Eve Ronin is a novice homicide investigator. Much to the consternation of many in the LA County Sheriff Department, she was promoted to her position when a video of her taking down and arresting a movie star for abusing a woman went viral. She is partnered with Duncan “Donuts” Pavone who has recently postponed his retirement.

Mummified and skeletal remains are found in a preserve adjacent to the somewhat unusual wealthy enclave of Hidden Hills. Eve and Duncan are called away from the site by the robbery and murder of a reality star in Hidden Hills. Are these two incidents related? And just how does the rap star, also a resident of the enclave, fit into the plot?

On a personal level, Eve has purchased and moved into her own home, a house readers will recognize from an earlier story and she is building a relationship with archeologist Daniel, also familiar from an earlier installment.

This is the fifth in the Eve Ronin series; I have read all of them. Obviously, I like Lee Goldberg’s writing. his books are well written, fast moving, with good character development. I particularly enjoy the humor displayed by some of the characters. While the actions and plots may sometimes stretch the imagination, they are never too far fetched.

I would recommend this series to fans of mysteries/thrillers/police procedurals, especially those featuring personable main characters. All of the books do work as stand alones.

I so enjoyed the dry humor in the characters’ dialogue! That kept me reading and chuckling. The story is not too bad too. Lee Goldberg is extremely skillful in creating movies in your mind.

Also appreciated the fact that there were only the occasional curse word and no detailed bedroom scenes. Totally did not predict the culprit for the murder.

Looking forward to what Eve Ronin will be doing next and how her show will develop.

4 stars.

Once again Lee Goldberg has written another riveting novel in the Eve Ronin police procedural and crime thriller series. This fifth book, Dream Town , is largely set in Hidden Hills in Los Angeles County. It’s a city and a gated community with wealthy residents, white picket fences, and plenty of horse trails. When reality show star Kitty Winslow is killed in her home there and bones are found in the state park that is adjacent to the community, homicide detective Eve Ronin and her partner Duncan Pavone get both cases. At the same time, the television show about Eve is filming in the area and creates additional havoc on Eve’s life.

Eve is an energetic, ambitious, and compelling main character and someone you can root for. She works tirelessly and has clear goals and good instincts that influence the plot. Her motivations seem believable, with well-drawn and appropriate emotions. She continues to be a flawed protagonist who has shown some growth. Many of her co-workers feel she didn’t earn the promotion to detective. Additionally, the way she challenges things sets others on edge and affects them and her. Reading the first four novels in the series provides the reasons for this added drama. Duncan’s character continues to gain depth. While the case is not straightforward, Eve and Duncan move forward with seeking the truth and justice for victims. Several secondary characters from previous novels show up in various supporting or antagonistic capacities, along with several new ones to lend a freshness to the story.

The author’s writing style continues to hook me quickly, and the story builds momentum that leads to an action-filled conclusion. It’s suspenseful and there are twists and turns. While I did figure out most of the mysteries, there were a couple of surprises along the way. Readers easily become mentally and emotionally involved with the characters as well as the story. The plot is absorbing and intriguing with a storyline that packs a punch. Themes include justice, lifestyles, values, sense of community, family, corruption, murder, integrity, and egos coupled with forensics, good instincts, and solid, basic police work.

Overall, this is a tense, gritty, and engaging novel with wit, suspense, action, and some great twists as well as some violence. It is fast-paced and action-packed. If you enjoy excellent crime thrillers and police procedurals, then I recommend that you check out this one. This series should be read in order since Eve’s background and prior cases are important. I am looking forward to finding out what happens on Eve’s next case.

Thomas & Mercer and Lee Goldberg provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. The publication date is currently set for January 16, 2024.

Eve Ronin and her male partner ‘Donuts’ Duncan (the nickname makes sense if you move his surname to the fore) are homicide detectives in the LASD, who police an area north west of the city of Los Angeles, incorporating the mega-rich cities of Malibu and Calabasas, where many of the new rich of La La Land reside. In quick succession, several bodies are found in a vast wild park sitting outside a private gated community and then a member of one of the families living in this seemingly peaceful enclave is brutally murdered. The bodies have been in the ground for some time, so it seems that the events are linked only by proximity. Though evidence suggests that travelling Chilean gangs, who are known to have be operating in the greater L.A. area for some time, may actually be linked to both.

The murder victim is a young woman, a member of a family who live in this small community. We discover that this family star in their own reality television series (thoughts of the Kardashians are hard to avoid). And as the detectives carry out their investigations we’re treated to a lesson in how the family promote and monetise their banal escapades, leveraging social media and carefully constructed storylines to manipulate and grow their audience. It’s all pretty good fun and there’s the added irony of Eve having to stomach the fact that filming of a television series detailing her own rise through the police ranks has now kicked off, with her hated father directing the action.

