime
lover Carol, Harvey doesn’t set the world straight, but he does get to the
bottom of the case, earn Carol’s love and grow miles beyond those paragons of
machismo.

A grim tale with a
disarmingly sweet hero who begins like sad-sack lawyer Stanley Hastings and ends
by leaving Travis McGee in the dust. "