The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg Interview

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg Interview A cold case heats up, revealing a deadly conspiracy in a twisty thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg. A catastrophic wildfire scorches the Santa Monica Mountains, exposing the charred remains of a woman who disappeared years ago. The investigation is assigned to Eve Ronin, the youngest homicide detective in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, a position that forces her to prove herself again and again. This time, though, she has much more to prove. Bones don’t lie, and these have a horrific story to tell. Eve tirelessly digs into the past, unearthing dark secrets that reveal nothing about the case is as it seems. With almost no one she can trust, her relentless pursuit of justice for the forgotten dead could put Eve’s own life in peril. About Lee Goldberg #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Lee Goldberg is an ex-Navy SEAL, nuclear physicist and a professional Daniel Craig impersonator. Okay, that's not true. But he wants this biography to be really exciting, so pay attention. If things bog down, I've been instructed to add a car chase or some explicit sex. Here's the real story. Lee Goldberg writes books and television shows. His mother wanted him to be a doctor, and his grandfather wanted him to go into the family furniture business. Instead, he put himself through UCLA as a freelance journalist, writing for such publications as American Film, Starlog, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle (He also wrote erotic letters to the editor for Playgirl at $25-a-letter, but he doesn't tell people about that, he just likes to boast about those "tiffany" credits). He published his first book ".357 Vigilante" (as "Ian Ludlow," so he'd be on the shelf next to Robert Ludlum) while he was still a UCLA student. The West Coast Review of Books called his debut "as stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort," singling the book out as "The Best New Paperback Series" of the year. Naturally, the publisher promptly went bankrupt and he never saw a dime in royalties. (But the books are available on the Kindle as "The Jury Series") Welcome to publishing, Lee. His subsequent books include the non-fiction books "Successful Television Writing" and "Unsold Television Pilots" ("The Best Bathroom Reading Ever!" San Francisco Chronicle) as well as the novels "My Gun Has Bullets" ("It will make you cackle like a sitcom laugh track," Entertainment Weekly), "Dead Space" ("Outrageously entertaining," Kirkus Reviews), "Watch Me Die" ("as dark and twisted as anything Hammet or Chandler ever dreamed up," Kirkus Reviews). "Take me now," she moaned, "you hot writer stud." She tore off her clothes and tackled him onto the floor, unable to control her raging lust. Nothing excited her more than being around a writer with a big list of books. Got your attention again? Good. I don't know about you, but I was starting to nod off. Where was I? Oh yes... Goldberg broke into television with a freelance script sale to "Spenser: For Hire." Since then, his TV writing & producing credits have covered a wide variety of genres, including sci-fi (SeaQuest), cop shows (Hunter, The Glades), martial arts (Martial Law), whodunits (Diagnosis Murder, Nero Wolfe), the occult (She-Wolf of London), kid's shows (R.L. Stine's The Nightmare Room), T&A (Baywatch), comedy (Monk) and utter crap (The Highwayman). His TV work has earned him two Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America. His two careers, novelist and TV writer, merged when he began writing the "Diagnosis Murder" series of original novels, based on the hit CBS TV mystery that he also wrote and produced, and later wrote the 15 bestselling novels based on "Monk," another show that he worked on. He is co-creator of the hit Hallmark movie series "Mystery 101." He also he teamed up with Janet Evanovich to wr...

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain now here's your host chris voss hi folks chris voss here from the chris voss show.com the chris voss show.com hey we're coming here with a another great podcast we certainly appreciate you tuning in and coming on the show. Wow. 2021. Holy crap. Hopefully you've been catching the latest episodes.

We just did a huge four-part rendition where we went through all the authors that were on the show last year. And I gave you some of the backstories and the details from the green room, some of my impressions of the authors, all the fun we had, and some of the stories and antidotes and stuff. So if you get a chance, go listen to that four-part series. I just banged through all the authors that were on the show. It was quite extraordinary to go through my remembrances of the shows and stuff, and it was quite fun. And there's some really cool gems and tidbits of what I share with you about the authors in there.

Go to goodreads.com forward slash Chris Voss, and you can go to see the live, well, it's not live, but the video version of this at youtube.com forward slash chris voss and you can go to see the live well it's not live but the video version of this at youtube.com forward slash chris voss you can also go to the chris voss show on facebook there's a ton of groups on facebook you can google the chris voss show there's a bunch of groups on linkedin you can uh follow the chris voss show as well and we're also on instagram go to the cvpn.com follow our name name podcast. And this episode is brought to you by IFI Audio and their new NEO IDSD. The NEO is the new wave of digital sound listening for your desktop, music, gaming, and bleeding edge Bluetooth, even MQA audio file decoding.

