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