Publisher's Weekly Review
In bestseller Goldman's excellent third mystery featuring Minneapolis PI Nils Shapiro (after 2019's The Shallows), Beverly Mayer, a grumpy matriarch, hires Nils to check on her grown grandson, Ebben, who she believes is wasting his time in the movie business. Ebben, whose fiancée has just died, is trying to launch a creator-focused studio, but Nils suspects that Ebben's fiancée was murdered and that Ebben himself might have been the target. Along with his good friend Jameson White--a nurse and former athlete fighting inner demons after being on shift during a school shooting--Nils dives into the L.A. scene, meeting mysterious East European mobsters, attractive screenwriters, powerful agents, and plenty of others who might have wanted to kill Ebben. Goldman wisely keeps the Hollywood satire to a minimum, focusing instead on the actual detective work, the very real dangers Nils faces, and emotionally grueling issues Jameson is attempting to process. Goldman takes a classic trope--a working-class private detective set loose in Hollywood--and squeezes enough originality out of it to make for a dazzling tale. Agent: Jennifer Weltz, Jean V. Naggar Literary. (June)
Kirkus Review
Minneapolis investigator Nils Shapiro heads west for fun, sun, and murder. Beverly Mayer is used to getting what she wants, and what she wants from Nils is that he fly to Los Angeles and see if the sudden death of her grandson Ebben's fiancee has jolted him into frittering away any more of his $50 million trust fund. Arriving in La La Land with Jameson White, the nurse practitioner he's been nursing over a nervous breakdown, in time for Juliana Marquez's memorial service, Nils learns that Ebben has used $1 million in seed money to persuade other investors to pony up the much larger sum needed to launch The Creative Collective, a cooperative that aims to fund artists without diverting any money to agents, producers, executives, or other bloodsuckers. By the time he's persuaded himself that Ebben is displaying admirable moral and financial responsibility, Nils has already satisfied himself that Juliana was murdered, slipped a lethal dose of caffeine very likely intended for her intended. As one-eyed Russian stalker Vasily Zaytzev hovers menacingly in the background, Nils finds himself in the middle of a hilarious pitch meeting with Ebben's current team--screenwriter Brit Dawsey, line producer Thom Burke, manager Debra Schmidt, and one-named agent Sebastiano--that could have come straight out of Get Shorty. Declining Ebben's tearful request for him to stay in town and watch over him, Nils jets back to Minnesota to report to Beverly that she has nothing to fear except her grandson's sudden death, but the urgent report of a second murder drags him back to hunker down until he ties up all the loose ends. Well, maybe not quite all of them. A droll portrait of "a town where almost everything and everyone was for sale," with felonies obbligato. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Private investigator Nils Shapiro's fourth outing (after The Shallows, 2019) takes him to Los Angeles, where Beverly Mayer asks Nils to make certain her grandson, Ebben, isn't squandering his fortune. Nils agrees, thinking a trip to sunny southern California to solve a nonproblem will be a nice break from Minnesota in January. He takes his friend Jameson White along, both as muscle and to get him away from his own troubles. But the investigation turns far more complex when Nils suspects foul play in the recent death of Ebben's fiancée. It seems everyone involved--self-interested Hollywood industry players on several levels--is potentially in danger. Meanwhile, Jameson's attentions are divided between protecting Ebben (and Nils) and dealing with his own issues, while Nils worries his status as a happily affianced new father means he may be losing his edge. Goldman continues to please with interesting twists, great peripheral characters, insights into specific communities, and enough peril to keep readers turning pages past bedtime. Offer this to fans of lone wolves finding their pack, readers who love L.A. settings, and private investigators both amateur and professional.