We're using it in the studio right now. I've loved my experience with it so far. It just makes everything sound so much more richer and better and takes things to the next level. IFI Audio is an award-winning audio tech company with one aim in mind, to improve your music enjoyment of quality sound, eradicate noise, distortion, and hiss from your listening experience. Check out their new incredible lineup of DACs and audio enhancement devices at ifi-audio.com. Today we have a most excellent author. This gentleman is the author. He's kind of a fledgling author. He only has like more than 30 novels, and he's done a lot of writing. Let me get into his stuff.

Lee Goldberg, he's written his newest book, and the newest book is called Bone bestselling author of more than 30 novels. He has also written and produced many TV shows, including Diagnosis Murder, Sequest, and Monk. He is the co-creator of the Mystery 101 series of Hallmark Movies. As an international television consultant, he has advised networks and studios in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, China, Sweden, and the Netherlands on the creation, writing, and production of episodic television series. You can find more information about Lee and his work at leegoldberg.com. I just did the plug for you. Welcome to the show. How are you, Lee? It's great to be here. I love all the places you can find the Chris Voss Show.

You left out Pornhub, though, which I think is your biggest audience. That's kind of a secret. It's kind of a secret thing. And we even have an OnlyFans, too, right? Everyone's got one. And I want to thank you for mentioning all of my credits that appeal to the elderly audience out there. That's great. I'm big in retirement homes across the country.

I walk in there and I'm like a god. They wave their walkers and they throw Depends at me. I can't get within a mile of a retirement home without hearing the cries of praise. You're laughing. I'm telling the truth no you're killing me i'm up there with andy griffin's ghost you know actually wasn't he on one of the shows that my mom referenced we talked in the matlock yes yeah and she's like he was on the show and i'm like okay well all right well there you go um so uh yeah, as we did talk prior in the green room, if you will. And you have a beautiful green room, by the way.

That cyclone massage recliner you've got and all-you-can-eat Doritos. I may never leave your green room. Yeah, and there's even like a Jeffrey tube and washing basin to wash your hands. Essential for these Zoom conversations. That's just bad i made that reference so anyway uh my mom loves your stuff so you you clearly know your audience and people can check you out uh and uh so lee let's get into the book bone canyon your newest book that's just come out uh is this available right now or it's available everywhere and hardcover paperback ebook and audio and it's

not a geriatric book it's it's not diagnosis murder or matlock or murder she wrote i i hope what it is is a cutting edge police procedural that breaks some of the cliches and tropes of of the genre and offers an exhilarating read it's about a young woman the youngest female homicide detective in los angeles county sheriff's about a young woman, the youngest female homicide detective in Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, who didn't get the job because she deserved it or has the expertise, but because she made an off-duty arrest of a Hollywood star who was beating up his girlfriend

and all got on video, and she became a viral video celebrity and was able to leverage that in a promotion she doesn't deserve. And so she's constantly having to prove herself. And this is one of her most challenging cases. She's not Barnaby Jones. She's not Dr. Mark Sloan.

She's not even Harry Bosch. She's struggling to prove herself. She's got unique skills and an innate sense of justice, but makes some huge mistakes along the way. So now is this the second part in the series? It's the second book in the series. The third book will be out in October. And depending on how well these two books do,

hopefully there'll be a fourth book in 2022. And then maybe there'll become something on Hallmark like a Monk series. Not Hallmark. Actually, I can't, I've signed a non-disclosure agreement, but a major television network has already uh option uh the eve ronan series and is developing it could be on the air as early as this coming fall i should be so lucky this is a great reason to get the book

guys because you can get the heads up that you can say i read that book when there you go so um 30 plus books quite an extraordinary career um you sound like it's over you had such an extraordinary career before you did my show and your career ended that's great i don't know so i have to call arby's and see if they're accepting job applications. Amazon is. So there's that. So in writing the book, what was it that motivated you to want to write this particular book on this subject or name it Bone Canyon or shape the story around that narrative? Well, a couple reasons. One, I really want to get back to Eve Ronan, a character I love writing. But the book picks up right after the end of Lost Hills, and Lost Hills ends with a giant wildfire racing through the Santa Monica Mountains, which was

