Read the Reviews

A sampling of the acclaim for Lee Goldberg’s books…

Praise for “The Job”

It’s the kind of book to take on a plane trip because it is almost guaranteed to amuse its readers…both Kate and Nick distinguish themselves for being charming as well as outrageous

Washington Times

Evanovich and Goldberg offer another wild ride. Even if you can’t always tell the good guys from the bad guys, there’s no doubt who’ll come out on top when the Fox is in the hen house.

Kirkus Reviews

**** 1/2 The dynamite duo is back in another hiliarious installment of their Fox & O’Hare series. The reluctant pairing of FBI agent Kate O’Hare and con artist and master thief Nick Fox is a truly match made in comedy heaven.

RT Book Reviews

witty repartee, breathless action and the ever-present romantic undertones, make this a light and engaging tale to read between cricket overs.

The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

This is the third brilliant writing collaboration between Janet Evanovich, author of the massively popular Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author of the Monk series….This is an extraordinarily addictive series, each book providing an entertaining, standalone crime caper with plenty of twists and turns, dark humour, dodgy villains, pulsating action and exquisite frissons of sexual tension between the tough cookie agent and her handsome, sweet-talking partner.

Blackpool Gazette (UK)

The Job is a smart and entertaining caper—another fun-filled adventure with a quirky cast of characters. While the story was written with a fun-loving sense of humor, it’s still a clever caper. Fox and O’Hare don’t fly by the seat of their pants the way that Stephanie Plum does. They’re trained professionals who are dealing with some vicious criminals—and, in life or death circumstances like these, each job requires careful planning (as well as multiple back-up plans). So although it’s a light and amusing read, it’s still pretty thrilling, too.

NPR Ohio – Shelf Awareness

This suspense series continues to mix the humor from Evanovich and Goldberg’s books with the intricate cons seen in the best episodes of Mission: Impossible. The banter and thrills are nonstop, and readers will be anxious to see what happens next.

Library Journal

Praise for “The Chase”

**** 1/2 The odd couple of covert law enforcement is back as master con artist Nick Fox and FBI Agent Kate O’Hare join forces. The quips are flying, as are the fists and bullets. This wild and wacky romp crisscrosses the world as Fox and O’Hare hunt for stolen art while matching wits with some untouchable criminals. Laughter can be the best medicine, and this outlandish adventure provides a hefty dose.

RT Book Reviews

A lean, stylish thriller and caper novel that takes a reader gliding along from start to finish…The Chase is a polished diamond. Their secret ingredient is a winning sense of humor that informs both their prose and their decision-making. Like their con-artist hero Nicolas Fox, Evanovich and Goldberg have made charm their most important weapon.

Milwaukee Journal

Great fun, with plenty of twists and action

Modesto Bee

The action never stops… The characters are exciting, and the story escalates as the initial job becomes more elaborate. Hopefully there will be more adventures by this writing duo!

Associated Press

The Chase takes us on a joyride in extremis from the very first page. It is hotter and faster than a flaming-red Lamborghini

Everyday E-Books

For those who enjoyed the first entry, know that this continues with the fun, and actually is a more enjoyable ride with not just one con, but four, each more daring than before….Evanovich and Goldberg seem to be having loads of fun with their creation. THE CHASE will delight readers who want some breezy fun and action

Bookgasm

The Chase literally starts off with a bang …outstanding action, legitimately funny humor, sparkling banter and witty dialogue…a read that cannot be put down and is unrelenting in its captivating plot and entertaining characters

Kings River Life Magazine

Praise for “The Heist”

The con is on in this humorous and action-filled launch book in a hot new series from Evanovich and TV writer Goldberg. This White Collar-esque tale has a dogged FBI agent trading standard operating procedure for high-stakes, high-concept operations plotted by her con-artist nemesis. Hang on as the action in this caper races around the globe, producing situations that are vintage Evanovich — both dangerous and hilariously absurd!

