If you recognize Matt Goldman’s name as an author, it may be from his Nils Shapiro private detective novels. And, Nils even appears in Goldman’s latest, The Murder Show. However, this book features two characters who knew each other in their teens, and reunite twenty years later to try to discover what happened to a friend.

Ethan Harris is the showrunner for a TV show, “The Murder Show”, featuring a PI who solves murders that the police can’t solve. While the writers and actors are on strike, he’s supposed to be coming up with an idea for the fourth season. He’s stuck, so he returns home to Minnesota to visit his parents.

When he sees his high school crush, Ro Greeman, arguing with a man in her house across the yard, Ethan knocks on the door to break it up. Ro’s now a plainclothes detective and she was arguing with a fellow officer. But, once he leaves, Ro has a proposition for Ethan, an idea for his show. Twenty-two years earlier they were on the way to a cabin with a classmate, Ricky, when Ricky’s car died. He never returned. After Ethan and Ro reported his disappearance to the Wisconsin police, they found Ricky’s body along the road, apparently the result of a hit-and-run. But, Ro thinks there’s more to it. Too many white teens about that same age have disappeared in the Minnesota, Wisconsin area. And, she thinks she and Ethan should investigate.

While I liked Ethan, it felt as if Ro manipulated him throughout the story. And, there were too many murders, too many disappearances. It never felt as if Ethan has any control over this story or his actions. He may have been forty, but his insecurities allowed him to be too easily controlled by women.

I liked the concept of The Murder Show, but I’ll pass on others if it becomes a series.

Matt Goldman’s website is https://www.mattgoldman.com/

The Murder Show by Matt Goldman. Forge Books, 2025. ISBN 9781250325709 (hardcover), 304p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley from the publisher, through NetGalley, with no promise of a review.