fictional when I wrote it, but actually happened. There was a massive wildfire that went through the Santa Monica Mountains. And in its wake, all these trees and shrubs and stuff that had built up over the decades burned away, and not only revealed the naked hillsides, but revealed a lot of bodies. People came back to their homes and there were bones in the backyard. And it turned out that gang members were killing their adversaries and tossing their bodies in the canyons. And the bodies were never found because the foliage hid them. So with all that stuff burned away, all these old bones came tumbling down. So those were found, but also there was a woman who had Alzheimer's who wandered

out of a museum in Midtown Los Angeles, and they found her in a canyon. There was a couple that disappeared on their way back from LAX. They found their car in a canyon. That was so fascinating to me. I had to write a novel based on that premise that the fire cleared away all this brush and now the dead are rising. So while my book is not based on reality, it's based on some inspired by real events. That's awesome. Note to self, erase my canyon GPS history from a few years ago yeah excuse me for taking a drink i i have a bad allergy today and and my nose and throat are all clogged up it's diet coke so it's it's okay no one watching will we'll get there you go diet plug in there um i'll ask them for some money

so this is really interesting it's a it's an interesting book because there's some science that you put into this with scorched bones and a lot of the different things that goes into this. It was quite extraordinary to learn some of this stuff. Did you do any background study on this? I did a lot of research. I went to a homicide investigators training conference. I interviewed forensic anthropologists. I read a bunch of books on forensic anthropology. I read a bunch of papers on it. And then I kind of toss it all aside. I don't want to overwhelm my readers with evidence that, look at all the research I did, and bore them with all this exposition and dry facts. I just wanted informing what my characters say and do. And so there's a knowledge behind it. I really don't like when authors feel the

need to prove to readers, hey, look, I actually went to this place, or hey, look, I took this course. All I'm looking for is the one telling detail, the one colorful moment, the one smell, the one taste, the one visual that will ground my story in reality so I can completely BS you the rest of the time, that you'll believe all of my imaginary crap. Because I'm not doing a documentary. I'm writing fiction. I'm writing entertainment. So all I need to do is to completely deceive you so that you buy what I'm saying and then you're along for the ride.

It's called getting the reader to suspend their disbelief. And the way to do that is with a nugget of truth and you can trump the rest of it as in donald trump nothing my first marriage um uh so this is pretty interesting i mean you you you put some studies into it i was pulling the joke out there you went to you said you went to homicide training which uh i think my i think my girlfriend uh watches CS shows all the time. She calls it that, homicide training. My wife, who's French, says, my husband spends all his days doing perfect murders. If I'm killed before him, I don't care if I'm hit by a bus or a meteor.

I want a complete investigation because I was murdered. It doesn't sound like Inspector Clouseau, but I can't do her accent. No, I spend all day thinking about murder, so she's worried. And she has no reason to be. We've been happily married for 30 years. That's hilarious that you thought of that, Ingo, where you're like, hey, honey, is that life insurance pretty good? She's like, you write murder books. I don't know.

Yeah, my brother Todd and I, if we're being watched by the FBI for our internet searches, we're in deep, deep trouble. Oh, I didn't even think about that. Deep, deep trouble. You're like, no, I'm not researching murder to murder someone. I'm writing a book. I'm researching, you know, bombs and child pornography and poisons. And I mean, all this stuff. And my search history is terrifying

note to self when they catch me use my search history for a book that's my defense uh so uh pretty interesting uh you took an inner interrogation course yes um that's ordinarily closed to civilians uh at the los angeles police academy uh that was pretty interesting did you what did you learn from that i learned that my daughter lies all the time all the time constantly she a teenager terrible liar i love my daughter but no um but it was fascinating um now i watch interviews in a whole new way on television. He's lying. He's lying. He's a whole bunch of tells. And I've taken actually this course in a number of venues. It's taught by former LAPD homicide detective Paul Bishop. He's also an anti-terrorism expert,

but his real skill is interrogation. And he goes around the country to law enforcement agencies, big and small, teaching the skills of interrogation. And I've attended his course, the hour-long version, the day-long version, the multiple-day version, and they're all fascinating. And the most intense one was the one I attended at the Los Angeles Police Academy, and it was great. But again, it just informs my writing. I don't harp on it. It just makes the interrogation scenes in my books and my scripts more realistic. Not that I'm telling people.

