Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg (  Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com )

Thomas & Mercer, 2020

ISBN-13:  9781542093804

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition

Eve Ronin has only been in the Robbery-Homicide Department for three months.  Her partner, Duncan ‘Donuts’ Pavone, is counting the days until retirement.  He is training her in the ins and outs of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and how to work with the other police organizations, something that is proving to be tricky since she already has a reputation.  She recently busted the action hero actor of a series of movies called Deathfist in a video that went viral, and then took advantage of  her unwanted notoriety to leapfrog over the officers that had spent years working toward the position.  It hasn’t gone over well.  Duncan puts Eve in charge of a new case.  An unwed mother, her two kids, and their dog are missing, and their apartment was drenched in blood.  It is a case that will either make her career or break it.

Lost Hills was a well-written procedural crime fiction story.  It had a lot of detailed police procedures built into it that gave it an air of authenticity.  At times, the level of detail was a bit much for me, but it didn’t break the story.  Instead, it gave me a strong sense of how complicated the legal system was at the police officer’s level.  The pacing and action flowed well, leading through the plot and its twists.  The plot wasn’t the most complicated thing, but it was full of great action.  I really liked the ending climax!  The characters were believable, and I could picture them as they went about the investigation.  The dialogue fit each of them well.  The descriptions were good, with just enough detail so that I knew what was going on.  A fun piece of set dressing was that the story was in Los Angeles, and the author worked in some interesting bits of trivia.  It started kind of slow for me, but once it got going, I had to hang on.

All in all, it was a great procedural crime fiction piece and worth reading.  Recommended for adult readers.

Contains:  Swearing, adult situations, gore, violence.

Reviewed by:  Aaron Fletcher