Lee Matthew Goldberg [Author Interview]

4 min read

I am interviewing Lee Matthew Goldberg today about his fantastic thriller The Mentor that I was raving about yesterday.

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels Slow Down and The Mentor from St. Martin’s Press. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. The first book in an international thriller series, The Desire Card, is out from Fahrenheit Press and the second book in the series PREY NO MORE will be forthcoming in 2020.

It was wonderful to connect with him and chat about The Mentor! Enjoy the interview, and get some insights about the book, without any spoilers! 🙂 The graphic below summarizes my thoughts on the book. Click to navigate to the book thoughts post which goes in depth.

Reading experience graphic for The Mentor by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Where did the idea of The Mentor come from?

The initial idea for The Mentor came from my editor Brendan Deneen. At the time, he had a not so great experience with an old mentor of his and wanted to create a Cape Fear-like book around that idea. I was given the pitch and then able to go in any direction I wanted.

What in your mind differentiates a mentor from a supervisor?

A supervisor is your boss, but not someone responsible for guiding you in your career. A mentor is someone who really helps you along and influences who you become. I had many great writing mentors who have been a big support in shaping my career.

I found that The Mentor has an underlying commentary on the publishing industry and how certain types of stories sell instantly. Have you come across books that had such a hype around them or people that got a book deal because of things they did? What are your thoughts on that?

Yes, it’s definitely a criticism on the publishing industry. Ultimately, publishing is about dollar signs.

We create art, so it’s elevated, but it’s still about the bottom dollar.

If you look right now at the influx of political books that are dominating the shelves, it’s all a quick cash-cow that capitalizing on our current political divide. They see a trend and run with it.

It was really interesting how through William’s novel, readers were able to see a second perspective on Kyle and the things that happened. It had the effect of generating this worm of doubt on what was really going on and I absolutely loved that! Was that always your plan to have the novel in The Mentor set up this way or is this something that evolved as you wrote?

Yes, definitely! It’s pretty clear early on that William is evil, but I wanted to create doubt as to how much Kyle might be culpable in Mia’s disappearance too. Since he did a lot of drugs back in college, there would be holes in his memory perfect for William to fester seeds of confusion. It was always going to be set up this way but changed from the outline, as it became a more integral part of the story.

What is some advice that you would give to a new author like Sierra in the book?

Well, I’ve never gotten a huge six-figure book and movie deal for a debut novel, so I can’t completely walk in her shoes, but I would say the best advice for someone young and starting this business, is that there will be a ton of rejection and you have to use it to make your writing better. If it doesn’t happen right away, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen sometime later. My debut came out when I was thirty-seven, and if you look at the bestseller list, most of them don’t reach it until their sixties. So, there’s no rush.

If someone could take away one thing from your book – a lesson, an inspiration, anything – what would you hope it to be?

First, I hope it gave them a good ride, and twisted and turned enough to keep them guessing. And beyond being a commentary on the publishing industry, it’s about the obsessions we have and wear heavy on our shoulders. For William, that obsession is getting his book published, the dream he’s always had. It doesn’t excuse the things he did at all, but it does show the reason he did them. He was desperate and couldn’t see beyond his obsession.