Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Murder By Design by Lee Goldberg Series: Edison Bixby #1
Published by Thomas & Mercer on June 1, 2026
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 236
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible
Edison Bixby is wealthy, handsome, and, due to a traumatic brain injury, impulsively rude. He’s also a brilliant insurance investigator who solves baffling crimes by figuring out how the design of the man-made world around us makes them possible. Enter Wally a struggling actor hired to keep Bixby from offending everyone he meets.
Their first case together looks like a simple accident. Caroline Crowley took a nasty fall down a staircase at a shopping mall in front of dozens of witnesses. Video clearly shows the deadly misstep. But Bixby is certain she was murdered by design, subtly manipulated into causing her own demise. The mall itself made the crime intentional, if not inevitable.
What happens when a former LA police detective is left with a brain injury that makes him spout uncomfortable truth whenever he opens his mouth, but is a whiz at solving crime still? He goes private eye in the insurance investigation industry. Lee Goldberg’s new detective had me laughing aloud and riding along merrily as he and his sidekick work their case.
Edison Bixby had a high case closure rate and still does, but the injury that took away his career made it so he’d never have to work again from the payout. But he wants to work and he has an undeniable ability with the way his mind sees designs in the facts of a case and the lay of the crime scene. To keep his now way too honest tongue from leading him astray, he’s hired an assistant. An actor, waiting for the big chance, Wally Nash, has the job of preventing his employer from spouting all the wrong things at the wrong times. It is Wally who is narrating the story from his keen actor skill observant eyes.
The case of the woman dying in the mall was just the thing to showcase Edison and Wally’s partnership and combined talents. Edison has his love interest still on the police force and his rep and contacts, but he’s definitely the lead in digging out the truth behind a death that was never meant to be tagged as a murder. I found Murder by Design a lighter, yet still engrossing thriller. This was only my third read from an author I keep swearing I’m going to read more of his backlist, especially his Eve Ronin series. Those are more serious in nature than this new Edison Bixby series and I confess to really loving the unfiltered tongue of Edison and his worthy assistant. For those who like their thrillers with a lighter touch, I offer up this one.
About Lee Goldberg
#1 New York Times Bestselling author Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar Award and two-time Shamus Award nominee whose many TV writing and/or producing credits include “Martial Law,” “SeaQuest,” “Diagnosis Murder,””Hunter,” “Spenser: For Hire,” “Nero Wolfe,” “Missing.” “Monk” and “The Glades.” He’s also the co-author of the Fox & O’Hare series with Janet Evanovich (The Heist, The Chase, The Job, The Scam, The Pursuit etc), “The Walk,” “Watch Me Die,” “King City,” the “Dead Man” series, as well as the “Diagnosis Murder” and “Monk” series of original mystery novels.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing.Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators.Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance.Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
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- Murder by Design by Lee Goldberg @leematthewgoldberg.bsky.social #Thomas&Mercer@sophiarose1816 - June 24, 2026
- 🎧 A Fool and His Honey by Charlaine Harris @realcharlaine.bsky.social #TheresePlummer @recordedbooks.bsky.social @berkleypub.bsky.social @BerkleyPub @sophiarose1816 #SundaySeries - June 21, 2026
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