Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 18 May 2018
Goldman's second crime novel takes off when the puck drops

street drug and a climax at
the expansive woodland
home of legendary Min-
nesota musician Graham
Itasca.
Goldman was a student
at the University of Minne-
sota when he got hooked
on doing standup com-
edy when friends took him
to see a show. Goldman
opened for Jerry Seinfeld
and other national acts;
urged to go to Los Angeles
and try writing, Goldman
made the jump in 1987 and
got his big break writing
for Seinfeld's NBC show in
1990-91.
The years that followed
included stints at "Love &
War," a sitcom created
by Diane English ("Murphy
Brown"), and the Disney
Channel's "Wizards of Wa-
verly Place," which won an
Emmy for Outstanding Chil-
dren's Program with Gold-
man as co-executive pro-
ducer in 2009.
Goldman's mysteries are
In this May 3, 2018 photo, author Matt Goldman poses in Minneapolis. larded with Twin Cities refer-
Associated Press ences, likely to delight Min-
nesota readers — St. Paul's
By JEFF BAENEN former standup comedian he read Raymond Chan- acter came out as gay as caves overlooking the Mis-
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Au- and "Seinfeld" writer from dler's stories of private in- DeGeneres did in real life. sissippi River, the posh Saint
thor Matt Goldman was Minnesota who had never vestigator Philip Marlowe The work taught Goldman Paul Hotel, Minneapolis' 7th
a "literary fiction snob," a read a crime novel. Then walking the mean streets to keep his stories punchy, Street Entry rock club — but
of Los Angeles, and every- with short chapters to push he said he just wants to
thing changed. the plot forward. give any reader a strong
"Philip Marlowe was a so- "People read mysteries be- sense of place.
cially observant, comedic cause they want to find out "It adds a credibility and
voice telling serious sto- what happens next. If you a reality when you use all
ries. And when I saw that, don't tell them what hap- those real things," Goldman
I thought, 'Oh, I see how I pens next, you're not doing said. "Things that are made
can use my comedic voice your job," he said. up seem real."
I've developed over the His first book, "Gone to Dust," Devin Abraham, who man-
decades,'" Goldman re- had a divorced woman ages Once Upon a Crime
called. The result was Gold- murdered in the upscale Mystery Books in Minne-
man's first novel, 2017's Minneapolis suburb of Edi- apolis, said she thinks Gold-
"Gone to Dust," a murder na and vacuum cleaner man's crime-writing career
mystery featuring Minne- bags of dust dumped ev- has promise. Her store host-
apolis private eye Nils Sha- erywhere to try to mask ed a launch party for his
piro, a short, 40-year-old DNA evidence. first book and has one next
Jew with a Scandinavian In "Broken Ice," Shapiro is month for his latest.
first name. Goldman's fol- hired by the parents of a "I think he is fun," she said.
low-up, "Broken Ice," due in 17-year-old girl who goes "You can tell that he is new
June, has Shapiro trying to missing during the state at it and he still has far to
solve the mystery of a teen- hockey tournament, an an- go, but he's starting off on
age girl who goes missing nual event roughly equal to the right foot."
during that most Minneso- the Super Bowl in the state Goldman already has fin-
tan of events: the state high consciousness. ished his third Nils Shapiro
school hockey tournament. Three bodies later, Shapiro mystery, "The Shallows," for
Goldman, 55, made an heads to Warroad, a small release next summer and
easy transition to writing hockey hotbed near the is working on the fourth. He
crime fiction after working Canadian border known also has written a pilot epi-
on almost 500 episodes of for producing Olympic sode of "Gone to Dust" and
TV, including the first two medalists, in pursuit of the is shopping it as a TV series.
seasons of "Seinfeld" and killer. Plot twists involve War- "It's why I made Nils 15 years
the groundbreaking 1997 road's hard-bitten hockey younger than me, so I can
episode of "Ellen," in which coach as a suspect, the keep writing them," he says,
star Ellen DeGeneres' char- smuggling of a powerful laughing.q