I like the chemistry between Eve – who is punchy and often rude – and Donuts, who’s funny and is loving the fact he’s also featured in the television episode being filmed. Also, Eve is despised by many of her colleagues for queue jumping to her current grade - courtesy of a filmed takedown of a celebrity caught abusing his girlfriend – and also for exposing corruption within the force. All of this backstory is described in detail in earlier books in this series, as are her relationships with her absentee father and her failing, but desperately ambitious, mother. For this reason, I believe it’s better to start at book one and work your way through to this episode, this way the subtleties attached to Eve’s relationships with many of the people who surround her will not be missed.

I don’t believe this is the strongest story in the series, but Goldberg has invented a group of people I enjoy meeting up with and enough trouble and strife to go with them to keep me interested. So, it's 3.5 stars for me (rounded up to 4).

In Dream Town, Detective Eve Ronin's professional life is full of adventure, bruises and a reality show that is more rehearsed than real. Eve and her partner Duncan Pavone investigate the murder of reality personality Kitty Winslow in the exclusive neighborhood of Hidden Hills. Bodies are uncovered, robberies are attributed to Chilean gangs and people are more focused on keeping their names 'out there' for their adoring public. Goldberg weaves another enticing story of manipulation, coverup, and murder as Eve and Duncan strive to solve more than one crime.

I appreciate that the supportive work relationship between Eve and Duncan is highlighted more so than the previous drama between Eve and her backstabbing coworkers.

Bonus information is found in the acknowledgments which offered fascinating information and further reading on the Hidden Hills neighborhood and the Chilean burglary rings. Goldberg always offers an intriguing story with unusual details that have me wanting to learn more.

Dream Town is Lee Goldberg's 5th book in his Eve Ronin series. I will be recommending this book.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer, Lee Goldberg and NetGalley for this ARC.

DREAM TOWN, written by Lee Goldberg, is the fifth book in the Eve Ronin series. I like the introduction of Detective Eve Ronin and her partner, Duncan Pavone, and the way I am enticed to enter Eve’s world. Eve and Duncan are called away from the filming of the Ronin television series, featuring a fictional version of Eve Ronin, to investigate a site where bones have been found by hikers near the Mountain View Estates gated community. Eve and Duncan are then called to the Winslow compound in Hidden Hills, to investigate the death of Kitty Winslow, a singer and model who gained her fame as a member of the Winslow family on their reality television show, Life with the Winslows. Who is responsible for Kitty’s death? Why was she killed?

Eve Ronin is an interesting and memorable character. She possesses a no-nonsense toughness, like the time she shot down a paparazzi drone hovering over her back yard to end its spying adventure. I look forward to reading more about Eve and future books in the Eve Ronin series. Thank you, Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance reader copy of DREAM TOWN.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of Dream Town, the fifth novel to feature Detective Eve Ronin of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

Reality TV superstar Kitty Winslow is shot in her home in the rich, gated town of Hidden Hills and Eve has to abandon her investigation of several skeletons found in the state park next to Hidden Hills.

I enjoyed Dream Town, which surprisingly, given my voracious appetite for crime fiction, is the first novel by the author that I have finished. It is told mostly from Eve’s point of view so the reader gets an immersive read and a good look at her character. I joined mid series, but it doesn’t matter as the novel works well as a standalone.

For me, in my small house in Scotland, this is a very strange novel, not for the plot but for the setting and the people. A visitor has to have an approval to enter the Hidden Hills enclave and they have the security to enforce it. It’s like some kind of opulent, voluntary prison, like a yearning for utopia, or maybe bygone days. Needless to say it is overwhelmingly white. Kitty Winslow may be a reality star, but there’s no reality in her life. Weird.

On a more positive note I like the plot and the writing style. There is humour in the dialogue that feels natural and the author has an engaging style in his writing that keeps the reader turning the pages. The plot is perhaps not quite as natural with a lot of serendipity, but it works well, giving the reader a mystery to solve. There are enough developments and reveals to hold the reader’s attention throughout. It is entertaining.

This is a lightweight read designed for entertainment and it does the job well. As such I found Eve’s navel gazing, obviously designed to build character, out of place. Poor, poor pitiful her. She has money and a supportive boyfriend, but her colleagues don’t like her, because she blackmailed her way into the job and a tv series is being made about her life (only in Los Angeles). Suck it up, that’s life and count your blessings.

