Murder by Design

In a world carefully constructed for murder, solving crimes takes a keen mind and eye in a witty, clever, and fresh reinvention of the whodunit by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.

Edison Bixby is wealthy, handsome, and, due to a traumatic brain injury, impulsively rude. He’s also a brilliant insurance investigator who solves baffling crimes by figuring out how the design of the man-made world around us makes them possible. Enter Wally Nash: a struggling actor hired to keep Bixby from offending everyone he meets.

Their first case together looks like a simple accident. Caroline Crowley took a nasty fall down a staircase at a shopping mall in front of dozens of witnesses. Video clearly shows the deadly misstep. But Bixby is certain she was murdered by design, subtly manipulated into causing her own demise. The mall itself made the crime intentional, if not inevitable.

Now Bixby must prove his outrageous theory before a very cunning killer gets others on his hit list to murder themselves, too.


Genre: Mystery

"Murder by Design is the most ingenious mystery I've read in years, with more twists than a Wetzel's Pretzel. Brain-injured yet supremely confident former detective Edison Bixby and likable but self-absorbed actor - is there any other kind? - Wally Nash make for an unlikely but appealing sleuthing duo. But the real magic of this mystery is the way Goldberg turns environments and objects that we take for granted into clues we never would have noticed but for his deft hand. After reading Murder by Design, you will never look at your local mall - or any building, object, et cetera - the same way again." - Ellen Byron

"Finished this on the plane home. Typically classy police procedural from Lee Goldberg - giving Michael Connelly a run for his money." - Ian Rankin