The Great Gimmelmans
Middle child Aaron Gimmelman watches as his family goes from a mild-mannered reform Jewish clan to having over a million dollars of stolen money stuffed in their RV’s cabinets while being pursued by the FBI and loan sharks. But it wasn’t always like that. His father Barry made a killing as a stockbroker, his mother Judith loved her collection of expensive hats, his older sister Steph was obsessed with pop stars, and little sister Jenny loved her stuffed possum, Seymour.
After losing all their money in the Crash of 1987, the family starts stealing from convenience stores, but when they hit a bank, they realize the talent they possess. The money starts rolling in and brings the family closer together, whereas back at home, no one had any time for bonding due to their busy schedules. But Barry’s desire for more, more, more will take its toll on the Gimmelmans, and Aaron is forced into an impossible choice: turn against his father, or let his family fall apart.
From Jersey, down to an Orthodox Jewish community in Florida where they hide out, and up to California, The Great Gimmelmans goes on a madcap ride through the 1980s. Filled with greed and love and the meaning of religion and tradition until the walls of the RV and the feds start closing in on the family, this thrilling literary tale mixes Michael Chabon and the Coen Brothers with equal parts humor and pathos.
“The Great Gimmelmans had me laughing out loud one minute, tears in my eyes the next.” – Jess Lourey, bestselling author of Unspeakable Things.
Buy "The Great Gimmelmans"
Immoral Origins
It’s 1978 in New York City, and disco is prominent. As are mobsters, gritty streets, needle parks and graffiti-stained subways.
Jake Barnum lives in Hell’s Kitchen. He’s a petty thief selling hot coats with his buddy Maggs to make ends meet and help his sick kid brother. At a Halloween party downtown, he meets a woman with a Marilyn Monroe mask who works for an organization called The Desire Card—an underground operation promising its exclusive clients “Any Wish Fulfilled for the Right Price.”
As Jake becomes taken with its leader, a pseudo father and sociopath at heart, he starts stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. In other words…himself. But as he dives deeper in with the Card, begins falling love with Marilyn, and sees the money rolling in, clients’ wishes start becoming more and more suspect—some leading to murder.
The first book in the Desire Card series, Immoral Origins follows those indebted to this sinister organization—where the ultimate price is the cost of one’s soul.
“”Careful what you wish for, especially from a nefarious shadow organization, in this gripping start to Lee Matthew Goldberg’s fast-paced, highly-compelling, buzz-worthy new series.” – D.J. Palmer, critically acclaimed suspense author of Saving Meaghan and The New Husband
Buy "Immoral Origins"
Prey No More
J.D. Storm is an ex-Army sniper, discharged after losing an eye in battle. Finally finding work at the illusive Desire Card—an unsavory organization that promises “any wish fulfilled for the right price”—he heaves a sigh of relief. But when those wishes become too immoral, J.D. quickly finds out that no one reneges on the boss, a powerful and eccentric madman known only as Clark Gable because of the realistic mask he wears, without paying a hefty price.
On the run, J.D. begins a white-knuckle cat-and-mouse chase that takes him northwest where he hides out with a former girlfriend and tries to scrounge up enough cash to flee the country. But with every second that passes by, Gable’s other masked operatives are closing in.
Soon, J.D. discovers just how widespread the organization’s contacts are—no longer knowing who he can trust. Rather than running, J.D. decides that his best shot is to take out the head of the snake. After all, the hunted must become the hunter if he has any hope of surviving.
Ingeniously plotted and filled with twists and turns, Prey No More follows those indebted to this sinister organization—where the ultimate price is the cost of one’s soul.
“Part international thriller, part down and dirty heist tale, Prey No More is a lightning-fast novel about human desire and the survival instinct.” – Scott Adlerberg, author of Graveyard Love and Jack Waters
Buy "Prey No More"
All Sins Fulfilled
Any wish fulfilled for the right price. That’s the promise the organization behind The Desire Card gives to its elite clients. But sometimes the price is more menacing than anyone ever imagined.
