| Goodbye Goliath | |
| Author: | Elliott Chaze |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | Mystery Detective |
| Genre: | Crime Fiction Mystery fiction |
| Publisher: | Scribner, New York |
| Pub Date: | 1983 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages: | 180 |
| Isbn: | 0-684-17844-3 |
| Dewey: | 813.54 |
| Congress: | PS3505.H633 G6 1983 |
| Oclc: | 8929565 |
Goodbye Goliath is a detective mystery novel written by American Elliott Chaze, 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.
In a small Alabama town, John Robinson, a disliked general manager of the local paper, The Catherine Call, is found murdered 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.
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."[1]
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."[2]