Let me start this review by just getting this out of the way: The Mentor is a flat-out kick-ass, balls-to-the-wall thriller that had me hooked from the beginning pages and kept reeling me in as Lee Matthew Goldberg ratcheted up the tension throughout this great book.



Goldberg handles a fairly simple plot beautifully, and fills it with brilliant plot twists and moments of suspense that will have you biting your fingernails off in anticipation. While the plot is a simple one; one character seeks revenge for the apparent slight of another character and they are willing to go to great lengths to get said revenge. But rest assured, this is an oversimplifying of the plot line, as Goldberg has a lot of tricks, turns and surprises in store and the plot has so many mini-cliffhangers, you will need to stop and collect your breath a few times.

The book follows Kyle, a hot-shot editor who has signed his first client and is on top of the publishing world. He reconnects with his old college professor and mentor, William and they have dinner and drinks. During this dinner, William asks Kyle to read his recently completed 10-years in the making, novel and possibly publish it. Kyle reads the manuscript and finds it demented, sick, and possibly the writings of a lunatic who may have actually penned a confession, not a novel.

The possibility of an unreliable narrator, William, helps raise the level of suspense throughout the book…does he spend random nights away from home just having “walkabouts” in which he just roams the “forest of his mind” and gets writing ideas as he claims, or is he spending these lost nights committing dark, sinister crimes as Kyle believes he might be doing? Is his novel really sick and deranged, or the work of a literary genius, as Kyle’s fellow editor believe?

This book really knocked my socks off from beginning to end. There is nary a slow moment and there are no wasted pages, paragraphs, or words. Goldberg shows a remarkable ability to put twists in which keep this book feeling like it is a rollercoaster which is set to go off the rails and there is no way you can close your eyes out of fear you may miss the upcoming hair point turn. This is the second book I have read by this author and I can promise you it will not be the last. This was a well-crafted gem of a book.


Highly Recommended

“The Mentor” is a strong psychological thriller that promises to trouble still waters!

Kyle Broder has become editor at Burke & Burke before reaching 30. It is a lifelong dream and he is more than happy to have achieved that. His author, the one he discovered, has signed a half a million dollar contract and that alone is big news! He is kind of a celebrity!

When his favorite college professor and mentor, William Lansing, contacts him after a decade or so, Kyle is glad to hear from him. He has his mentor over for dinner, that his girlfriend Jamie cooks, and the all get along. When William mentions a novel he is writing, Kyle agrees to read it. After all, it was his mentor that woke him up to the mysteries of literature. The book turns out to be not only awfully written, but also a great piece of junk and a horrifying story. When Kyle tries to politely refuse publishing it, William goes beyond borders, threatening Kyle’s career, relationships, even his life.

The story reminds of Hannibal Lecter, given the novel plot that the professor writes for over a decade. It is clear that there is obsession over something or someone. The reader can see that in the picture, as well as the fact that it is original. Yes, the story of Lecter is not a new one, but the story that evolves here is new. The profile of the psychopath cannot be clearly identified from the beginning of the book. A college professor living a quiet life in an easy going and quiet place, with his family, wife and two kids. He is the family guy and a respectable person in the small town. He is the person that students look up to. The one that carves responsible adults out of those students. But he has some skeletons in his closet, which is something the reader would expect.

The novel within the novel evolves as the pages go by. The plot becomes more and more interesting in every turn. There are some obvious turns, the ones the reader expects, the ones the book could not go without. There are also some really good twists though that allows the plot to unravel and move forward, under a new view. By the time the reader has reached the final pages, it is not clear if the main victim is alive or not. What had actually happened over a decade ago? What is true and what is fiction.

I like the plot of this book, but I struggled with the writing style. I found it very formal and it didn't really fit with the plot.

The characters were well developed and the plot was tight.

Who knew the world of publishing could be so deadly? Kyle Broder has landed his dream job as an editor at a major publishing house. And how exciting to learn his first book is one written by a former college professor, William Lansing, a man who Kyle considered a mentor and a good friend. Kyle is shocked when he reads the book; it’s poorly written and the plot is nothing short of skin crawling. When he refuses to publish the book, Lansing becomes obsessed with making Kyle’s life miserable, trying to ruin Kyle’s relationship with his girlfriend, get him fired, even get him killed. And then there’s Lansing’s book, one that strangely parallels the true story of a girl who went missing from the same small town. Creepy and addictive, it makes me think back to a couple of my own professors and wonder if maybe………