#MattGoldman – Rosepoint Publishing

Gone to Dust by Matt Goldman – #AudiobookReview – #TBT

Book Blurb:

Set in Minnesota, Gone to Dust is the debut private-eye murder mystery from Emmy Award-winning Seinfeld writer Matt Goldman.

A brutal crime. The ultimate cover-up. How do you solve a murder with no useable evidence?

Private detective Nils Shapiro is focused on forgetting his ex-wife and keeping warm during another Minneapolis winter when a former colleague, neighboring Edina Police Detective Anders Ellegaard, calls with the impossible.

Suburban divorcée Maggie Somerville was found murdered in her bedroom, her body covered with the dust from hundreds of emptied vacuum cleaner bags, all potential DNA evidence obscured by the calculating killer.

Digging into Maggie’s cell-phone records, Nils finds that the most frequently called number belongs to a mysterious young woman whose true identity could shatter the Somerville family – but could she be guilty of murder?

After the FBI demands that Nils drop the case, Nils and Ellegaard are forced to take their investigation underground, where the case grows as murky as the contents of the vacuum cleaner bags. Is this a strange case of domestic violence or something with far-reaching, sinister implications?

My Review:

Okay, yes. I was looking for an audiobook, a nice mystery, and the blurb sounded interesting. And of course, dropping the Emmy Award-winning Seinfeld writer’s name helped. (As it happens, however, that show was not one I watched.)

The setting is Minnesota in the winter and I was reading it in the upper Midwest before we slowly ground into spring, so thought I might identify. Only so far though. Minnesota is a whole nother winter.

I’m not sure what it was. Yes, you have to say covering a body in vacuum cleaner dust patiently gathered from hundreds of vacuum cleaner bags is unusual. Even Nils Shapiro, the “Scandinavian Jew” might have been considered an unusual character, certainly considering he still pined after his ex. (I often wondered why then she is an “ex.”)

Just not one that really grabbed me. Nils is a contradiction alright. He was trying for the police department when there was a change in the budget, so he managed to create a private detective agency. I guess he found a modicum of success as he is called by a police detective buddy to help him with his vacuum dust case.

For one, there are too many degrees of coincidence. Small town—okay—I get it. Everybody knows everybody or is a relative. There are red herrings, twists, and the plot involves Nils the man as much as the case. It isn’t too hard to figure out the perp. An easy read (or listen) and entertaining but it just didn’t have the tension sufficient for me to get excited.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Jewish Literature, Private Investigator Mysteries
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
ASIN: B074G4TM97
Listening Length: 7 hrs 24 mins
Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
Publication Date: August 15, 2017
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Gone to Dust [Amazon]

The Author: Matt Goldman is New York Times Best Selling author and Emmy Award-winning TV writer. He has been nominated for a Shamus Award and is a Nero Award Finalist. His TV credits include Seinfeld, Ellen, and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

#ThrowbackThursday

Dead West by Matt Goldman – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

The Nils Shapiro Series, Book 4

Editors’ pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Book Blurb:

In the words of Lee Child on Gone to Dust, “I want more of Nils Shapiro.” New York Times-bestselling and Emmy Award-winning author Matt Goldman happily obliges by bringing the Minneapolis private detective back for another thrilling, standalone adventure in Dead West.

Nils Shapiro accepts what appears to be an easy, lucrative job: find out if Beverly Mayer’s grandson is foolishly throwing away his trust fund in Hollywood, especially now, in the wake of his fiancée’s tragic death. However, that easy job becomes much more complicated once Nils arrives in Los Angeles, a disorienting place where the sunshine hides dark secrets.

Nils quickly suspects that Ebben Mayer’s fiancée was murdered, and that Ebben himself may have been the target. As Nils moves into Ebben’s inner circle, he discovers that everyone in Ebben’s professional life―his agent, manager, a screenwriter, a producer―seem to have dubious motives at best.

With Nils’ friend Jameson White, who has come to Los Angeles to deal with demons of his own, acting as Ebben’s bodyguard, Nils sets out to find a killer before it’s too late.

My Review:

Well, hang on, bc it doesn’t take long with this sometimes over-the-top audiobook narrator to promise a wild ride!

Apparently the normal setting for this ex-cop now private detective is Minneapolis, Minnesota, a complete world away from SoCal. Like a NorCal native plunked into the moss-draped trees of the south, it’s a culture shock—very much what happens to Nils Shapiro when he travels to Hollywood to check on the grandson of matriarch Beverly Mayer. I love a good storyline peppered with humor throughout and this narrative pushes that button often.

Grandson, Ebben Mayer’s financée was obviously murdered, but perhaps she was not the intended target. As Nils talks, pretty much non-stop, investigative steps are explained and easily followed but the complex mystery isn’t so easily solved. The characters are well developed and the LA basin becomes a moving visceral part of the well-plotted and paced tale.

I really enjoyed the Minnesotan as he valiantly tries to understand the LA mentality, come to terms with time on the road rather than miles and of course the suntanned beautiful people and their quirky Hollywood culture.

New author and series for me, but I guess if you have to bumble into the one-off (an MC definitely out of his normal haunt) as I did, you might well enjoy it too! Guess I’ll have to go find one where he works a case in his own backyard so I can compare.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Jewish Literature, Private Investigator Mysteries, Jewish Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ISBN-10: ‎ 1250191343
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1250191342
ASIN: B0844J45RJ
Listening Length: 8 hrs 5 mins
Narrator: Bronson Pinchot
Publication Date: August 4, 2020
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Dead West [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

The Author: Matt Goldman is New York Times Best Selling author and Emmy Award winning TV writer. He has been nominated for a Shamus Award and is a Nero Award Finalist. His TV credits include Seinfeld, Ellen, and The New Adventures of Old Christine.

The Narrator: Bronson Alcott Pinchot (born May 20, 1959) is an American actor and narrator of many novels. He has appeared in several feature films, including Risky Business, Beverly Hills Cop (and reprising his popular supporting role in Beverly Hills Cop III), The First Wives Club, True Romance, Courage Under Fire and It’s My Party. Pinchot is probably best known for his role in the ABC family sitcom Perfect Strangers as Balki Bartokomous from the (fictional) Greek-like island of Mypos.