Movieland

At the start of bestseller Goldberg's strong fourth Eve Ronin mystery (after 2021's Gated Prey), Eve, a young Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, and her soon-to-retire partner, Duncan Pavone, are called to Malibu Creek State Park, where they find one woman dead from a shotgun blast and another seriously injured. Eve recognizes the wounded woman as Zena Faust, "a harsh critic of... local politicians, developers, and celebrities" who promptly decides that a serial shooter must be menacing park visitors. Duncan has suspected as much for some time, but he has been ordered to stifle his hunch because the powers-that-be don't want to scare off the public. Now, the furor won't subside, especially after a city councilman is shot dead just outside the park. As Eve and Duncan pursue the investigation despite official resistance, she also must worry about the men in her department who resent her fast promotion. Eve boldly and sometimes foolishly charges forward while Duncan tries to keep her alive. Assured prose matches the tight plot. The tale of the brave, rule-breaking rookie and the weary, good-hearted mentor has been done almost to death, but Goldberg manages to make his version fresh. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (June)

Just two weeks before his retirement from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, homicide detective Duncan Pavone blames himself when two female campers are shot to death in beautiful Malibu Creek State Park. He has long suspected there was a sniper targeting the area around the park, but politicians, the sheriffs, and the Parks Department have swept previous shootings under the rug. As Duncan and his partner Eve Ronin dig into the case of the murdered campers, Duncan becomes convinced they could have prevented the women's deaths. It's usually Eve who goes rogue in her quest for justice, but this time around it's Duncan who speaks out. Then Eve falls victim to the park sniper. Can an injured detective and one on the verge of retirement fight back against those in power? VERDICT Goldberg's compelling follow-up to Gated Prey is a fast-paced, riveting police procedural influenced by actual events in California. A character-driven series entry that skillfully depicts Hollywood corruption.--Lesa Holstine

Maverick Detective Eve Ronin and her partner, Detective Duncan Pavone, land a case that threatens to push back Duncan's retirement date, currently two weeks away, if it doesn't kill them first. Water district bureaucrat Wallace Ewell insists the two detectives for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department find the thief who's been crashing into his break room and stealing mostly valueless stuff. He's good and annoyed when the two are called away from the scene to investigate a shooting. Activist blogger Zena Faust has been wounded and her lover, yoga instructor Kim Spivey, killed by shotgun fire in Malibu Creek State Park. Since there's no way to trace the bullets, Eve and Duncan focus on the other forensic evidence their colleagues are able to extract from a scene the public is clamoring to get back into--and on possible motives that lead them to movie producer Curtis Honig, whom Kim accused of sexual predation years ago before some straight women he'd assaulted got the law to take his behavior seriously, and to millionaire Paul Banning, whose property adjoins the park. The discovery that a dozen earlier people had been shot, none of them fatally, in the park over the past 18 months fuels rumors of a Malibu Sniper, and the shooting of Calabasas city councilman Clark Netter in a car filled with cash enlarges the suspect pool and makes the case even more urgent. The number of unrelated perps, several of them minor characters who come and go in a flash, turns out to be so extensive that the ending, or endings, is inevitably a letdown except for Duncan's triumphant taunt: "Vomit doesn't lie." Based on true events that leave their untidy mark everywhere. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.