Book Reviews on My Top Crime Novels
Check out the book reviews on my top crime novels to see what others think of the thrilling suspense books I write just for you. Feel free to leave a review of my books on my Goodreads page or on Amazon.
Lou Mason’s best outing…very satisfying and highly recommended.
Lee Child, NYT Best Selling Author of The Jack Reacher Series, on Joel Goldman’s Deadlocked
[Motion to Kill is] Electrifying.
Publisher’s Weekly
“There was a dead body in the trunk of Avery Fish’s Fleetwood Cadillac.” With that opening sentence, one of the more eye-catching in recent fiction, author Joel Goldman kicks off his deadly spider web of a legal thriller.
The writing is very tight, dark, and honest. The hero has made some decisions over the past number of books that has led him to be embraced by the “dark waters.” I was really blown away that the moral of the story was embrace the laws you swore to uphold, or loose that privilege did indeed come to pass. It was a great read, with a surprise ride that kept me glued to my Kindle until the end. I highly recommend this book to any mystery fan.
Anyi Strang on Final Judgment
This mystery kept me wondering “who done it” till the end! I will surely read another Jack Davis mystery soon.
Karen Walker on Joel Goldman’s The Dead Man
The latest installment of the Jack Davis series is the same as the others: well written, suspenseful, dynamic characters. Joel Goldman has done it again! Buy this one, buy the first two, get hooked on this wonderful series.
Dana L on Joel Goldman’s No Way Out
Shakedown is a really fine novel. Joel Goldman has got it locked and loaded and full of the blood of character and the gritty details that make up the truth. Page for page, I loved it.
Michael Connelly, NYT Bestselling Author
Well, at least in this section I get to write about a Kansas City fellow who got himself published by a New York press. Goldman has done well, producing several suspense books over the last few years that have gotten good notices. This one is no exception. Publishers Weekly has praised the ‘surefooted plotting.’ A KC drug dealer is murdered, and the FBI agent trying to deal with the case is dealing with a physical malady of his own. Here’s why Kansas City mystery lovers should put Shakedown on their nightstands: Goldman, a ‘nuthin’ fancy’ kind of writer, tells a story at a breakneck pace—but better yet, you can trust him to get our geographical details right: “Quindaro, a rundown quadrant in northeast Kansas City, Kansas.” Or his observation that KCK, despite its history as “the disrespected punch line to jokes told by people living south in Johnson County,” has “turned the corner” with its NASCAR track and attendant development.
Kansas City Star, Editor’s Choice of Spring Books
A killer identified via a fleeting facial expression and behavioral cues turns a middle-aged FBI agent dealing with a disruptive disability into an unexpected hero in Goldman’s latest terrific thriller (after Deadlocked). [In Shakedown] After the brutal murder of Marcellus Pearson, a notorious Kansas City drug dealer, the collateral damage includes his cronies; his young son, Jalise; Jalise’s mother (and Pearson’s girlfriend); and an older woman who witnesses the killer fleeing the crime scene. The shooter is Pearson’s mild-mannered neighbor, Latrell Kelly, who harbors more than a few dark secrets behind his soft-spoken ways. FBI Special Agent Jack Davis understands secrets—he has seizures he’s been able to hide until the Pearson crime scene makes him erupt into visible tremors. Davis must take medical leave, but conducts a private investigation that connects to another chilling puzzler involving his missing daughter, Wendy. Is her significant other, Colby Hudson, an undercover and possibly corrupt FBI agent, responsible? Davis’s new girlfriend, jury consultant Kate Scranton, helps him deal with both cases by teaching him how to “read” faces using the Facial Action Coding System. Goldman’s surefooted plotting and Davis’s courage under fire make this a fascinating, compelling read.
Publishers Weekly
Joel Goldman has written another fast-paced legal thriller [The Last Witness]. The plotting is tight, the dialogue is realistic and the characters are compelling. Find a comfortable chair and plan to stay up late.
