David Carmichael

Eva Montealegre

David Carmichael

Eva Montealegre

Books

Cover of "Body on the Back Lot" by Eva Montealegre, featuring dramatic red text and film strip graphics, hinting at a mystery set in Hollywood.

Body on the Backlot 
by Eva Montealegre

Detective Joan Lambert works within the fabric of the LA landscape, solving cases with a combined tapestry of plodding police work, bang-on perceptions of the human psyche and guts.

For the last five years, media madness has created fresh hell for LAPD’s imminent homicide investigator, Joan Lambert. She thinks she’s seen everything until the victim in her latest case gets up and walks out of the morgue.

Ten missing women, a small boy, and a fanatical voodoo cult thrust Joan into an investigation that will put her life and her career on the line. She has got to shut it all down before eleven people are sacrificed for the film and music career of a young starlet.

When a connection is made to a private pharmaceutical experiment that suspends the very essence of life, creating real-life zombies, Joan avails every resource she has―black dog hairs, a posh transvestite, a psychic who offers dubious insights, and the clues given to her by Hector, a dying pimp whose specialty is runaways. To make it work, Joan takes matters into her own hands, proving her grit as one of LA’s elite investigators.

Editorial Reviews

“I think there is a strong new voice in crime fiction and it comes from Eva Montealegre. I really liked Body On the Backlot. Montealegre knows the secret, the best crime novels are not only about how a cop works on a case, but how a case works on a cop. Detective Joan Lambert is a refreshing new character and I’d like to see more.”

― Michael Connelly, Author of the Harry Bosch Series

“Detective Lambert bears little resemblance to Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone or Robert B. Parker’s Sunny Randall. She’s rougher around the edges, lives in the gritty world of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch, and suffers even greater angst than Connelly’s more famous LAPD detective. But give the lady time; Montealegre may equal Bosch’s popularity…”

― Ken Fermoyle, The Topanga Messenger

“Montealegre has crafted a gripping spell binder that draws the reader into the tale from the outset, holds reader interest and keeps the pages turning… Settings are nicely detailed to bring the reader right into the scene. Characters are fully developed. Joan is believable, the scoundrels are suitably ill-famed, the tale itself is well written by a novelist having a fine grasp of language, situation and stratagem.”

― Molly Martin, Reviewer’s Bookwatch

“… Eva [Montealegre]’s Body on the Backlot, casts a bright light on L.A.’s dark side, where blind ambition rules and beauty is no more than skin deep. An absolute page-turner.

― Kris Neri, Author of the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Award-Nominated Tracy

“Wow! Eva [Montealegre] has certainly hit one out of the ballpark… Highly recommended.”

― Janie Franz, MyShelf.com

From the United States

5.0 out of 5 stars Intrigue and true grit

Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2021

Body On The Backlot is full of intrigue and suspense. It’s refreshing to read a story with a detective I can relate to on an emotional level. This is movie making material!

5.0 out of 5 stars A fully realized female detective who kicks ass without apology

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2018

There’s a new sheriff in town (well, a police woman) by the name of Detective Joan Lambert. She’s perfectly flawed and resonates like a buzz-saw. Besides presenting us with a fully developed main character, the writer is a story teller with enough chops to keep me turning the pages after lights out. I’m hoping there are more Joan Lambert stories to come. Joan is addictive, the writer is able, and I’m ready for the next ‘body’ wherever it shows up. Plot and process is real, policing procedures ring true.

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2019

This one keeps you guessing and the best part, it keeps you engaged.

From Other Countries

ghost12345
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as it gets
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2021
Nicely hard boiled without the usual female attempt at turning it into a romance novel. I was expecting to find lots more books by the author but nothing else available, more please!

A World Lit by Fire 
by David Carmichael
An exciting debut trilogy
Three books of great plots & action with characters that
leap off the page

England, 1485.

When John Blackwood, a loyal knight, is branded a traitor by England’s new king, his family is ruined and his son’s future shattered.

Orphaned by plague and disgraced by blood, young Robert Blackwood refuses to believe his father is dead. Forced into exile and hunted by enemies, he is drawn into the dangerous politics of Renaissance Italy, where popes rule like princes, alliances shift overnight, and survival depends on deception as much as courage.

Caught between rival powers, shadowed by assassins, and bound to a mysterious girl who alters his fate, Robert uncovers signs that his father may still live—and that the fall of House Blackwood was only the beginning.

Meanwhile, a mercenary with no memory and a price on his head walks the edge of the Mediterranean, pursued by a past he cannot recall.

A World Lit by Fire is a fast-paced historical epic of betrayal, ambition, and awakening—perfect for readers of sweeping Tudor-era fiction, Renaissance intrigue, and father–son sagas shaped by war and destiny.