Dream Town is a good read that I can recommend.

This one must have been fun to write. Dream Town by Lee Goldberg is the fifth Eve Ronin book and this time it's not only a murder mystery set in a neighboorhood that must be familiar to the author, it also involves the production of a tv series which I am sure he also knows a lot about. I really like this series and the characters. It's not like every other detective stories out there. I like the fact that Eve is one of the few among her colleagues that doesn't care about fame and celebrities and she is only interested in solving crimes and helping people. She tries to do her work despite the power struggles and corruption within the police and trying to stay clear from all the glamour that comes from being famous. The series deals with some great issues and are filled with twists that are well created. I also like the fact that there is a lot of humor, we all need a good laugh. I must thank Thomas & Mercer and Netgalley for letting me read this advance copy and also Lee Goldberg for writing such great books.

Dream Town by Lee Goldberg continues the story of homicide cop Eve Ronin. While Eve contends with the tv show based on her police experiences, family members and other actors and a murder of a reality show star, she also takes on the case of some dead bodies found in the woods. This is a thoroughly enjoyable twisty mystery with fun characters.

Dream Town is the fifth in the entertaining Eve Ronin series. It’s obvious that Lee Goldberg writes for tv series. His writing is straightforward, much more action based than filled with character development. He includes plenty of descriptive phrases, so it’s easy to envision each character and scene. And he doesn’t hesitate to make fun of the film industry.
The story focuses on the murder of Kitty Winslow, who stars in a reality tv show reminiscent of the Kardashians. She and her family live in Hidden Hills, an enclave for the rich. “It was a very pleasant, welcoming, clean place to be, free of any tension, but one only a certain socioeconomic class could afford. Eve sensed a true feeling of community on the streets, and a rhythm of life that was completely different than the world outside the gates. It was like they were under a dome, but not as if they were imprisoned. More like they were protected.” Imagine my shock to find out that Hidden Hills is a real place. BTW, I rarely read acknowledgements but the one here is very interesting. I had no idea Chilean burglary tourists are very much a real thing.
Goldberg’s familiarity with the tv industry shines through in multiple ways and helps make the story feel real. Eve’s mindset as the tv show impacts on her real life was particularly well done. And while I wasn’t surprised by the who in the whodunit, I was impressed by the way Goldberg unraveled it all.
It will work best if you read this series in order. Or at least read the first book before tackling this one.
My thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of this book.

Eve Ronin is the youngest detective in the history of the LA county sheriffs office. She and her partner are assigned to investigate the robbery and murder of a reality show star. The investigation involves some high profile people, lots of money and maybe gang activity. There are twists in the story that I didn’t see coming. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Big money, big secrets, big delusions - tied up with murder, betrayal, and years of cover ups. The dark side of the ultra rich celebrities and those around them that lose sight of reality and fantasy to find the unacceptable their norm. Great cast of characters and strong, complex plot.

Dream Town by Lee Goldberg. Good addition to the series. Happy that "Donuts" decided against retiring.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

Book Title: Dream Town
Series: Eve Ronin Book $5
Author: Lee Goldberg
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Mystery Thriller,
Pub Date: January 16, 2024
My Rating: 4.3 Stars!
Pages: 300

Although this is book five in the Eve Ronin series, I believe it can be read as a standalone.
As the title indicates this story is how fantasy and reality are both a part of Tinseltown.

Eve Ronin is the youngest homicide detective in the history of LA County Sheriff’s Department works at the Sheriff’s Office in the Lost Hills Station in Calabasas. However story starts with Eve viewing ‘Largo’ a TV True crime re-creation of her famous detective experience – played by an actress.
Eve is familiar with filmmaking as her father Vance has been in the film industry before she was born and she has been an ‘extra’ in many films.
Next we have Dr. Daniel Brooks a forensic anthropologist who is investigating bones that have been uncovered.. Brooks is Eve's main squeeze and he is aware of her knee injury so tells Eve and Duncan it is not necessary for them to stay and help with the digging.
Duncan quietly states to Eve- I’ve never known a guy into knees before!- --
~ Okay call me weird but I did laugh out loud! )

The main story is when Eve and Duncan ‘Donuts’ Pavone (he is twice as old as Eve and probably three times her size!) get a call to investigate a crime in the mega-rich area of Hidden Hills at the home of Caleb and Brandy Winslow – ‘site of the” Life with the Winslow’s’ hit reality show; The daughter Kitty Winslow has been shot and killed in her bedroom! She was still wearing an expensive engagement ring so it seems it wasn’t a robbery.

