Immoral Origins, Lee Matthew Goldberg
Immoral Origins, Lee Matthew Goldberg
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Immoral Origins

Author: Lee Matthew Goldberg

Narrator: Jon Waters

Unabridged: 6 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/06/2022


Synopsis

A pulse-pounding thriller that asks how far we're willing to shed our morals in order to help the ones we love.

It's 1978 in New York City, and disco is prominent. As are mobsters, gritty streets, needle parks, and graffiti-stained subways.

Jake Barnum lives in Hell's Kitchen. He's a petty thief selling hot coats with his buddy Maggs to make ends meet and help his sick kid brother. At a Halloween party downtown, he meets a woman with a Marilyn Monroe mask who works for an organization called The Desire Card—an underground operation promising its exclusive clients "Any Wish Fulfilled for the Right Price."

As Jake becomes taken with its leader, a pseudo father and sociopath at heart, he starts stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. In other words . . . himself. But as he dives deeper in with the Card, begins falling love with Marilyn, and sees the money rolling in, clients' wishes start becoming more and more suspect—some leading to murder.

The first book in the Desire Card series, Immoral Origins follows those indebted to this sinister organization—where the ultimate price is the cost of one's soul.

About Lee Matthew Goldberg

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of nine novels including The Ancestor and The Mentor and the YA series Runaway Train. His books are in various stages of development for film and TV off of his original scripts. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the Prix du Polar. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared as a contributor in Pipeline Artists, LitHub, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, LitReactor, The Big Idea, Monkeybicycle, Fiction Writers Review, Cagibi, Necessary Fiction, Hypertext, If My Book, Past Ten, the anthology Dirty Boulevard, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Maudlin House, Underwood Press, and others. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. He is the cocurator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading series and lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lee on May 14, 2022

Hey hey, this is the first book in my DESIRE CARD series. All five books will be coming out in 2022. Here's some kind things that other writers and reviewers said. Can't wait for you all to read! Immoral Origins: "What happens when a sweet-talking, enigmatic killer seduces a small-time crook from Hell......more

Goodreads review by Jim on May 22, 2023

This is the first book of a series that is a noir thriller genre novel. In this one we are in the late 70's and in Hell's Kitchen. We follow a young adult who makes a wrong decision and goes to work for an organization that provides wishes to people by any means necessary. This was my introduction t......more

Goodreads review by Frank on July 15, 2022

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Immoral Origins was exciting and suspenseful with twists and turns throughout. The concept of using celebrity masks while committing crimes was unique and added to the mystique of the story. Unfortunately I hated th......more

Goodreads review by Emma on June 22, 2022

I've really enjoyed this book, Jake AKA Errol is a big part to the story and I've enjoyed seeing how his characters evolved as the pages went on. Marilyn is strong but under the mask, is a woman that has been hurt in the past and has now gained acceptance, I like how Errol and Marilyn's relationship......more

Goodreads review by Madhumita [ Bizzare_Bibliomaniac] on June 17, 2022

"𝐀𝐧𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞" How often does it happen with you? You read hundreds and hundreds of books and THE one get stuck with you forever. I'm shook. I'm speechless. I'm amazed. I don't know how to form words properly.😂 I'm a 90's baby so anything before that time fascinates me to no......more