Harrison Stockton has lived an adult life of privilege and excess. A high-powered job on Wall Street fuels his fondness for alcohol and pills at the expense of a family he has no time for. Quite suddenly, all of his luxuries come to a crashing halt when he loses his job and—at the same time—discovers he has just months left to live.
Desperate, and with seemingly nowhere else left to turn, Harrison activates his Desire Card. What follows is a gritty and gripping quest that takes him from New York City to the slums of Mumbai, where he’s forced to take chances and make decisions he hoped to never face. And when his moral descent threatens his wife and children, Harrison must decide whether to save himself at any cost…or do what’s right and break his bargain with The Desire Card.
A taut and fast-paced thriller, All Sins Fulfilled follows those indebted to this sinister organization—where the ultimate price is the cost of one’s soul.
“An atmospheric riveting thriller you won’t be able to put down or easily forget. One of Goldberg’s best.” – Terrence McCauley – Award-winning author of The Wandering Man and The Moscow Protocol
Buy "All Sins Fulfilled"
Vanish Me
Get swept up once more in the tantalizing drama that surrounds Nico Sullivan as Lee Matthew Goldberg’s young-adult Runaway Train trilogy comes to an end.
When former singer Nico Sullivan goes missing, her estranged daughter, Love, finds her mom’s old diary. Using each entry as a clue to her mother’s whereabouts, Love takes a trip to L.A. with her best friends Frankie and Caden where she discovers that her feelings for Frankie may run deeper than she’s willing to let on.
While diving deeper into her mother’s old life, Love struggles with her own social insecurities and abandonment issues. But as she’s searching for lost parts of herself, Love also discovers something unexpected—a deep-rooted and shared love of 90s grunge music with that of her missing mother.
At turns heartbreaking, inspiring and mysterious, Vanish Me is a portrait of a teenage girl desperate to find herself among the cracks her mother left behind.
“All fans of ’90s alternative, no matter their generation, will find something to love in this book.” – Alex DiFrancesco, author of All City and Transmutation: Stories
Grenade Bouquets
I had stars in my eyes and I couldn’t see around them…
The year is 1995 and my parents have finally allowed me to take the summer to tour in a VW van across the country with my boyfriend Evan and our band. Yes, my dream to be a singer became reality. Even with Clarissa, Evan’s jealous ex-girlfriend, as the lead singer, it’s my presence on stage that led us to a major record deal. There are moments you’ll always remember in life, but I can’t imagine anything more cool than hearing your song on the radio for the first time.
But being a Rockstar isn’t as easy as it sounds. Using alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms, nothing but tension surrounded me, hurting my still blossoming relationship, and continued grieving over my sister’s death.
A love letter to the nineties and a journey of a girl becoming a woman, Grenade Bouquets charts the rollercoaster ride of a band primed to explode on the scene, as long as they keep from actually exploding.
“Goldberg (…) pulls apart the teen puzzle of feeling both adrift and intentional in the same moment and reminds us that finding a way to be heard is the only way anybody finds themselves.” – Rick Polito, author of Off Trail
Buy "Grenade Bouquets"
Runaway Train
They told me I was an out-of-control train about to crash…
Everything changed when the police officer knocked on the door to tell me – a 16-year-old – that my older sister Kristen had died of a brain aneurysm. Cue the start of my parents neglecting me and my whole life spiraling out of control.
I decided now was the perfect time to skip town. It’s the early 90’s, Kurt Cobain runs the grunge music scene and I just experienced some serious trauma. What’s a girl supposed to do? I didn’t want to end up like Kristen, so I grabbed my bucket list, turned up my mixtape of the greatest 90’s hits and fled L.A.. The goal was to end up at Kurt Cobain’s house in Seattle, but I never could have guessed what would happen along the way.
At turns heartbreaking, inspiring, and laugh out loud funny, Runaway Train is a wild journey of a bygone era and a portrait of a one-of-a-kind teenage girl trying to find herself again the only way she knows how.
