Three Ways to Die

This collection gathers together three wildly acclaimed short stories --Jack Webb's Star, Remaindered, and Bumsicle  -- by Edgar-nominated writer Lee Goldberg, author of the bestselling MONK and DIAGNOSIS MURDER series of original mystery novels.

In Jack Webb's Star, a struggling reporter comes up with a bizarre scheme in traffic school with an ex-con in a desperate attempt to reinvigorate his love life. Jack Webb's Star originally appeared in the anthology Hollywood and Crime.

In Remaindered, a once-famous novelist embarks on a self-financed book tour through middle America to save his career...and ends up having a fateful encounter. Remaindered originally appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and was a Reader's Choice Award finalist. It has also been reprinted in the Top Suspense anthology.

In Bumsicle,  a homeless woman freezes to death, unlocking troubling memories for a weary cop and a powerful Chief of Police. Bumsicle originally appeared in the anthology Fedora III.

Here's just a sampling of the critical acclaim for these three unforgettable stories:

"Lee Goldberg's 'Jack Webb's Star,' is a riotous caper crime with a nasty twist that starts in a traffic school class in the Taft building, where among the offenders is a hapless man ticketed for drunk driving in his wheelchair..." --Los Angeles Times 

"Editor Robert Randisi solicited more than a dozen familiar crime-fictionists to contribute their own Tinseltown tales to this volume. Among the best are Lee Goldberg's clever 'Jack Webb's Star'" - January Magazine 

"Jack Webb's Star is a darkly funny story about a heist that could only happen in Hollywood. The author of TV's brilliant, but obsessive-compulsive detective Monk is on top of his game," Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"Veteran television screenwriter Lee Goldberg has some fun with a small screen legend in 'Jack Webb's Star'" - Booklist 

"Remaindered is terrific," Ken Levine, Emmy-award winning writer/producer of "M*A*S*H" and "Cheers."

"Remaindered is great facial exercise for writers.  It makes us laugh and cry at the same time," Thomas Perry, bestselling author of "The Informant"

"...and best of all, "Jack Webb's Star," Lee Goldberg's hilarious contemporary tale of a struggling TV writer, his commercial actress wife, a traffic school led by an unfunny stand-up comic, and Joe Friday's star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame," Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.

"The tale is as well-turned as you'd expect from a pro and it takes imaginative flight from a reality that'll be recognized by anyone who has ever faced the world over a stack of books at a signing table," Stephen Gallagher, bestselling author and writer/creator of the TV series "The Eleventh Hour."

"Top billing should go to Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch story, 'Suicide Run,' and to Lee Goldberg's 'Jack Webb's Star'--the former for the detection and the latter for biggest laughs," Publisher's Weekly