My day usually begins with a corpse. Well, at least it does now in my new job. My name is Eve Ronin, and I’m the youngest homicide detective in the history of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department. I’ve just been called to the discovery of a dead body in a car at the corner of Mulholland Highway and Mulholland Drive in Calabasas. It’s an intersection that generates lots of confusion, and not only because of the nearly identical street names. It’s also the intersection of two cities, three neighborhoods, two law enforcement jurisdictions, and on this hot, smoggy Thursday morning in December, life and death.

My partner is Duncan “Donuts” Pavone, who is over twice as old as me, three times as heavy, and four months away from retirement. We make an odd-looking couple. He’s old and fat and has a creative comb-over to hide his thinning hair. I’m young and slim, my brown hair cut into a practical bob. We could be mistaken for a father and daughter who like to carry Glocks.

I got stuck with Duncan because I got my job not through merit or experience, but because the department is mired in scandal and I was good news, an overnight hero for making an off-duty arrest of an abusive movie star. . . a take-down that got captured on video that went viral worldwide.

My promotion had more to do with the timing of the video, which came out amid revelations that sheriff’s deputies were beating prisoners at the county jail. The enormous positive PR that I got was a welcome distraction from the scandal and encouraged the embattled sheriff to keep me at the top of the news cycle for as long as possible. He did that by showering me with undeserved accolades, which included offering me a promotion. What I wanted was a transfer to Robbery-Homicide and I got it, making me the youngest woman ever in the division. The public and the media loved it. The rank and file at the LASD, primarily the 86 percent of them who had testicles, do not.

Maybe I’m lucky to get partnered with a guy on his way out who doesn’t give a damn anymore. At least he did once, and that counts for something. He knows what he’s doing. Me, I’m not so sure. We’re rolling up on the corpse now. If I mess up this case, my career could be over before it even starts.

What a day this is going to be. . .

Lost Hills is the first book in the NEW “Eve Ronin” police procedural series, released January 1, 2020.

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.

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Meet the author
Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar & two-time Shamus Award nominee and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of over thirty novels, including fifteen Monk mysteries, five internationally bestselling Fox & O’Hare books co-written with Janet Evanovich, and the Washington Post bestseller True Fiction. He’s also written and/or produced scores of TV shows, including Diagnosis Murder, SeaQuest, Monk, and The Glades and co-created the hit Hallmark movie series Mystery 101.

To learn more about Lee, visit his website at leegoldberg.com. You will also find him on Facebook.

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