In fact, I don't say in my book that I attended the interrogation training that I can waterboard with the best of them. I just... I even waterboard my dog. Did you take a crap in my office? Yeah, I get that. If I leave the toilet seat up, I get the waterboarding. So you set the series in your hometown of Calabasas. Why did you choose that location?

Because I'm painfully lazy. I just, I don't want to leave the house no um i did it because i wanted to write a police procedural and there's no city i know better than the one i i live in which is essentially los angeles but los angeles has been done to death by michael connelly raymond chandler robert craze joseph wamba Those are just in books. I mean, then you also have all the TV shows that have been set here, all the movies. How the hell can I write about Los Angeles in a way that hasn't been

written about to death? So I chose writing not about the LAPD, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which hasn't been written about too often. And then I wrote about this island within Los Angeles, the Lost Hills jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. It encompasses Calabasas, Hidden Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains, Topanga Canyon, and Malibu. So you have all kinds of socioeconomic classes in there. You have rural, you have movie stars, you have state parks.

You actually have movie studios, you have movie backlots, you have western towns and things that are erected in Santa Monica State Park. It's rich and no one has written about it. Plus there's built-in conflict because constant fights over jurisdiction because the Lost Hills jurisdiction is bounded by the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, the LAPD and other jurisdictions. And it's a big fight over who has the rights to intercede in that crime.

So it was great. It gave me so much to write about and hopefully will give me so much to write about. And I don't need to walk very far to do my research. I could do it during a pandemic. There you go. There you go. And the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station that's in the book

is also part of your area. It's real. I mean, I didn't make that up and it's notorious. I mean, that's where Mel Gibson was arrested. That's where, I don't know if you, where you live or if this, this story went national, but there's Matrice Richardson. She was the woman who was arrested. She had eaten a bunch of meals. She ate a very expensive meal at a Malibu restaurant and she was psychologically unhinged and she got arrested and hauled into lost hills and and they released her at like two in the morning didn't call anybody to pick her up didn't arrange for

any transportation and she disappeared and i can't remember it was a few months or a year later her her bones were found in a canyon in the santa monica mountains and no one knows what happened to her and there have been all kinds of of huge scandals in the Lost Hills station, but also Kobe Bryant's helicopter crashed right below my backyard here in Calabasas. And that was a Lost Hills case. There've been a number of big cases involving celebrities in Hidden Hills and Malibu and Calabasas that Lost Hills has dealt with. And Lost Hills has cycled through a lot of commanders because of sexual harassment and other allegations so it's it's it's a great setting for my book as well obviously they have not let me in the door but otherwise it's a great setting you guys sound

like the bermuda triangle of la what the hell it is it is it's it's a fascinating corner of los angeles so the story tells the uh tell us more about the character and what she does. There's I think there's a secondary character in there, her police chief and stuff like that. Eve Ronan, as I mentioned earlier, is in her 20s. She's the youngest female homicide detective ever in Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department because she got this job by leveraging her popularity at a time when the sheriff's department is plagued with scandal and corruption, she's not well liked in her department by men or by women. And although she has some innate skills, she doesn't really know what she's doing. But she's determined to do the right thing, which puts her into conflict with a lot of people. She's partnered with a fat old detective on his way to retirement because no

one else wanted to be with her. He doesn't either, but he gets stuck with her. And he grudgingly learns to respect her talents and also becomes sort of a mentor to her. So it's an odd couple partner situation in that she's partnered with a guy who is old enough to be her father who's almost three times older than her and is nearing retirement any moment but also she's dealing with her own celebrity it's not just the viral video but the first case that was in my book lost hills got her so much fame that now there's a television series being developed about her so now she has to deal with the mythical version of herself and and all the jealousy that comes from the hollywood attention and and the push pull of do i give in to to that to hollywood and and she has her own unlike a lot of these detectives that i'm so tired of these middle-aged

white detectives who are brilliant at their job, but misunderstood by their bosses and have a dark past. Their family was killed by a serial killer. They lost their testicles in a bomb blast in Vietnam, or they've got alcoholism and drug abuse or all of the above. I want a character who was more realistic, who has a family, who has brothers and sisters and parents and has to deal with those issues without a serial killer in her dark past, you know, that kind of crap. And that also makes, I think, Eve Ronan a different kind of character because she's got her mom to deal with and her brothers and sisters and and nothing outrageous really um haunting her you know she you see when you look at some of these books i mean

