Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg

Item: Gated Prey
Rating: 5
Author: BaronessMom

Posted February 21, 2022 by BaronessMom in Mystery, Review / 1 Comment

Gated Prey

by Lee Goldberg

Series: Eve Ronin #3
Series Rating:

Published by Thomas & Mercer on October 26, 2021
Genres: Police Procedurals Mystery
Pages: 268
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads
BookBub
Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Lost Hills, Bone Canyon, Movieland, Dream Town

A simple sting operation takes a violent and unexpected turn for Detective Eve Ronin in a gripping thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective Eve Ronin and her soon-to-retire partner, Duncan Pavone, are running a 24-7 sting in a guard-gated enclave of palatial homes in Calabasas. Their luxury McMansion is a honey trap, set to lure in the violent home invaders terrorizing the community. The trap works, leaving three intruders dead, a body count that nearly includes Eve and Duncan.
Eve’s bosses are eager to declare the case closed, but there are too many unanswered questions for her to let go. Was the trap actually for her, bloody payback for Eve’s very public takedown of a clique of corrupt deputies? Or is there an even deadlier secret lurking behind those opulent gates? Eve’s refusal to back down and her relentless quest for the truth make her both the hunter…and the prey.

Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg is such a fast-moving mystery that literally keeps you on your toes. I couldn’t put this down. Who needs sleep anyway?

Can Duncan teach Eve what she needs to succeed before he retires?

Eve Ronin

Detective Eve Ronin is still learning the ropes from her partner Duncan “Donuts” Pavone, but she only has three months to gain all his knowledge before he retires. Eve has lots of instinct, but she hasn’t figured out how to navigate through her colleagues and make allies. Hopefully, she will find a few more friends before Duncan retires.

I like Eve, even with that chip on her shoulder. She was a bit better in this installment, but she needs to work on her people skills. However, she gets insight into how people see her when she reads the script written for the television series about her life. Perhaps, seeing that will help her realize how she wants to be seen is who she will need to be.

The Cases

First, she and Duncan are on an undercover sting, trying to flesh out a home invasion ring that has been rocking havoc all over the Calabasas area. Duncan plays a rich guy, and Eve is his young trophy wife. However, the sting doesn’t go down as planned and Eve ends up in the spotlight again, this time though she is dressed to impress. I love how Eve throws herself into getting the criminals without regard to her safety.

Eve and Duncan catch another case before they can completely close that case. One where a stillborn baby’s death during a home birth. Unfortunately, this turns into a fetal abduction gone wrong. Our detectives have to find the mother’s body and identity before proceeding. This case makes you see how horrible and greedy some people can be. What an awful thing to do to someone, no matter who they are. Mr. Goldberg truly brings us some of the worst possible things that humans do to each other, and he teams it with the right amount of humility and outrage from our detectives.

Five Stars

I genuinely love this series. Eve and Duncan are the perfect partners. Mr. Goldberg does a fantastic job of showing emotions and the different human reactions to violence. He truly has a grasp of the area that Eve lives and works. It’s like being in Calabasas, California, with them.

My rating for Gated Prey by Lee Goldberg is five stars. I highly recommend this book and series. If you haven’t already, check them out. Mr. Goldberg has that perfect amount of mystery, police procedures, humor, and humanity that has you rooting for his characters and laughing at them too.

The Eve Ronin Series

Check out the interview with Lee Goldberg from a couple of years ago HERE.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Bone Canyon by Lee Goldberg.

Until the next time,

About Lee Goldberg

New York Times Bestselling author Lee Goldberg is a two-time Edgar Award and two-time Shamus Award nominee.

Goldberg broke into television with a freelance script sale to Spenser: For Hire. Since then, his TV writing & producing credits have covered a wide variety of genres, including sci-fi (seaQuest), cop shows (Hunter, The Glades), martial arts (Martial Law), whodunits (Diagnosis Murder, Nero Wolfe), the occult (She-Wolf of London), kid’s shows (R.L. Stine’s The Nightmare Room), T&A (Baywatch, She Spies), comedy (Monk) clip shows (The Best TV Shows That Never Were) and total crap (The Highwayman, The New Adventures of Flipper).

He’s written and produced TV shows in Canada (Murphy’s Law, Cobra, Missing), England (Stick With Me Kid, She Wolf of London) and Germany (Fast Track: No Limits). His mystery writing for television has earned him two Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America.

His two careers, novelist and TV writer, merged when he wrote the eight books in the Diagnosis Murder series of original novels, based on the hit CBS TV mystery that he also wrote and produced. He followed that up by writing fifteen bestselling novels based on Monk, another TV show that he worked on. His Monk novels have been translated and published in Germany, Poland, Thailand, Japan, Turkey, and many other countries.

In addition to his writing, he’s worked as an international TV development expert and consulting producer for production companies and major networks in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

But perhaps he’s best known for his pioneering work mapping the human genome and negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Goldberg lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his daughter and still sleeps in Man From U.N.C.L.E. pajamas.