“Realistic and shocking, hopeful and satisfying, Runaway Train will keep readers turning the page.” – Rebecca Forster, USA Today Bestselling Author
Buy "Runaway Train"
Stalker Stalked
Lexi Mazur is a depressed, alcoholic, pill-popper whose only joy has become her reality TV shows, often fantasizing that the people on TV are a part of her world. After her boyfriend Steve leaves her, she fixates on the show Socialites and its star Magnolia Artois, following every facet of the girl’s life on social media in the hopes of befriending and becoming more like her.
But stalking isn’t new to Lexi. She ultimately won over her ex Steve by following and manipulating every minute detail about him so he’d fall for her. In fact, she landed her other ex-boyfriend Jeremy in the same way. Being a pharma rep, she’s used to manipulation to get doctors to buy her drugs, along with the perk of saving pills for herself.
But what happens when the stalker gets stalked?
Recently, Lexi has felt someone watching her: in her apartment in Queens, at her job. At first, she thinks her mind’s playing tricks, but the watcher is behaving just like she would. And soon they begin leaving threatening clues…
“Engrossing. The book is darkly comic, satirizing a number of contemporary institutions — big pharma, reality TV, social media celebrity — while pulling the reader into more transgressive territory.” – Kirkus Reviews
Orange City
Imagine a secret, hidden city that gives a second chance at life for those selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the city forever. You can never leave.
Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the “Man” who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.
After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an order to test a new client, Pow! Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up to the prison he calls reality.
A dynamic mash-up of 1984 meets LOST, ORANGE CITY is a lurid, dystopian first book in a series that will continue with the explosive sequel LEMONWORLD.
“A unique dystopian thriller that manages to reveal our greatest fears about emerging technology and our anxieties at what the future holds.” – Raymond A. Villareal, author of A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising
The Ancestor
A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike except for his own beard. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he’s certain they do not exist in modern times—but from his life in the late 1800s.
After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow’s life. Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he’d been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis’s wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can’t be tamed…
“A distinctive mélange of the sincere and the strange.” – Kirkus Reviews
“From the icy opening battle (…) you feel yourself in the hands of a master storyteller.” – SJ Rozan, bestselling author of Paper Son
“A thrilling page-turner with an ache in its heart.” – Roz Nay, bestselling author of Our Little Secret and Hurry Home
The Mentor
Kyle Broder has achieved his lifelong dream and is an editor at a major publishing house.
When Kyle is contacted by his favorite college professor, William Lansing, Kyle couldn’t be happier. Kyle has his mentor over for dinner to catch up and introduce him to his girlfriend, Jamie, and the three have a great time. When William mentions that he’s been writing a novel, Kyle is overjoyed. He would love to read the opus his mentor has toiled over.
Until the novel turns out to be not only horribly written, but the most depraved story Kyle has read.
“The Mentor succeeds as sharp and bitter satire.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Hitchcock himself couldn’t concoct a more insidious story.” – Vincent Zandri, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author
“Dark, whirling, and gripping.” – Jennifer Close, New York Times bestselling author
Slow Down
How far would you go to make your dreams come true? For budding writer and filmmaker Noah Spaeth, being a Production Assistant in director Dominick Bambach’s new avant-garde film isn’t enough.
Neither is watching Dominick have an affair with the lead actress, the gorgeous but troubled Nevie Wyeth. For Noah’s dream is to get both the film and Nevie in the end, whatever the cost.
And this obsession may soon become a reality once Dominick’s spurned wife Isadora reveals her femme fatale nature with a seductive plot to get rid of her husband for good.
“A mad man’s tour of Manhattan’s vices, follies, and ultimate betrayals.” – Urban Waite, author of The Terror of Living and Sometimes the Wolf
“A brilliant rush of a work. Savor this book.” – Foreword Reviews
“Goldberg takes on the American Zeitgeist in this stunning debut.” – Stephen Jay Schwartz, LA Times bestselling author of Boulevard and Beat