i don't know how the authors write these characters like really how many of us have been wiped out by serial killers or whose ex-wife was a serial killer or whatever it's just i'm tired of it i'm being haunted from the taco bell from last night but that's another story i'm sorry i'm being haunted from the taco bell from last night but that's another story anyway uh so she has some internal conflict uh i mean does she have some internal conflict or oh yeah she she fears she's a fraud, much like the author of the book. And also having to live up to the high expectations she sets for herself, the high expectations the media has set for her, and go against the low expectations of her colleagues who are trying to sabotage her every step of the way. And she's so relentless in what she does that she really is risking her own health. She's young, so she can pull all-nighters and stuff, but that only goes for so long. And that's one thing her partner is warning her about. You can't keep at this pace without putting

yourself and other people in danger. The other thing that I hope is different about my books from some of these other police procedurals is it's a straightforward police procedural, but there is humor in it. I'm a firm believer that even at the worst moments in our life, there's humor. And I just, I don't like books that are humorless, and there are far too many of them that are. And I'm not talking about dark humor about, you know, murder and stuff, but the kind of humor between individuals, relationship humor, that kind of thing. So there is some fun in these books. There's action. What I'm trying to do is give you an escape from your everyday life, to give you some fun and some adventure and some exhilaration. And I want you to get lost in the book and have a good time. I'm

not trying to sell a message about sexism or women's rights or police corruption or anything. I'm just trying to tell a good story. I think it's important that you've kind of made that distinction. It's kind of unique because so much of those books are just filled with so much cliche. How do you feel about that? I can't stand it. It's lazy. It's absolutely lazy. And I purposely set up some cliche situations in these books just to undermine them

and to poke fun at how stupid the cliches are. Like my Eve's partner, Duncan Donuts Pavone, is well aware he's a walking cliche. A big fat middle-aged detective days away from retirement who gets a new young partner. Of course, he's going to die. Of course, he's going to get shot. He doesn't want to walk out of the house because of the cliches hanging over his head. And of course, the cliche is that he will hate her, but there are things to hate about her and there are things to appreciate. And that's the other thing I hope to do in my books is there are no black and white villains.

There's no one who's all bad or all good. The people who oppose Eve Ronan, in some ways I think are absolutely right to oppose her. She's not perfect and I don't want to paint anybody in my books as a black and white

villain. That's an interesting take on it. Do you find that because of, I mean, you've obviously written a lot between the TVs and it shows in the books and everything else. What was it that maybe you felt you learn with this new series that are discovered or, or, or maybe some new takes that you took from a summation of your experience? This book, These books, the two Eve Ronans I've written so far,

were entirely new ways of writing for me. I made the conscious decision to remove my authorial voice. I wanted my writing to disappear. I wanted readers to be able to forget they were reading a book. So I cut anything that called attention to the writing. With the possible exception of the first paragraph of each book, there is no authorial voice. It's just the facts, man. I want the stories to be carried by the actions and dialogue of my characters. So that if there's something clever to be said, it has to come out of the mouth of one of my characters or I cut it. So you're not going to

find wonderful metaphors about this and that and great similes because I don't want you to notice the writing. So pulling myself out of the writing and trying not to be clever and funny and colorful, whatever, by writing, was hard work. It was a whole new voice for me. And it actually was harder than any other writing I've ever done, where I can just be myself, where I adopt a voice or an attitude, and that carries the book. Here, the attitude was no attitude at all. It was just, but yet having the writing do its job. So it was a real challenge for me. And yet it's paid off.

Lost Hills is probably the most successful book I've written commercially, but also critically. And I think that is due to the fact that no one wants to read my writing, that I should have stopped writing. Well, a long time ago, just, I think that's, I think that's an awesome perspective.

I see that. I see that sometimes in books, you know, the breaking of the fourth wall, if you will. I don't know if that applies to books as it does in TV movies. And there's sometimes when that happens where you're just like, I really wish you hadn't done that.

