Art imitates life for Calabasas resident and crime author

Book features wildfire ravaging the Santa Monica Mountains—before last year’s blaze



WORDSMITH— Above, Lee Goldberg, a local writer, along with the cover of his latest book, at left, a detective novel set in Calabasas. Goldberg has published over 50 novels, including “Lost Hills,” which features wildfires in the Santa Monica Mountains. He wrote it before the wildfires hit the area last year.

WORDSMITH— Above, Lee Goldberg, a local writer, along with the cover of his latest book, at left, a detective novel set in Calabasas. Goldberg has published over 50 novels, including “Lost Hills,” which features wildfires in the Santa Monica Mountains. He wrote it before the wildfires hit the area last year.

It’s said that life imitates art. Area residents who fled the Woolsey fire a year ago might find that to be true in the case of “Lost Hills,” a detective novel set in Calabasas. The book’s climax, which was written before the blaze swept through the Santa Monica Mountains, features a massive wildfire destroying the same mountains.

Author and Calabasas resident Lee Goldberg evacuated when the real-life flames approached his home last November.

“I received the final galley to proofread about two days before I had to leave my home,” Goldberg said. “I’m out in Valencia in my sister’s living room proofreading my chapter about the blaze burning along Kanan Dume and I’m seeing it on TV exactly the way I described it. It was just astonishing.”

The book, which will be available Jan. 1, is not Goldberg’s first. He’s published over 50, in addition to being a screenwriter for numerous police and detective TV shows, including “Monk” starring Tony Shalhoub.

Courtesy of Ron Scarpa

Courtesy of Ron Scarpa

Through his career he’s cultivated a long list of contacts in the law enforcement world, including former FBI agents and homicide investigators. He called on the sources while writing his latest book to ensure it was as accurate as possible.

“Lost Hills” is the first in a new series Goldberg is working on. The story was inspired by a real murder he learned about while attending a conference on homicide investigations. He set the murder mystery in Calabasas and made his heroine—Eve Ronin—a homicide detective at Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. The real-life murder was the basis for his story, but Goldberg didn’t stick to the facts exactly.

“I twisted it to serve the unique character of Calabasas and Lost Hills, this jurisdictional island for the sheriff’s department, where you’re surrounded by the Ventura (sheriff) and LAPD and the ocean. The (Lost Hills) area is a strange jurisdictional nightmare,” Goldberg said. “You also have these amazing socioeconomic boundaries— the gated communities of Calabasas, old Calabasas, classic Calabasas, then you have everybody out in Malibu, then the people in Topanga (Canyon).

“The cross sections and what you’re dealing with in terms of culture just within this country of Lost Hills, as I call it, is really enough to do a dozen books.”

Area residents who read the novel will recognize prominent local landmarks. Goldberg set certain scenes at the Calabasas Commons, Old Town Calabasas and the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station. In real life, the station on Agoura Road doesn’t have a homicide division, but in Goldberg’s “Lost Hills” it does.

Female protagonists created by male authors are often criticized for being one-dimensional and unrealistic, but Goldberg’s heroine has been praised across the board.

Goldberg wrote 16 books based on the TV series “Monk.” The books were all told from the point of view of Monk’s female assistant, which Goldberg said made him confident he could write a convincing female lead for his new series.

“I come from a family of women. I was raised by a single mother. I’ve got two sisters. I’m married with a wife and daughter. My whole life is women, women, women. I think I can write convincingly about women and not do it from the male gaze,” Goldberg said.

“You can always tell when a guy is writing a book from a woman’s point of view who apparently doesn’t know women and he immediately describes her breasts, as though that’s what’s on her mind. No, it’s on his mind. I’m very aware of the mistakes and tropes that men make when writing about women.”

Another element that keeps his writing grounded: Goldberg’s editor and his publisher are both women. He said they don’t hesitate to let him know when his heroine isn’t written realistically.

“Lost Hills” will be available Jan. 1 on Amazon. Lee will launch the book with a Jan. 21 event at the Calabasas Library.

Even though the work isn’t out yet, Goldberg is already writing a sequel, which he said mirrors the reality of the post-fire Santa Monica Mountains.

“I’d pick it up three days after the fire, which has exposed all these bodies and things that were in the canyons that were hidden by brush before,” Goldberg said.

“Sure enough that starts happening in the news, people were finding bones that have tumbled down because they were in brush higher up. They found a car and a guy that had disappeared three years ago when he was making his way back from LAX. They found that airplane wreckage.”

Juicy stuff, to be sure.