RT Book Reviews

Great characters, witty dialogue, great plotting and above all, great writing

 

Brendan DuBois, Shamus Award winning author

Evanovich has top billing here, but she gets some solid support from screenwriter and crime novelist Goldberg, whose own take on comedy and crime, evident in the wacky TV crime series Monk and books like My Gun Has Bullets (1995), matches Evanovich’s over-the-top style to a tee. Their first book in the new Fox and O’Hare series is a near-seamless demonstration of their talents.

Booklist

The Heist is the perfect title to carry on a trip to the beach. The laugh out loud humor that readers expect from Evanovich is in full force, and Goldberg’s crafty and elaborate writing is prominent. . . . Everyone will be eager for the next book in the series.

Associated Press

Praise for “King City”

Imaginative mayhem and crisp writing make this a page-turner. This is the debut of a series, and the deft Goldberg has successfully set the hook.

 

Booklist

Lee Goldberg’s King City brings the sensibility of a western to the contemporary crime novel and the result is exhilarating, compelling, and a thrill to read. Tom Wade is an iconic hero with a strong, personal code trying bring order to a lawless frontier…which just happens to be smack in the middle of a dying, industrial American city. He’s an unforgettable and deeply compelling character in the most original crime novel to come along in years.

Janet Evanovich, international bestselling author

King City is a book that only Lee Goldberg could have written. He’s got the high-velocity prose of a best-seller, coupled with the highly visual elements that make his television writing so compelling. Factor in the terrific characters and some very cogent takes on human nature, and you’ve got a rollicking thriller. King City is a pleasure from start to finish.

T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author of The Jaguar and The Border Lords

Praise for “Adjourned”

Lee Goldberg is well-known for his novels about Monk, the obsessive-compulsive detective, but years ago, when Goldberg was a college student, he was already making his mark as a writer, albeit under a pen name. These were the days when series books aimed at the men’s market were showing up everywhere, and the ones by Goldberg, about a vigilante out to rid the world of scum, are still entertaining today. Fast-moving, filled with sex, violence, and snappy patter, these are just the thing for people who like expert storytelling and action-packed escapist novels. Check ’em out.

Bill Crider, author of Outrage At Blanco

Praise for “Dead Space”

The novel’s satiric slant is strong enough to have an effigy of Goldberg beamed into outer space at the next ‘Star Trek’ convention.

Los Angeles Times

 Praise for “Diagnosis Murder”

When it comes to delivering a first-rate mystery, Lee Goldberg has the hands of a master surgeon.

Rick Riordan

The Past Tense contains all the elements of a fine mystery novel: good characters, interesting plot, surprising twists and, above all, crisp and enjoyable writing.

David Montgomery, Chicago Sun-Times

 Producer Lee Goldberg wrote the very best Diagnosis Murder episodes, so it’s no surprise that the book delivers everything you’d expect from the show. This is a clever, high-octane mystery that moves like a bullet train.

Janet Evanovich

Lee Goldberg’s Diagnosis Murder series is the perfect prescription for readers looking for thrills, chills, and laughs.

Meg Cabot

Praise for “The Jury Series”

Generous helpings of sex and violent action, along with some smart-aleck dialog. But if you’re a fan of Robert B. Parker, Dirty Harry, or the Die Hard movies, you’ll have a very good time.

J.A Konrath, Author of The List and Afraid

If you long for the days when the drugstore book racks were filled with men’s adventure series like The Executioner, The Destroyer, The Marksman, The Butcher, The Penetrator, and so many others—all but gone today—then Lee Goldberg’s The Jury Series books will take you back to a time when kick-ass action and kick ass heroes splatter their way across the pages of the paperback originals. Violence, sex, and more violence, The Jury Series gives you all of this along with smart-aleck one-liners and dark humor. Buy the complete set, see what Dirty Harry on steroids would be like. Satisfaction guaranteed for action junkies.

Paul Bishop, Author of Citadel Run and Chalk Whispers

Praise for “The Monk Series”

Goldberg’s succinct writing style—with an emphasis on witty dialogue, laugh-out-loud hijinks, and nonstop action—will make a devoted Monk fan of anyone who picks up this surprisingly entertaining read.

Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble Ransom Notes

The scenes flow seamlessly and quickly, the dialogue is always fun, and while some of the situations frankly stretch the limits of believability, there is some indefinable quality to Goldberg’s writing that makes us believe it anyway.

Gumshoe Review

You’d be hard pressed to find another recent work that has so many hip and humorous moments

Bookgasm

Hilariously funny and devilishly clever…an impossible-crime lover’s delight.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Praise for “McGrave”

Sitting down to read McGrave is like getting hit in the face with a double-fistload of two-by-four… Strap in and hold tight

Mel Odom, author of the Left Behind Apocalypse series

Pages of awesomeness…think of this as some sort of lost 80s action film.  McGrave is a super-breezy and easy read.

Bookgasm

This a first-rate, one-night read. For me it’s a five-star implementation of a five-star idea.

Mugshots Blog

This book is the literary equivalent of buffalo wings and boilermakers.

Post Modern Pulps

Holy Crap, this book is insanely fun…it’s high impact, high adrenaline, and high class all the way.

The Blue Site

Praise for “The Walk”

>Harrowing and funny…

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Lee Goldberg’s hard-to-classify but not-be-missed The Walk, set in the aftermath of a major Los Angeles earthquake, pokes fun at the TV industry in the midst of disaster…

Jon Breen, The Year In Mystery and Crime Fiction 2004

This is a magnificent novel—by turns hilarious, scary, sad, witty and ultimately wise on its judgments about the way so many of us live these days. And it’s one hell of a page-turner, too.

Ed Gorman, newimprovedgorman.blogspot.com (read the full review)

The Walk is one of the very best novels you’ll read this year or any other year.

James Reasoner, jamesreasoner.blogspot.com (read the full review)

The Walk is a book about what normal people would do in a life-or-death situation. What’s remarkable, though, is that it also manages to incorporate all the fantasies we and our culture have had about those situations and consider what role they might play in our survival (or not). More than anything, it’s a story that makes us confront the fact that most of the time most of us can’t save the day—we can only save ourselves.

The Unfanboy

I think the best point was the fact that the main character was so realistic. He wasn’t a hero. He didn’t profess to be a hero… However, the author managed to still make you empathize with this character… Mr. Goldberg has done something very difficult in this book. He has made his main character unlikeable, then changed my mind by the end. The character development is just excellent.

Red Adept Review

Lee Goldberg’s novel, The Walk, is as much about the transformation of a man as it is about the ordeal he undergoes, and that is one reason it is so powerful. If anything, the interior life of the hero, Marty Slack, is as central to the novel as surviving a devastating quake that flattens Los Angeles. There are two themes, really: one is sheer survival in the chaos of the quake; the other is the effect this ordeal has on Slack. […]By following the evolution of Marty Slack, and by putting Slack through an unimaginable ordeal in a shattered world, Lee Goldberg gives the novel a richness and truthfulness that wouldn’t exist if it were only about a cardboard man fighting exterior threats. The story becomes far more poignant because it is about the hero’s moral courage as much as it is about a paralyzed world. This is memorable fiction.

Richard Wheeler

Praise for “Watch Me Die”

Approaching the level of Lawrence Block is no mean feat, but Goldberg 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.

Publishers Weekly

As dark and twisted as anything Hammett or Chandler ever dreamed up…leaving Travis McGee in the dust.

Kirkus Reviews (*starred review!)

Watch Me Die has snappy dialogue, tight plotting and near-perfect pace. Mapes is laugh-out loud funny in the way of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, and the plot is surprisingly graceful, keeping the reader guessing to the very end. Harvey’s growth as a human being is an added bonus. One can only hope this is the first of many novels about this engaging character.