I have read the other stories in this series and also enjoyed several [author: Lee Goldberg] stories.
I enjoyed all the Fox and O’Hare series that Goldberg coauthored with Janet Evanovich.
I recently read and loved [book: Calico].
Comment I made in my review ~
I have a few authors that I totally love not only because of their stories with twists and turns but also their wit and humor.
Harlan Coben is at the top of my list~~ Now Lee Goldberg is high on my list as well!

I cannot believe I haven’t appreciated Mr. Goldberg’s wit and humor before [book: Calico[ However it is definitely clear in this story as it had me laughing out loud !

Here is a comment he made in his ‘Acknowledgments”
~Hidden Hill is a beautiful, peaceful etc. safe place to live. Yet is also a somewhat odd and strange.
"If aliens from another planet wanted to create a zoo for human beings and put it under a dome, it would be Hidden Hills."
~ I did laugh at this! I live in SoCal and am positive we are surrounded by aliens.
Yet I am sure they are in total disbelief that we cannot get things right!

Am I looking forward to another Lee Goldberg story? – You betcha!

Want to thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for January 16, 2024.

This was a well written book filled with the glamour and deception of Hollywood. There characters were well done (although numerous). The plot rivalled a reality tv Whodunit. The pace was decent albeit a little on the slower burn side for me. This one felt like it had a lot of tangents and while they eventually tie together it was a bit distracting from one solid line of suspense.
I also didn’t get a great feel for the victim so it was hard to feel bad for her.
If you like tinsel town mysteries and almost a Wild West feel
Combined this one is for you.

"Dream Town," the fifth book in Goldberg's Eve Ronin Homicide Detective series, wants to mirror real life and the fake of Los Angeles. Detective Ronin's daily life collides with TV crews filming her true crime stories, while murder is happening on a popular reality show. The Winslows (can somebody say Kardashians), faces a similar dilemma when their scripted reality show takes a violent turn. Ronin's investigation leads her into Hidden Hills, a gated community where rich and famous residents struggle to distinguish between TV roles and real life. Meanwhile, Ronin gets involved in other murder cases in the tony town of the Winslows when the bones of more than one dead person are uncovered.
Eve Ronin complains a bit too much, and her character and stories are becoming tired. It seems like a write-by-numbers entry.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Lee Goldberg is one of the most bankable authors in the police procedural genre. He consistently writes entertaining and engaging stories with relatable characters and plots that feel recognizable yet fresh. Has achieved automatic “add to the TBR pile” status with each new release. And Dream Town is no exception. It’s the perfect continuation of the Eve Ronin series. An equal mix of Hollywood theatrics, personal/family drama, criminal mayhem and investigative prowess.

While the television show based on LASD detective Eve Ronin has started production, her focus is still on doing her job and two cases just landed in her lap. First, human bones have been found in a state park and leads to the discovery of more human remains. Second, reality TV star Kitty Winslow is killed during an apparent robbery inside her home located within an exclusive gated community for the rich and famous. Working the cases with her partner, Eve does her best to stay grounded in reality despite the blurring of fact and fiction in her own personal life as well as the investigations. With the pressure mounting, the media attention intensifying, and the danger to Eve’s safety growing, time is of the essence to solve these cases ASAP.

The central theme of Dream Town is exploring how decisions you make impact others in your orbit. In this book those decisions mostly revolve around fame and reputation, but it’s still a relatable concept to all. For Eve, she’s got to decide how to balance the fantasy of the TV show based on her life with the reality of her desire to a great job as a detective to continuously prove she belongs. For Kitty Winslow, decisions about releasing a sex tape, who to get engaged to, the future of her career have major reverberations that ultimately put her life at risk. For other characters, they are faced with fork in the road moments which require picking a direction that can either lead to a successful outcome or contribute to their demise. And for Eve’s partner Duncan “Donuts” Pavone, his main decision is how best to leverage being a character on Eve’s show. A decision in which all roads lead to an abundance of free food from the production’s craft services. Which to be fair is a victimless crime. Except maybe to Duncan’s health.

But don’t worry, there’s plenty of mystery, drama, misdirection and investigative epiphanies to accompany the celebrity glitz and glamor. Making for an exceedingly fun and thrilling novel.

3.5 stars rounded up. Fast-paced police procedural/thriller set in Los Angeles reminiscent of Michael Connelly. This was entertaining, and the main character was likeable. Thanks very much to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

As Dream Town by Lee Goldberg begins, Eve Ronin is living a nightmare. She made a bargain with the devil and now the reality has hit as she is being forced to watch how a film crew is handling her real life recent past. She is the youngest homicide detective in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and is on scene where an incident involving her took place.