I was, I was engaged. And now you, you spoiled the're just like, I really wish you hadn't done that. I was, I was engaged. And now you, you spoiled the, you know, I mean, people, there are people who read books for the writing who really want to see a beautifully crafted sentence who want to see a great metaphor. And, and I can appreciate that there are many times I'll be reading a book when that was a brilliant sentence, but then I'm pulled out. I'm, I'm,

I'm noticing the writing. And I have found that when I'm the most entertained by a book, I'm lost in it. It's all visual and I'm in the middle of that world. And as a writer, I will notice how it's done. I appreciate the craft behind it. But in general, I tend to grab – I think if you look at the books, for the most part, it's not a hard and fast rule, but if you look at the books that hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, they're written in the way I just described. Michael Connelly,

Harlan Coben, Janet Ivanovich, Lee Child, they're, for the most part, very good at having the writing disappear. Letting the story and the very good at having the writing disappear. Letting the story and the characters and the momentum carry the book. And I think that's very important. I think that's brilliant. Anything we need to know more about the character? Clearly, we don't want to disclose the whole book. No, I don't think so. I mean, you don't have to read the first book to enjoy the second.

They all are standalone. That's another beef I have. I don't like these books where you have to read 37 books before to appreciate book number 38 you should be able to pick up a book anywhere in the series and enjoy it just as much as the ones that uh the people who've read all the previous books that was the problem i have with jr tokian he's a real jerk anyway i'm just uh i think i saw one of your interviews uh bch had some influence, the TV show Bosch on Amazon? No, just that I love the show. I love reading Michael Connelly's books.

I love the show, and I've wanted to write something like that. And in some ways, I hate Michael Connelly because he's done the police procedural so well, it's like, how's anyone else going to do it? But then I thought about it. Ed McBain did a fantastic job with the 87th Precinct. Ian Rankin does a fantastic job with Rebus. There's room for another police procedural if you can find a fresh take.

And that's the real challenge. Too many people right now are imitating Ian Rankin and Michael Connelly and Ed McBain. There aren't enough people breaking new ground in the police procedural space, I think. So do you see this becoming more than a three-book series? You already have the third one in the can, right? Oh, I hope, but it really all depends on the readers out there buying the books, because if the sales don't merit it, there won't be more Eve Ronans. So I'm really at the mercy, I'm at the mercy of readers to please, please buy books or if i'm so lucky i god willing there's a tv series well then that might uh make more books possible but then i'll have the weird experience of

in my books i have eve ronan you know agonizing over the fact there might be a tv series about her when there could actually be a tv series about her on the air which would be really weird i should have such problems so uh awesome awesome book awesome writing here and i love how it's standalone too where people can just jump in and then if they want to go back and read the original um so uh my mom wanted me to ask you a question uh these are my teeth well no i don't color my hair and i don't take viagra i think she wanted your number uh let's see uh on monk when you wrote that series did was there somebody that you you uh based that on in your own life i didn't create monk monk was created by a fantastic writer named andy breckman and the show is really a reflection of him and his character. He's not obsessive compulsive, but he has a very unique sense of humor that we all tried to copy in a way.

That show is pure Andy. And I was just along for the ride. Yeah. I tried watching it, but I suffered from ADHD, which made it worse. I don't suffer from any of that. And my wife would read, I wrote 15 monk novels, original monk novels and four monk episodes. And my wife would read, I wrote 15 monk novels, original monk novels, and four monk episodes. And my wife was like, you obviously know how to clean up after yourself. How come you don't do it? Why can't you be like the character you write?

I know you know how to use disinfectant and a mop. Why don't you mop, you? Wow. Every day is the big panther at your house. That's true oh what a great what a great actor uh i forget his name but what a great actor he was oh you mean peter sellers is the peter sellers yeah uh they were both great i used to watch monk and

and be like that guy really is a good actor to to have to play i mean it's a really complex uh what's a concentrated character i think i don't know that's tough he did a great job and managed to make monk sympathetic and real not a cartoon character because he easily could have become maxwell smart or inspector cluso but he didn't and that's a testament to tony shalhoub's acting but also andy breckman's writing and the writing of the of the monk staff and then we talked about this in the pre-show she wanted me to ask you is diagnosis murder sequest and mystery 101 series anything more coming anything more there will be more mystery 101s i mean sequest and diagnose murder are finished and have been for quite some time but mystery Mystery 101 is going strong.

I hope it runs longer than Gunsmoke. I hope it just keeps going. There's a sixth movie that's been shot and hasn't aired yet. But I'm sure it's coming in the next few months. Oh, she'll be excited. I'll have to tell her that. She loves the shows. In fact, she wants to read the book as soon as I go hand it over to her.

