Lee Goldberg - Diagnosis Murder novels

[dem bones]

Lee Goldberg - Diagnosis Murder: The Silent Partner (Signet, September 2003)

"Producer Lee Goldberg wrote the very best Diagnosis Murder episodes, so it's no surprise that the book deliver everything you'd expect from the show. This is a clever, high-octane mystery that moves like a bullet train." — New York Times Bestselling Author Janet Evanovich.

Dr. Mark Sloan, Community General Hospital's Chief of Internal Medicine, has been appointed by the LAPD to a special task force assigned to the cold case files —unsolved homicides long since abandoned by the police. One case concerns the murder of a woman who may have been a victim of the Reaper, a serial killer currently on death row. The police were unable to prove that the Reaper killed her, but there were enough similarities in the crimes to come to that conclusion. Until Mark Sloan reopens the file — and learns that the Reaper couldn't have possibly murdered this woman....

And that the real killer is still at large.

rarely get to watch the long running TV series, but every once in a while will catch an episode and if you get lucky. it can be very entertaining tosh indeed. Sometimes there are even elements of the supernatural as is the case with The Bela Lugosi Blues, Dr. Sloan and friends versus Moriah Thomas, editor of Empire magazine, who moonlights as a vampire. Better still (!), the two-parter Trash TV. A ratings war between Pox TV (home to Maimings, Massacres and Practical Jokes) and rivals GBC (Doctor Danger, based on the adventures of dashing Dr. Sloan himself) escalates into murder, including that of Pox favourite 'The Masked Magician', skewered live on-stage in a contraption based on the Nuremberg Maiden.

Anyway, The Silent Partner is one of at least eight Lee Goldberg novels based on the series, and i've breezed through the first hundred pages without hardly realising.

The novel opens with an account of the abduction of Lydia Yates, a twenty-two year old temp whose remains are later found stuffed down a sewage pipe. The crime is later attributed to Neal 'The Reaper' Winnick, now serving life in the Sunshine Valley State Prison for six murders, although the Police would have it he killed nine times in all. Lydia's is one of the slayings he was accused but never convicted of.

Three years later, Dr. Mark Sloan, General Medical Hospital's brilliant if slightly eccentric chief surgeon, is press ganged into volunteering for the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Unsolved Homicides by LAPD Police chief John Masters. Masters doesn't think much of meddling do-gooders like Sloan or any other human being as a rule, but grudgingly concedes the Doc solves more murders than Frank Cannon has shovelled down do-nuts, so he might come in useful in cleaning up the department's multiple cold cases. But It doesn't quite go that way. Mark's first contribution is to study a random closed case - that of Lydia Yates - and unsolve it. A visit to the pathetic wreck that is Winnick confirms the man suffers from claustrophobia - it was his mothers habit of locking him in a darkened room that spawned his pathological hatred of women in the first place - so there's no way he'd have crawled halfway up a filthy pipe to dispose of a corpse. John Masters disposition toward Dr. Sloan isn't improved any.

Dr. Sloan effortlessly establishes that, for several years, some cunning son of a bitch has been aping the crimes of The Reaper and several other high profile serial-killers. Sloan resolves to expose the monster and bring he or she to justice, regardless of Chief Masters and his orders.

Meanwhile, Mark's son, homicide detective Steve, and his latest young protégé Dr. Jesse Travis have big problems of their own. Their joint venture, BB-Que Bob's, is under threat from the Burger Beach franchise who can offer a sandpit and bikini-clad waitresses at their every outlet. The Multi-millionaire owner of the chain, Stanley Tidewell, is in General Medical right now, demanding an unnecessary liver transplant with his pushover son Billy as donor. Wouldn't it look funny if he were to drop dead from 'complications' during a routine operation?

More preposterous Medical Mayhem to follow ....

[pulphack]

Diagnosis Murder is a splendid little show, always fun. I like the ones where Dr Sloan discovers he has a mafia boss who is his exact double and the two get confused... look, no one said it was realistic social drama! And it usually gives DVD a chance to show off some of his many showbiz skills (which is not as egtistical as it sounds, ashe's a pretty good hoofer, clarinet player and sleight of hand magician). I have a soft spot for his sidekick Charlie Schlatter , who I sawe donkeys years back in a 'vice versa' type direct to video movie with George Burns, where Mr S did the funniest Burns impression I've seen (the only one, come to think).

But anyway, that wasn't really why I posted - actually, it was about Lee Goldberg, who is a script writer and producer, too - and if you check out his blog, you'll find some interesting information about TV tie-in king William Johnstone, who is happily retired and was last heard of running a bar.

Mr G also writes novels about Monk, the OCD suffering ex-policeman and consultant, whose series is also worth a look.

Yes, I'm back to watching daytime TV - er, I mean freeelancing...

[andydecker]

I have to confess it was a guilty pleasure for me at the time. Most of the scripts seemed to play in a parallel universum, which is often the case with Goldberg´s work - anyone see Missing with Vivica Fox - but they could be a lot of fun.