If that is not bad enough, her estranged father, Vince Nyby, is the director. He wants back in her life and one way is by manipulating their every encounter. Of course, her mom is also good at that and has a minor role in the first episode. Eve Ronin wanted nothing to do with any of this, but at least this way, she has some say as to how this fictionalized life of her is portrayed.

Her partner, Duncan “Donuts” Pavone is on set with her as he decided not to retire just yet. He also is his own one-man crime wave on the catering provided on set. He is enjoying the food as well as Ronin’s disgust with the trappings of Hollywood.

Soon they leave and are headed back to their station, Lost Hills, when Pavone takes a phone call from Captain Mel Dubois. He recently took over and the fact he is calling Pavone directly means something is up. Pavone soon explains that Dubois called because somebody was out hiking with his dogs in the nearby upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve and the dogs found what appear to be human bones. The land was a ranch at one time and now is a state park. The open space is also a vital wildlife corridor that links the Santa Monica Mountains to other mountain ranges to the north.

Somebody from their forensics department, Nas Baker, is already on scene as she was summoned from a nearby subdivision where she was working another unrelated case. She believes the bones are human, but they are going to need anthropologist. Good thing Dr. Daniel Brooks is also around and can take a look.

If the bones are human, it could be related to gang activity. Such gang activity is a known problem and one that leads to body dumps in relatively isolated places. That could be what happened here as Dr. Brooks has quickly determined that the dogs found two leg bones and that death was about two years ago. He also has determined that both leg bones are left ones. That means they have at least two victims. He also believes that both were probably male. Since the dogs were running free of their leashes while the owner stood some distance away where he could not see them, the bones could have come from anywhere nearby making the area to be searched massive. Finding the rest is going to take some time.

Between that crime scene and being assigned to the filming locations for the first episode of the new series on her life, as well as the aftereffects of events in Movieland and moving into her new house, Ronin has a lot going on. But, this is Los Angeles and that means when a celeb is killed, she as the celebrity homicide detective, is going to handle the case.

She gets the early morning before dawn phone call, Kitty Winslow was murdered at her home in the compound in Hidden Hills. Fortunately, Ronin’s new house is just minutes away and she quickly arrives on scene. One of the stars of the reality television show, Life with the Winslows, the group is rich thanks to dad, Caleb Winslow, being a star of various westerns. Like other such “reality” shows, nearly all of what is portrayed is fake and heavily orchestrated thanks to script writers and others. Now the major star of the show is dead and Ronin and Pavone have yet another case to deal with.

This latest in the Eve Ronin series is another good one. Many moving parts are in play here in this complex police procedural that pulls the reader along at a rapid pace. So too is the occasional flash of humor or sardonic whit as a character comments on the players and the myths that Hollywood spins for our viewing pleasure.

As always, one could start here, but like any good series that builds on itself, it is best to start from the beginning. In this case, begin with Lost Hills and work your way forward. You will be glad you did. Doing so will also make Dream Town an even more lively and entertaining read than it already is.


My reading copy was an ARC from the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, via NetGalley.



Kevin R. Tipple ©2023

Dream Town, the fifth book in Goldberg’s Eve Ronin Homicide Detective franchise, is scheduled for January 2024 publication, and as aptly suggested by the title, explores the ways in which fantasy and reality blur and collide in the world of Tinseltown. Ronin still works daily as a detective out of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Lost Hills Station in what was once the boondocks of Calabasas, but now is filled with the gated communities of endless celebrities. Nevertheless, as Ronin goes about her daily activities, she stumbles over television crews filming the true crime stories of Detective Ronin. She can see a facsimile of herself or a stunt double being filmed, living a real life drama that played out for Ronin. It’s hard to know where the fantasy stops and the reality begins.

The same can be said for the Winslows who film a reality show (kind of like the Kardashians) and were catapulted to fame following the “accidental” release of a sex tape. The dramas on the series are all scripted, but are to the family’s many Insta followers as real as could be. Just how real it all is comes to a head when violence strikes them. The investigation leads Ronin and her partner Duncan into Hidden Hills, a quasi-private gated city with horse trails and its own resident sheriff’s deputy posted there. Life is different it seems for the rich, but as noted, the lines between tv and reality keep blurring as the family patriarch, a former Western star, can’t keep straight whether he is on his old tv series chasing bad guys or ensconced in a fancy horse estate.

Ronin is simultaneously involved in an investigation in the nearby preserve that was the former Ahmanson ranch. Bones have been found and a painstaking search is undergone to preserve an ever-widening crime scene.