Review: Dream Town (Eve Ronin Book Five) by Lee Goldberg

 

As Dream Town by Lee Goldberg begins, Eve Ronin is living a nightmare. She made a bargain with the devil and now the reality has hit as she is being forced to watch how a film crew is handling her real life recent past. She is the youngest homicide detective in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and is on scene where an incident involving her took place.

 

If that is not bad enough, her estranged father, Vince Nyby, is the director. He wants back in her life and one way is by manipulating their every encounter. Of course, her mom is also good at that and has a minor role in the first episode. Eve Ronin wanted nothing to do with any of this, but at least this way, she has some say as to how this fictionalized life of her is portrayed.

 

Her partner, Duncan “Donuts” Pavone is on set with her as he decided not to retire just yet. He also is his own one-man crime wave on the catering provided on set. He is enjoying the food as well as Ronin’s disgust with the trappings of Hollywood.

 

Soon they leave and are headed back to their station, Lost Hills, when Pavone takes a phone call from Captain Mel Dubois. He recently took over and the fact he is calling Pavone directly means something is up. Pavone soon explains that Dubois called because somebody was out hiking with his dogs in the nearby upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve and the dogs found what appear to be human bones. The land was a ranch at one time and now is a state park. The open space is also a vital wildlife corridor that links the Santa Monica Mountains to other mountain ranges to the north.

 

Somebody from their forensics department, Nas Baker, is already on scene as she was summoned from a nearby subdivision where she was working another unrelated case. She believes the bones are human, but they are going to need anthropologist. Good thing Dr. Daniel Brooks is also around and can take a look.

 

If the bones are human, it could be related to gang activity. Such gang activity is a known problem and one that leads to body dumps in relatively isolated places. That could be what happened here as Dr. Brooks has quickly determined that the dogs found two leg bones and that death was about two years ago. He also has determined that both leg bones are left ones. That means they have at least two victims. He also believes that both were probably male. Since the dogs were running free of their leashes while the owner stood some distance away where he could not see them, the bones could have come from anywhere nearby making the area to be searched massive. Finding the rest is going to take some time.

 

Between that crime scene and being assigned to the filming locations for the first episode of the new series on her life, as well as the aftereffects of events in Movieland and moving into her new house, Ronin has a lot going on. But, this is Los Angeles and that means when a celeb is killed, she as the celebrity homicide detective, is going to handle the case.

 

She gets the early morning before dawn phone call, Kitty Winslow was murdered at her home in the compound in Hidden Hills. Fortunately, Ronin’s new house is just minutes away and she quickly arrives on scene. One of the stars of the reality television show, Life with the Winslows, the group is rich thanks to dad, Caleb Winslow, being a star of various westerns. Like other such “reality” shows, nearly all of what is portrayed is fake and heavily orchestrated thanks to script writers and others. Now the major star of the show is dead and Ronin and Pavone have yet another case to deal with.

 

This latest in the Eve Ronin series is another good one. Many moving parts are in play here in this complex police procedural that pulls the reader along at a rapid pace. So too is the occasional flash of humor or sardonic whit as a character comments on the players and the myths that Hollywood spins for our viewing pleasure.

 

As always, one could start here, but like any good series that builds on itself, it is best to start from the beginning. In this case, begin with Lost Hills and work your way forward. You will be glad you did. Doing so will also make Dream Town an even more lively and entertaining read than it already is. 

Make sure you read Lesa Holstine's review today as well.

For some reason, the Amazon Associate image box no longer works, even on posts like this one, that were set up weeks ago. So, please go here to pick it up.

 

My reading copy was an ARC from the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, via NetGalley.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2023