The Oakland Press (Michigan)

Harvey Mapes could be me. He’s a guy who reads a lot of PI novels, loves the old PI television shows and he thinks he can solve mysteries. The similarities are almost disturbing. However Harvey is fictional, and a bit more willing to take chances. The book sets up nicely with Harvey working in his guard shack for a gated community in California. One of the residents makes a nice monetary offer to him in exchange for services, in short the old rich guy wants his wife followed. Harvey having read many books and seen many TV shows feels he’s up to the job. What ensues is a wonderful story of the pitfalls of overestimating yourself, and what happens when you surpass your own expectations. Goldberg has a knack for combining just the right amount of humor and realism with his obvious love for the PI genre and his own smart ass sensibilities. [Watch Me Die] is a terrific read and I for one would love to see this become a series. Goldberg is the real deal and should be on everyone’s must read list.

Jon Jordan, CrimeSpree Magazine

Lee Goldberg is right there with the best and his character, Harvey Mapes, is an Everyman for the Ages, troubles, stumbles, and grit. [Watch Me Die] simply gives it up: danger, humor, society laid bare, and Goldberg at his best, which is very good indeed. With wannabe, ever-at-risk Harvey, Goldberg has turned the PI genre on its head.

Richard Barre

Meet Harvey Mapes, a fledgling private eye who’s learned everything he knows from mystery novels. Hold your calls, turn off the tube, put your feet up and prepare for a witty, wicked and dare I say wise little book. Lee Goldberg shows off more than just his funny bone here. He reveals a keen eye for the wrenching heartbreaks and triumphs that forge heroes—even from the Harveys of the world.

David Corbett

Lee Goldberg’s [Watch Me Die] is a very funny book about the ironclad LA class system, life in a security guard’s shack, and the crucial differences between violence as experienced on a TV show and in real life.

Scott Phillips

Watch Me Die is a quick fun read with a satisfying and unexpected ending. Harvey Mapes is a hero I hope we see in a sequel.”

Phillip Margolin

If you’re a fan of TV private eyes like Mannix and Rockford, and the heroes of the old Gold Medal paperbacks like Travis McGee and Shell Scott, you’ll love Harvey Mapes. He’s nothing like them, but he loves them, too, and in an attempt to emulate them and get away from his boring security guard job, Harvey goes on the ride of his life. Lee Goldberg has succeeded in producing a clever, witty and intelligent parody of, and homage to, the PI genre.

Robert Randisi

Lee Goldberg is a sly and funny writer, with a warm heart and an ease with words. He never disappoints.

SJ Rozan

A wonderfully fresh voice in the mystery genre, Goldberg will delight fans of Janet Evanovich and Robert Crais. His security guard Harvey Mapes’ crash course in the difference between fictional and real P.I. work makes for hilarious reading. I had huge fun reading this, though I must admit wannabe P.I. Harvey Mapes struck a little too close to home for me. I guess all mystery writers have more Harvey in us than we care to admit.

Rick Riordan

Likeable loser Harvey Mapes is my new favorite private eye, the guy with the dead-end job who longs to be Mannix or Travis MaGee. [Watch Me Die] is a cool, smooth read, and Lee Goldberg knows how to keep the reader turning pages until the very end. Bravo. I hope the folks in charge of the Shamus nominations are paying attention.”

Victor Gischler

Great concept and great execution…it’s funny, thrilling, and quirky, with a completely satisfying ending you won’t see coming.

Barry Eisler, New York Times bestselling author

Lee Goldberg is known for his cleverness and sense of humor. He shows how a masterful plotter can take a character in a comic situation and lead him into unexpected danger in an eye-blink.

Thomas Perry, New York Times bestselling author

When Harvey Mapes gets a chance to step out of his job as a security guard to be a private detective […] he finds courage he never thought he had and the malleable conscience every successful PI needs. If you’re looking for a great read, look no further.

Joel Goldman, bestselling author of Motion to Kill

This is the story of sad Harvey Mapes and how he tried to become Travis McGee, or the International Op, or even, Joe Mannix. If you want to know how well he succeeded, read the story. It’s a very funny novel. It’s a very good plot with some surprising twists I never saw coming…Lee Goldberg certainly has the demonstrated chops to be able to produce this risible, amusing and very diverting story…this novel is just first rate.

Carl Bookins

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