Book Review: "Murder by Design" by Lee Goldberg

I previously worked for an organization that represented product designers and one that represented architecture students. So imagine my surprise when my May selection from Amazon First Reads was about how the design of our world makes it easier for murders to occur! (And the author credited books written by people I’ve known.)

Edison Bixby is an ex-police detective. He’s handsome, fabulously wealthy, and impeccably dressed—and he has no filter, as the result of a traumatic brain injury he sustained on the job. While the TBI causes him to speak his mind, it hasn’t halted his brilliance, and he now works as an insurance investigator.

Bixby is a firm believer that the design of the world around us enables people to kill. But before his next case, Wally Nash, an aspiring actor who truly believes in his craft, gets hired to be his assistant. It’s Wally’s job to apologize for Bixby’s rudeness and smooth things over for him. But Wally sees this as the ultimate acting job, at least until he lands his dream role.

From their very first case working together, Wally is dazzled by Bixby’s brilliance and his doggedness in solving crimes. He finds clues and motives where no one else can, and even the most outlandish-sounding theories come true. They often work at the behest of a police detective with whom Bixby has a “situationship,” although they often find themselves at odds with one another.

Their investigation of the death of a woman who fell down a flight of stairs at a shopping mall seems pretty cut and dried. But what looks like sheer negligence appears to be murder in Bixby’s eyes, and the deeper he digs, the more tangled the web he has stepped in gets.

I thought this was such a great book. Bixby is one of the most unique characters I’ve read about in a long while, and his banter with Wally is top-notch. I really wasn’t sure how everything would tie up, but I really loved this, and I’m so glad a second book is on the horizon.

The book will publish 6/1.