NetGalley Top Reviewer

NetGalley Top Reviewer
NetGalley Top Reviewer

Friday, April 18, 2025

The Murder Show by Matt Goldman

 Fast paced mystery thriller.

When Ethan Harris returns to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to visit his parents for the High Holidays, he's also escaping New York while the show he runs is on hiatus due to the writer's strike. He's desperate to come up with a possible plot arc for the next season lest his show be canceled, but he never dreamed that inspiration would come in the form of a decades old tragedy. When he lived there while in high school, a local boy and friend of his, Ricky O'Shea, died in an apparent hit and run that was never solved. Now his old crush, Ro Greeman, who is now a cop and who has just returned to live in the house across the way, is trying to entice Ethan into investigating that death that she thinks was actually a murder. Can Ethan help her investigate and come up with a new show idea at the same time?

The story went in a direction that I hadn't really anticipated, but it was entertaining and had the elements of a going home reunion and a crime thriller. The characters were interesting but it was easy to see that there was something off about a couple of them. I liked the writing style and the bits of the backstory so the reader knows the history between the main players. Not sure how realistic it all was considering the level of involvement that Ethan gets in the law enforcement aspect, but it held my interest and I read it in a single sitting.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book, both provided by the publishers. I enjoyed the narrator, Dan Bittner, who did a good job voicing all the characters. I had to laugh, however, at the replacement of a certain make of car with another brand in the audio version. Listening while reading always enhances my enjoyment of a book if it's done well. 

This is a standalone and is not part of any series.

Genre tags - murder, drugs, cold case, investigation off the books

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