Lee Goldberg

"Lost Hills is Lee Goldberg at his best. Inspired by the real-world grit and glitz of LA County crime, this book takes no prisoners. And neither does Eve Ronin. Take a ride with her and you'll find yourself with a heroine for the ages. And you'll be left hoping for more." --Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author "Thrills and chills! Lost Hills is the perfect combination of action and suspense, not to mention Eve Ronin is one of the best new female characters in ages. You will race through the pages!" --Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author A video of Deputy Eve Ronin's off-duty arrest of an abusive movie star goes viral, turning her into a popular hero at a time when the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is plagued by scandal. The sheriff, desperate for more positive press, makes Eve the youngest female homicide detective in the department's history. Now Eve, with a lot to learn and resented by her colleagues, has to justify her new badge. Her chance comes when she and her burned-out, soon-to-retire partner are called to the blood-splattered home of a missing single mother and her two kids. The horrific carnage screams multiple murder--but there are no corpses. Eve has to rely on her instincts and tenacity to find the bodies and capture the vicious killer, all while battling her own insecurities and mounting pressure from the media, her bosses, and the bereaved family. It's a deadly ordeal that will either prove her skills...or totally destroy her.

Lost Hills

Denaiir

I have never read a Lee Goldberg book before and I think I just picked it up because of the cover. Well that was a great choice! 

Detective Eve Ronin is new to her department, and only got there because of a viral video, so she doesn't get much respect from veteran officers who have worked their way up the police ladder. But she knows that, and now that she's there, she wants to stay. She screws up big time several times during the novel, but it didn't diminished my enjoyment of the story, even though I wanted to scream at her. It just made it more believable, because how could a rookie detective get everything right on the first try? 

I felt inexplicably drawn to this book and I'm so glad I picked it up. The plot grabbed me from the first page and the characters hooked me. The setting was vivid, I felt like I was in the LA area (it help that I was reading this in the summer) and I really enjoyed the quite detailed information on the inner workings of the LAPD vs LASD (LA sheriff's department). The plot was quite sensational (a family has obviously been slaughtered based on the amount of blood found in their house, but they are nowhere to be found) and included just the right amount of gory details to make it truly fascinating, without being too much for most readers. 

The side characters were delightful, be it her partner Dunkin (haha), her thoughtful sister, or her not-fit-to.be-a-parent mother (a second-rate actress who is completely out of touch with reality). The balance between the plot, the characters (just not enough screen time for the mother to become too annoying), and the crime itself (just enough action to keep it very entertaining but not too crazy, just enough procedure to keep the reader on their toes but still feel real) was perfect.

It reminded me of the Harry Bosch series, extremely well documented but never losing its entertaining and gripping qualities. And detctive Ronin is listening to Harry Bosch audiobooks, how could this be more perfect???

Five stars, I can't wait for the next book.

Lamia Hajani

A very quick read and a pretty good mystery. I look forward to reading future books in this series. This was my first book by Goldberg and, although the dialogue is often clunky, I did like it enough. It's a very well-researched book.

I can't help but think I gave it an extra star because of its proximity to my hometown - so much nostalgia reading all the city and street names that I grew up in and around.

shellybn

To start, I will give the disclaimer that I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. There were things that I really liked, including the setting and the fast pace. There were things that I disliked, such as the mention of a gang of white supremacist sheriff's deputies that beat prisoners at the jail. I thought Eve Ronin's feminist credentials were emphasized a little too much. I enjoyed the mystery, but felt like it was a book written for California insiders, and that as a non-California reader I wasn't part of the inside clique for whom the book was written. It was a good, quick read, but it was not a mystery of depth like Ann Cleves or Qiu Xiaolong would write. Ifor you are looking for a quick, easy mystery read, you will enjoy this book.

Lost Hills

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