“Murder by Design” Delivers a Brilliant New Detective Duo

Murder by Design by Lee Goldberg

Murder By Design launches prolific #1 best-selling author, screenwriter and television producer Lee Goldberg’s latest quirky thriller/mystery series with the introduction of insurance investigator/detective Edison Bixby and his narrator-sidekick struggling actor and writer Wally Nash. The dialogue sizzles while delivering hilarity alongside a sensational murder cleverly disguised as an unfortunate accident.

Wally is handsome and tall with an athletic build, the standout in his high school drama department and star of community theater in his hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky. While inspired to seek his fame and fortune in Los Angeles, necessity demands a steady paycheck. He has self-published two novels, appeared as a corpse in three long-running television series and been dropped from a digestive aid television commercial for overacting. With rent two months overdue and his Hyundai Sonata not aging gracefully, his temp agency offered a position with Triax Global Insurance as a personal assistant to their top investigator, Edison Bixby. This was a big break not only to pay his bills but also to serve as a character-building experience. Senior VP of Investigations Melissa Priddle made his primary responsibility clear: keep Edison from blurting out offensive remarks or mollifying the recipients when unsuccessful. On the surface, it was easy enough, but the previous fourteen candidates were gone in less than a week.

An Unlikely Partnership with Perfect Comic Timing

Former LAPD homicide detective Bixby is brilliant, intuitive and effective at crime-solving with a phenomenal 100% success rate. Summoned to a murder scene at a celebrity-studded hotel luncheon on his day off, he parked his 3.5 million dollar Bugatti Chiron under the portico, strode into the room wearing a bespoke Tom Ford suit, glanced around the room and instantly resolved the case. The honored chef was obviously poisoned by his three table companions, who, significantly, did not touch the poison-coated soup spoons. In response, one of the co-conspirators promptly shot him in the face. After deft surgery, the injury left a scar that heightened his rakish ‘fresh from a photo shoot’ good looks and created a brain injury that induced traumatic coprolalia, a rare disability involving loss of impulse control in speech. Having always been self-absorbed and brazenly outspoken, after the incident his inappropriate remarks escalated, becoming so egregious and socially unacceptable that the city was forced to spend millions in settling the ensuing lawsuits. Although his erratic behavior cost him his career with the LAPD, his superior powers of observation enabled him to embark on a career as a crack insurance investigator.

Already enormously wealthy from the inheritance after his parent’s death in a car accident, at age 17 Edison Bixby augmented his multi-millions by successfully suing both the California Department of Transportation and the luxury automobile manufacturer involved for design flaws he identified in both the freeway interchange and the vehicle proven to be instrumental in killing his family. His observations were so conclusive that Cal-Trans subsequently demolished and reconstructed this unsafe section of the freeway.

Bixby’s parents were inventors of multiple whimsical items who created a secluded eccentric fairytale home replete with a swimming pool, massive automobile collection and a guesthouse where Wally Nash now found himself happily ensconced wherein a push of a button on the breakfast tree magically produced delicious coffee, juice, eggs, toast and pancakes.

A Mystery Anchored by an Original Detective

Initially reluctant to take a live-in job, Wally was further enticed when Edison stipulated that time off would be permitted to continue his pursuit of acting jobs. Good salary, rent, utilities and breakfasts were included, and he was also free to scrounge gourmet leftovers and wines whenever Edison entertained his part-time girlfriend, the smart and sexy LAPD detective Bridget McGregor. For him it was essentially a challenging ‘wingman’ acting role to play while simultaneously honing his writing skills and saving money. During the investigation of four cases in Murder By Design, Wally’s quick wits and charm effectively smooth over Edison’s liberally strewn barbs. The most challenging case was the presumed accidental death of Caroline Crowley, a woman who fell down a roped-off staircase in a Southern California mall construction zone. Edison Bixby’s life is in peril as he proves this to be an unlikely murder.

Lee Goldberg has succeeded in creating an entirely fresh detective whose case-solving methodology includes consideration of architectural design. Murder By Design’s improbable crack team of Bixby and Nash is a welcome addition to the genre in a fast-paced novel that glues the reader to the pages.