Sadly this kind of show has left the building. The only thing which comes close nowadays is Castle, the rest is grim´n´gritty torture porn like Criminal Minds or those wannabe spy shows like NCIS LA.


I have watched Luther these days, but made the mistake to tape it to watch it in one sitting. Bad mistake After two episodes in a row I was so wrung out that the rest is still filling space on the harddrive. I am all for DRAMA!, but after some of these current shows just want to drown yourself.

Btw, those Burn Notice novelisations written by Goldberg´s brother are also quite good. A lot of those novelisations are not worth their money, but these captured the show quite well.

[dem bones]

Oct 25, 2011 6:15:09 GMT pulphack said:

I have a soft spot for his sidekick Charlie Schlatter , who I saw donkeys years back in a 'vice versa' type direct to video movie with George Burns, where Mr S did the funniest Burns impression I've seen (the only one, come to think).

Charlie Slatter also starred alongside Kylie (above) in The Delinquents (below), the jammy git.

Oct 25, 2011 6:15:09 GMT pulphack said:

But anyway, that wasn't really why I posted - actually, it was about Lee Goldberg, who is a script writer and producer, too - and if you check out his blog, you'll find some interesting information about TV tie-in king William Johnstone, who is happily retired and was last heard of running a bar.

There's a site, too, pulps, Lee Goldberg, where you'll find several of his scripts available as free pdf downloads, including part 1 of the aforementioned Trash TV, which begins with a cheeky parody of Magic's Big Secrets Revealed and generally makes its point with all the subtlety of a Laurence James sex scene. if i remember, Dick Van Dyke (remember all the problems his name used to cause the proscribed words filter on Vault MK I?) gets to show off some of his top card tricks.

Back to Silent Partner. The Blue Ribbon team is comprised of cop Janis Archer and three civilian experts in homicide, any one of whom might be a cold-blooded killer.

Janis Archer, the liaison officer. You resist arrest at your peril when she is around. Janis recently bashed a woman-beater as brutally as he'd bashed his girlfriend, the snag being that the perp happened to be the son of a police chief. In the face of much pressure from above, Janis refused to back down and the louse was successfully prosecuted. Her reward is a 'promotion' that will keep her out of her superiors' faces. Ms. Archer is the only one of the team to buy into Mark's theory that the mother of all copycat killers has been operating right under the nose of LAPD's nose for years. She even risks her job by sneaking a warehouse worth of undisclosed documents around to his place. But is she just being cooperative to lull Sloan into a false sense of security?

Freddy Meeks is the senior crime reporter on The LA Times. He has a series of best-sellers under his belt, all of them detailing the lives and crimes of America's most psycho. He dresses like a bag lady. Could Freddy Meeks have utilized all that insider knowledge to branch out into the thrill kill industry?

Lou Rozen, retired psychological profiler, as taciturn as Freddy is loud, as clean cut as Freddy is unkempt. Maybe, after a long career probing the minds of the deranged, he's gone native?

Meanwhile at the Hospital, the big news is the return of the prodigal surgeon, Dr. Jack Stewart, Rolex-wearing flash git and Jesse's predecessor. Three years ago, Dr. Stewart walked out of General Medical Hospital without troubling to inform his colleagues. This caused plenty hurt all round, not least for for Dr. Sloan who treats him like a surrogate son. Jesse loathes him on sight.

Dr. Sloan reports his findings to Police chief Masters who is so impressed he fires him from the volunteer task force, threatens him arrest unless he returns all the confidential documents, and warns that son Steve will be looking at a demotion if he was responsible for leaking classified information.

The Burger Beach big-shot dutifully dies following his routine transplant. Dr. Amanda Bentley, the princess of pathology at first suspects negligence on the part of Dr. Stewart, but Dr. Sloan knows better. Stanley Tidewell was murdered!

[rolnikov]

I like this show a lot too. Used to watch it every lunchtime when I first started working at home... I suppose Psych is the closest thing to it I watch nowadays.

[leegoldberg]

I am so glad that you liked my "Trash TV" episode of DIAGNOSIS MURDER (which shares some characters from my novel "My Gun Has Bullets) and that you're enjoying my book "The Silent Partner."

There were eight DM books in all, ending with "The Last Word," which tied up both book series and, had I stuck around producing the TV series to the end, was also the series finale that I had in mind.

I gave up the DM books because I was also writing the MONK books at the same time...AND writing & producing the TV series "Missing" and something just had to give. The DM sales were flat...I sold the same, healthy number of books every time... but the MONK books were gaining in sales with every new title. Besides, I'd already written scores of episodes and eight books and I felt I'd explored every facet of Mark Sloan & Co. that I could.

I am now on my 14th MONK book and I suspect the 15th will be the last, for many of the same reasons I stopped DM.

I have a new original horror series that has just been published by Amazon's 47North imprint called THE DEAD MAN... a new book in the series will be out every single month...though I am sharing the workload with a dozen other authors. They should be coming to Amazon UK any day now...

