Lee Matthew Goldberg has done it again. He has captivated me from the first page of The Mentor all the way to the last. I thought I knew what I was in for after having read and reviewed Goldberg’s The Desire Card, but no, I was caught off guard and was taken to a whole different plane than was The Desire Card.
- Title: The Mentor
- Author: Lee Matthew Goldberg
- Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books on June 13, 2017
- Genre: Dark Thriller
- Pages: 320
- Rating: 4/5
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Synopsis
Kyle Broder has achieved his lifelong dream and is an editor at a major publishing house.
When Kyle is contacted by his favorite college professor, William Lansing, Kyle couldn’t be happier. Kyle has his mentor over for dinner to catch up and introduce him to his girlfriend, Jamie, and the three have a great time. When William mentions that he’s been writing a novel, Kyle is overjoyed. He would love to read the opus his mentor has toiled over.
Until the novel turns out to be not only horribly written but the most depraved story Kyle has read.
After Kyle politely rejects the novel, William becomes obsessed, causing trouble between Kyle and Jamie, threatening Kyle’s career, and even his life. As Kyle delves into more of this psychopath’s work, it begins to resemble a cold case from his college town, when a girl went missing. William’s work is looking increasingly like a true-crime confession.
Lee Matthew Goldberg’s The Mentor is a twisty, nail-biting thriller that explores how the love of words can lead to a deadly obsession with the fate of all those connected and hanging in the balance.
My Review of The Mentor
When I read The Desire Card, I knew that this author was something special. Goldberg took the most hated characters I have ever come across and turned them into people to root for and even feel sorry for at times.
However, in The Mentor, the author did a complete 180 and gave us beloved characters who were flawed, but still beautiful in their own way. Except for William Lansing, the so-called mentor. I think that he may be the most depraved character I have ever read.
Still, the book is brilliant. The narrative follows a twisted individual as he writes, “the novel of the century.” But the story is real, and it is something that those at Burke &Burke Publishing can’t look away from even though they desperately want to.
The only problem I had with this novel was that it drug through some parts. The evil of William Lansing is mentioned over and over without moving the story along that much. Though the book redeems itself toward the end when the mind of a madman comes full tilt, and the insanity begins to shine through.
I award The Mentor 4 out of 5 stars with the caveat that Goldberg knows how to write, and you would be doing yourself a real disservice if you didn’t read his writing. Pick up some of his stories. You won’t be disappointed.
Thank you to Blackthorn Book Tours for providing me with a copy of The Mentor in exchange for an honest review.
About the Author
Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE DESIRE CARD, THE MENTOR, and SLOW DOWN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar.
The second book in the Desire Card series, PREY NO MORE, is forthcoming in 2020, along with his first Sci-Fi novel ORANGE CITY.
His new endeavor will be as the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe Press and Fringe Digital, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box.
His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests.
After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in the anthology DIRTY BOULEVARD, The Millions, Cagibi, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City.
Follow him at leematthewgoldberg.com.
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