''Goodbye Goliath'' is a

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

mystery novel written by American

Elliott Chaze Lewis Elliott Chaze (November 15, 1915 – November 11, 1990) was an American journalist and novelist. He was known for his crime novels, which have been classified in the noir genre. He won the Fawcett Gold Medal Paperback Award for his third ...

, published by Scribner, New York in 1983. It is the first of three novels featuring three recurring characters in a small Southern town: editor Kiel St. James; Crystal Bunt, Kiel's young photographer girlfriend; and Chief of Detectives Orson Boles.

Plot

In a small Alabama town, John Robinson, a disliked general manager of the local paper, ''The Catherine Call,'' is found

murdered Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...

in the news room with a spike through his head. Managing editor Kiel St. James takes it upon himself to solve the crime to help keep the newspaper going.

Reviews

The '' New York Times'' said "besides being a traditional, cleverly plotted murder mystery, ''Goodbye Goliath'' is an accurate picture of how a small-town newspaper operates. Mr. Chaze, himself a former city editor for a Mississippi paper, knows the ins and outs of the news room. He tells his story with a good deal of sophistication, including some sexual humor that never becomes offensive." Reviewing ''Goodbye Goliath'', along with two other novels by Chaze, ''Mr. Yesterday'' (1984) and ''Little David'' (1985), a reviewer for '' The New Yorker'' described them as "good, down-home fun with much flavorful redneck talk...plenty of excitement too."

References

Novels by Elliott Chaze American mystery novels Detective novels 1983 American novels {{1980s-mystery-novel-stub