Lee

[leegoldberg]

Oct 25, 2011 6:15:09 GMT pulphack said:

if you check out his blog, you'll find some interesting information about TV tie-in king William Johnstone, who is happily retired and was last heard of running a bar.

Unfortunately, Mr. Johnstone has passed away. He was a terrific tie-in writer. You can find out more about him in the book TIED IN, a collection of articles about tie-in writing.

Lee

[andydecker]

Hi Mr. Goldberg,


Welcome to the board.

I have bought both THE DEAD MAN and TIED IN on the Kindle. And The JURY series which I still haven´t read. (I read James Reasoner´s blog too often )

TIED IN was a really interesting look on the business of novelisations. I used to read a lot of novelisations and it always seemed to me that you need indeed a special talent for doing this kind of book.

The most boring and uninteresting movie/tv-novelisations were either by writers who were accomplished in their own field but seemed to not get the needed tone for the material or those who loved the tv-series too much and wanted to do a "real" novel based on concepts which just doesn´t have the legs for it.

[dem bones]

Hello Mr Goldberg

thank you for dropping by and another welcome to Vault.

Finished Silent Partner earlier and very much enjoyed the ride. Janet Evanovich nails it right with her "charm, mystery and fun" line on the cover, though there are also enough dark moments to appeal to we ghoulish types. Plenty twists and turns in the final third and, without giving too much away, I liked that Dr. S. is shown to make a bad call occasionally, something i've not really noticed in the admittedly few TV episodes i've seen. Clark Trotter, the Hospital's legal counsel, may be shark, but he has a point when he tells our hero, after another drive-by assassination attempt on the forecourt, "frankly, Dr. Sloan, it's astonishing to me we have any patients left after the notoriety you've brought this department."

damn! that's the rest of the series gone straight on the never-ending wants list - i like the sound of the shark attack novel! - plus My Gun Has Bullets, Tied In ....

[pulphack]

welcome aboard mr G, hope you'll stick around. i think you'll like our obsessions...

could you give a few more details on the tie-in book, as i'd very much like to get hold of this. i've been trying to get hold of your books on pilots, too, but amazon.com is having problems with my card, which .co.uk never does...

sad but not surprising that mr Johnstone is gone - he must have been well over 80, after all - as his Get Smart! novelisations lit up my childhood and in truth made the series seem a bit dull when i finally saw it.

missing aired in the uk on a satellite channel, and i liked it very much, especially when the marked changes happened between what was shown here as season 1 then 2 (offhand i'm not sure how many there were, and frankly US shows sometimes got shown out of order on some satellite stations). like wildcard, a series that ended too soon for me.

[leegoldberg]

Here's the info on TIED IN...

Tie-in novels are books based on pre-existing media properties -- like TV shows, movies and games -- and they regularly top the national bestseller lists. But as popular as tie-ins books and novelizations are among readers, few people know how the books are written or the rich history behind the hugely successful and enduring genre.

This 75,000 word book is a ground-breaking collection of lively, informative, and provocative essays and interviews by some of the best-selling, and most acclaimed, writers in the tie-in business, offering an inside glimpse into what they do and how they do it.

Contributors include Donald Bain, Max Allan Collins, Tod Goldberg, Elizabeth Massie, William C. Dietz, Aaron Rosenberg, Paul Kupperberg, Jeff Mariotte, Raymond Benson, Robert Greenberger, David Spencer, Greg Cox, Burl Barer, Jeff Ayers, Nancy Holder, Brandie Tarvin, Alina Adams and William Rabkin.

This book is an official publication of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers.

[leegoldberg]

Demonik,

My favorite DM novels are #5 THE PAST TENSE, #7 THE DOUBLE LIFE and #8 THE LAST WORD, which sort of form a trilogy. #2 THE DEATH MERCHANT was probably the most fun of the books, more of a thriller than a mystery. And if you liked Clark Trotter nailing Mark in SILENT PARTNER, then you will enjoy #3 THE SHOOTING SCRIPT, which really goes after all the conceits of the show.

Lee

[leegoldberg]

Rolnikov,

I wrote, with Wililam Rabkin, the third or fourth episode of PSYCH...though I think it finally aired as episode 8 or 9. Bill went on to write four or five PSYCH novels.

Lee

[andydecker]

If one sees those the current tv-series which so depend on one very visible showrunner, has the business gotten harder in the last years or just more diversified?

[pulphack]

that's a bloody good question, andy. thing is, it does seem to be a 'lead' driven game, but is that really any different to how it used to be? i recently read 'only you, dick daring', merle miller's account of writing a pilot for a Jackie Cooper series back in '63, and it started with just Cooper and a one line pitch - ' i see a man on a dusty road...' it's a matter of interest as someone i'm working with at the moment works in a very similar fashion, and it's fascinating to see...

meanwhile, thank you for the information on the tie-in writers book, mr G - reading about writers writing is a bit of a fetish.

i should also check my spelling - i pulled out my Get Smart p/b's this morning and saw it was William Johnston, minus the 'e' i gave him!