So anything more we need to know about the book? What was in to do it? Some of the writing? No, just that you need to buy it or the IRS will audit you. So buy the book. It's essential reading for you and your family. In fact, you probably need two copies, one to read and one just to admire on your shelf. In fact, you probably need two copies, one to read and one just to admire on your shelf. There you go. In fact, you should probably buy a special pin light to highlight it on your shelf. So your friends and family know you're literate and well-read and part of our society. There you go. And you have some of that in your background with some of your books. Oh yeah, those are, there we are, there we are. I forget the camera's kind of reversed. Yeah. Those are shadow boxes, I guess you call

them, of my books. My publisher is great about marking milestones. And when your book has sold a hundred thousand copies, they sell you, they send you, not sell you, they send you those, those, you know, shadow box books. So that's a bit of pride for me. There you go. Awesome sauce. Congratulations. Thank you. And it is a beautiful book,

beautiful cover. It's very California with its palm trees. Oh, I should show you what's hidden behind my head. Let me move my head out of the way. That was the original cover for my last 357 Vigilante novel

back in the 80s. They used to do painted covers back then, and i got the original painted artwork and for each book they would paint something new in the lower half of the um of the of the picture to depict whatever was happening in that book so this before you know stock footage and and you know all the photoshop and all that so i got the original painting and i have that up on my that's really awesome you should probably move that door over so that the the painting shows all the time yeah uh so it was wonderful to have you on the you're you're incredibly funny guy and so having this with

in the writing bearing my dark soul to you and now you're laughing at me i'm sorry i'm laughing along with you uh this just in lee goldberg has a dark soul i don't know i'm sure if it's news is news a hollywood writer has a dark soul the real reason my nose is running cocaine okay i got strippers waiting right outside that door there for me as soon as we're off the air you know we were talking about this before the show it would really be funny if someone had like a dominatrix run in and she'd be like are you there for your session or something you know like when the pandemic had just started there was some reporter i believe in spain who was reporting on the news and in the background a naked woman walked up the stairs and it wasn't his wife. Oh, wow. He got nailed.

He just, uh, He got nailed and then his wife found out. Uh, so it's awesome to have you on. Give us your plugs one more time, Lee, where people can find you. Easy to find. You can find me at Lee Goldberg.com. Also on Twitter at Lee Goldberg and Facebook at Lee Goldberg. But don't confuse me with the Lee Goldberg, the weatherman in New York.

I'm sick and tired of people complaining about his forecast to me every day and sending me pictures of snow and hail. I don't care. Maybe you should do a book where you murder. That's the thing. They're sending stuff to this newsstand, this weathercaster, a really great guy. He and I have appeared together on TV, but I'm clearly not him.

Look at the picture. I'm not the guy. And they bitch at me. You said it'd be sunny tomorrow, today, and it's not. And we planned a wedding for today because of you. Wow. Stay home and read my book instead. I thought my YouTube audience of trolls was brutal.

It's not me. So thank you very much, Lee, for coming on the show. coming on the show we appreciate you spending some time with us today my pleasure thank you very much thanks to my audience for tuning in we certainly appreciate you guys be here be sure to check out lee goldberg's book bone canyon and you can check out all of his other awesome books and of course his works on the hallmark channel and other TV shows. Check that out as well. Go to your local booksellers or Amazon, wherever you get your books on good stuff. Make sure you follow us on Goodreads, forward slash Chris Voss, Facebook, forward slash the Chris Voss show, other groups on LinkedIn and Facebook over there. Also go to youtube.com forward slash Chris Voss, hit that bell notification. You get a very special

award when you hit the bell notification on notification. You get a very special award when you hit the bell notification on YouTube. You get this feeling that will wash over you of completing and achieving something. And you'll get this tingly feeling of just like your life has meaning finally. So go do that because it's a fun little adventure. Trust me, you'll like it. Thanks a lot for tuning in. We certainly appreciate you guys. Be sure to watch for our upcoming episodes. Also, I should do a plug. We wrapped, there's over 700 shows going back several years last year.

Go back and listen to some of those old shows as well. There's lots of great authors we've had on, and they're fun to go back and listen to. And of course, you can, along with Lee's book, you can program what you want to read coming through 2021 and put some goals down there. Thanks to my audience for tuning in. We'll see you guys next time.