Hollywood, entitled-attitude, murder, murder-investigation, film-industry, false-information, falsely accused, flim-flam, friction, friendship, fugitive, funeral, ex-cop, extortion, attempted-murder, pretentious, private-investigators, procedural, snarky****

An extremely wealthy octogenarian matriarch is paying Shapiro to go to Hollywood to see if her grandson is wasting his inheritance. Said grandson is a mess because his fiancée has just died. Was it an OD, a byproduct of the thinness mentality of the film industry, or something altogether different? Shapiro knows he is in way over his head and just wants to go back home to his own fiancée. But he discovers another angle just about the time that the thirty something entrepreneur declares that he needs Shapiro's help. Then it turns into a Hollywood kind of mess, but at least the local police detectives definitely know what they're doing. Put all this mess alongside the issues that surround Shapiro's good friend who is having a PTSD meltdown and you have a good but crazy read.
Now that he's been on one coast, I wonder if he'll go to New Jersey and meet up with fellow snark king, Andy Carpenter.
Voice actor Bronson Pinchot was good as general narration and the voice of Shapiro, but his interpretation of the other characters both new and recurring made me want to find a good TTS robot. ( )

Had to abandon even though I like these books - it's Bronson Pinchot's narration - absolutely horrible. I've never heard ANYONE talk like he's making everyone do. Hushed and stilted with a cadence I've never heard in my life. Rushes where there wouldn't be, pauses that make no sense. It's so distracting and terrible that I gave up.

The fourth in the Nils Shapiro series. Nils heads to LA and gets involved with a group of screen writers and producers when he agrees to check on Beverly Mayer's grandson after the death of his fiance'. Nils suspects the death was suspicious....and it turns out he was correct. ( )

At first I felt like I had missed a book, and Nils' life had moved ahead a bit without me. And honestly, what I have loved about the previous books is the fertile Minnesota crime setting, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about him leaving all that for Cali. But, after being hired by the matriarch of a wealthy family, he brings Jameson along to check on Beverly Mayer's grandson Ebben. It didn't take long for the new characters and crime to suck me right in. Goldman's background in the business out in California and his attention to detail with the setting makes it all seem so real. ( )

Minneapolis private investigator with a rapier wit visits Los Angeles for a wealthy client to check up on the status of the heir and only grandson, who is producing films. Culture shock as the Jewish Midwestener meets the California film industry types and the Cally police. Lots of witty banter between the police officers and Matt Goldman, which is what he does best. ( )