Sheldon Siegel, Author of The Special Circumstances and Criminal Intent
Fast, furious and thoroughly enjoyable, The Last Witness is classic, and classy, noir for our time, filled with great characters and sharp, stylish writing. We better see more Lou Mason in the future.
Jeffery Deaver, author of The Vanished Man and The Stone Monkey
The Last Witness is an old fashioned, ’40s, tough guy detective story set in modern times and starring a lawyer named Lou Mason instead of a private eye named Sam Spade. There’s a lot of action, loads of suspects, and plenty of snappy dialogue. It’s a fun read from beginning to end.
Phillip Margolin, author of The Associate and Wild Justice
The Last Witness is a legal thriller written the way criminal law should be practiced: from the gut. Author Joel Goldman captures in Lou Mason the perfectly conflicted defense attorney, torn between a homicide detective and an accused client, one a surrogate father to Mason, the other a surrogate brother. Add crackling dialogue and an elegiac evocation of Kansas City in the dead of winter, and The Last Witness becomes one of the premier crime novels of the year.
Jeremiah Healy, author of Turnabout and Spiral
Wanted for good writing: Leawood author Joel Goldman strikes again with Cold Truth. Kansas City trial lawyer Lou Mason doesn’t shy away from the hard cases. Always working close to the edge, he worries that he ‘was taking the dive just to see if he could make it back to the surface, gulping for air, beating the odds, wishing he had a reason to play it safe.’
Leslie McGill, Kansas City Star
Joel Goldman is the real deal. In Cold Truth, Lou Mason goes his namesake Perry one better, and ought to make Kansas City a must-stop on the lawyer/thriller map.
John Lescroart, bestselling author of The First Law
Joel Goldman’s Cold Truth offers us a fast-paced legal thriller… This one’s a paperback that makes good beach reading.
The Pilot, Southern Pines, N.C.
It’s [Cold Truth] a suspenseful, gritty story that keeps the reader engrossed till the very end.
The Facts, Brazosport, TX
In his fourth novel, attorney-turned-author Joel Goldman delivers a well-plotted legal thriller that takes an insightful look at capital punishment and questions of guilty. Deadlocked’s brisk pace is augmented by Goldman’s skill at creating realistic characters and believable situations. Goldman is among the legion of strong paperback writers whose novels often rival those in hardcover.
Oline H. Cogdill, Orlando Sun Sentinel
A certain death penalty case and execution is the catalyst in Joel Goldman’s legal thriller Deadlocked. The fourth Lou Mason case is the best and most thought provoking and when the action starts it is a real page turner delivered by a pro.
Mystery Scene Magazine
The latest Mason case [Deadlocked] is a terrific investigative thriller that makes a clear plea on the use of capital punishment
Harriet Klausner, reviewer
A top-notch short from an author I never read before. This is a legal thriller told not from the point of view of a lawyer or a law clerk, but from the point of view of the defendant as he sits through trial. The story feels authentic and it appears that the author has some familiarity with criminal law and procedure. I recommend this work for those interested in legal thrillers or crime fiction.
Dave Wilde on Joel Goldman’s Knife Fight
Joel Goldman has already written two really good book series featuring characters I love reading about, Jack Davis ex FBI and Lawyer Lou Mason, Stone Cold features another Lawyer in Alex Stone, she’s a Public Defender with a scary client, this book has a good mix of new characters and familiar characters that I’m looking forward to reading more of, if this is your first Joel Goldman book I recommend you also read the Jack Davis and Lou Mason series, they are all excellent reads and will not disappoint!!
Jackmeister on Joel Goldman’s Stone Cold
This kept me interested until the end. A real thriller and mystery. Part of the reason chose book because it is a cross between John Grisham and James Patterson authors that I have read exstensively. Held true to both authors.
Bernice on Joel Goldman’s Stone Cold
Don’t forget to leave your own review of my books on my Goodreads page or on Amazon.
